Review | Film review: Ridley Scott makes triumphant return to space with The Martian as Matt Damon gets geeky
Story of an astronaut - played by Matt Damon - trapped on the red planet is a gripping, remarkably realistic survival drama, and a delightful surprise
Here’s a space travel epic that digs deep into technicalities and still manages to be tremendously thrilling and fun. Smartly adapted by Cabin in the Woods’ Drew Goddard, Ridley Scott’s take on Andy Weir’s hard-science novel from 2011 is a majestic return to form by the maker of such sci-fi landmarks as Alien (1979) and Blade Runner (1982).
When a crew of six Nasa astronauts (captained by Jessica Chastain) is forced by a sandstorm to abort their mission on Mars, the botanist Mark Watney (Matt Damon) is hit by flying debris, inadvertently presumed dead and left behind by his colleagues, with the remaining food and water in the habitat module his only chance of survival.
Although the resourceful Mark’s signs of life are soon picked up by the headquarters, his teammates are denied immediate knowledge of the discovery by Jeff Daniels’ pragmatic Nasa head, whose reluctance to jeopardise the entire mission puts his Mars expert (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and PR manager (Kristen Wiig) in a difficult spot.
