This great human-interest story hasn't reached its ten-year mark yet. But I'm already at the point where I decided now is the time to discuss Ridley Scott's epic Science Fiction and greatest human story, as well as Matt Damon's greatest performance ever on screen. The Martian, by the time of the film’s release, I knew single handedly I wanted to see this movie because of course it's directed by Sir Ridley Scott, and one of the most bizarre collaborations with Matt Damon, for which yes like Christopher Nolan I'm going to see a movie directed by Ridley Scott no question. But out of this entire adventure comes one of the greatest films of 2015, but more importantly a human-interest story that shows, maybe humanity can strive for great things, especially the entire world working together saving one person in a dangerous deserted planet like Mars.
When astronauts blast off from the planet Mars, they leave behind Mark Watney (Matt Damon), presumed dead after a fierce storm. With only a meager number of supplies, the stranded visitor must utilize his wits and spirit to find a way to survive on the hostile planet. Meanwhile, back on earth, members of NASA and a team of international scientists work tirelessly to bring him home, with his crew mates hatching their own plan for a daring rescue mission.
“The Martian” is based off a 2011 Bestseller by Andy Weir. Andy Weir always wanted to be a science fiction writer, loved reading his grandfather's or father’s collection of science fiction books, though through course of his destination like most people wanting to accomplish their dream, had to find a profession to pay bills as well as food. And so, computer technician became his backup plan while trying to find time to write. Through the course of working through jobs Weir picked the time to finally write and do some research on NASA and life on Mars for which came to the concept of The Martian. Having been turned down by literary Agents, Weir decided to put the book online in a serial format, one chapter at a time on his website. While Weir's book has been hitting some great views, fans requested Weir to have the book for full access so Andy made the decision to publish the book on Amazon Kindle for about .99 cents (the minimum allowable price he could set). With 35,000 copies sold as well as launching success for Andy Weir as well as movie release the rest became success. Even after watching the movie for the first time, I decided to buy the book, and it literally became my favorite book to read so that I couldn't stop reading the book. Ten years later the movie alone is still the great and tremendous movie that uplifts you’re spirit that you'd never expect to feel. But more importantly this provides a protagonist that's unlike any protagonist I've ever experienced, for which people for sure compare the movie and book to the movie Cast Away, but this is a lone survivor against all the odds against him and yet he's still able to keep himself calm and still have a sense of humor in the situation he's in. For which, who doesn't respect a man who makes fun of Disco music, I mean that scene of actor Chiwetel Ejiofor worried about Matt Damon's character, and then we brilliantly transition to Damon listening to "Turn the beat around" express his dislike for Disco music, still gives me the chuckles because if I was stranded on Mars having listen to nothing but Taylor Swift music or Adelle, even I would be worrying about my sanity. Hands down the most amazing thing about the movie is the realistic ton and look of Mars, granted it's science fiction but also shows a great tone of what would Mars would look like if NASA traveled to a planet like Mars because really we all don't know what Mars would look like other than it's a desolate planet with no possible way to grow or colonize it so shooting scenes in the Jordan dessert of Wahi Rum is a fantastic choice to shoot the exterior scenes for The Martian. A lot of people will obviously say that Matt Damon's best performance is either Good Will Hunting or Jason Bourne, but for me personally Damon's performance in the Martian is his greatest performance as an actor, granted his playing a character based on a book but the way he's able to not play a miserable/lonely astronaut but a scared to calm astronaut with a sense of humor is really a breath of fresh air and for great reasons we've never seen that type of stranded character before and Damon being able to bring Andy Weir's character of Mark Watney to life is both great as well as showing great emotion range at the same time especially in scenes where he's all by himself with no one to talk to and then hearing his crew member's during that scene of him getting of Mars is just incredible acting on his part and let's be honest Matt Damon is an excellent crier, we can all agree on that. Though Matt Damon isn't the only person that makes this movie in epic film, he also has a list of great actors like Jessica Chastain, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Sean Bean and Jeff Daniels does a fantastic job playing a political NASA director that's always playing it way to safe, you know the typical guy you'd have to put up with knowing he's your boss type character. But Kristen Wiig does a fantastic job in the movie not doing so much comedy though in all fairness she's being directed by a well accomplished filmmaker, just like Seth Rogen doing a fantastic job in the movie Steve Jobs when the only reason the man did a great job because he's directed by Danny Boyle and acting from a screenplay by Aaron Sorkin. Close to ten years of the film’s release and it's still to this day in my opinion one of the greatest and beautiful human interests story's ever to be put on screen, and I usually don't say that a lot when it comes to movies, but when you see two nations like U.S. and China with their space programs coming together to help one man is just great and something special about it because really when you take a look at the world is now, you realize the crash course of reality but the entire world coming together as one to in the hopes of one astronaut escaping the hostile environments of Mars is somewhat of a beautiful thing in hopes that maybe humanity can come together as one. And really that's always been the human instinct that has always been engraved in all of us, and really the movie is set in 2035 so maybe in the next ten years will see NASA or all of the space programs coming together and building a space program to explore mars, and at the age I am I do hope that becomes a possibility. After watching the movie I'm now considering reading the book again because it's a great read as well as addicting to ready because all I remember while at work, helping a broadcast in the two minutes of spare time I would constantly read the book just because of how funny and a great read it was so, if you love any Matt Damon movies or your like me and watch all of Ridley Scott's films then I would highly recommend watching the Martian but also read Andy Weir's The Martian after watching the film, or you can read the book before watching the movie whichever comes first.
No comments:
Post a Comment