The Martian

The Martian is a Sci- Fi Drama book by Andy Weir adapted into a movie, the screenplay is done by Drew Goddard. This space adventure is directed by Ridley Scott and has an all-star cast made up of Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Kristen Wigg, Jeff Daniels, Michael Pena, Sean Bean, Kate Mara, Sebastian Stan, and Chiwetel Ejiofor.

Summary: A space team is sent to Mars to gather samples and see if life could one day be possible on the planet. The team consists of Melissa Lewis (Jessica Chastain) the Commander, Mark Watney (Matt Damon) a botanist, Beth Johanssen (Kate Mara) an IT expert, Rick Martinez (Michael Pena) pilot of the space craft, Chris Beck (Sebastian Stan) the flight surgeon, and Alex Vogel (Aksel Hennie) the navigator and chemist. They learn that a severe storm is approaching so the Commander aborts the mission and everyone heads to the space craft. Debris is flying around and they make it to the ship but Watney gets struck by a large piece of debris and is knocked out of the sight of the others. The Commander searches for him while the rest of the crew is aboard the ship but fails to find him. They all agree that he is dead and decide to leave. The next day Watney wakes up to find that his crew is gone and that he is now stranded on Mars by himself. The rest of the movie consists of Watney coming up with ingenious ways to survive and make contact with NASA to let them know that he is alive and well. Once he makes contact with them they have to figure out a way to get him back before he runs out of supplies. The crew finds out that he survived and although the trip from Mars to Earth is long they decide that they will go back and try to rescue him. The crew is able to retrieve Watney and head towards Earth safely. A year later Watney is teaching a class to aspiring astronauts and he tells them of his struggle on Mars. He then tells the moral of the story: if things should go south, you either accept your fate or you start solving problems, because thats how you survive- by overcoming one problem after another. It cuts to scenes of the other crew members: Martinez is going back into space, Lewis is watching the launch at home with her husband, Vogel is with his family, and Johanssen and Beck have gotten married and are in the hospital with their new baby watching the launch on TV.

Review: If you liked Interstellar and Gravity then you will love The Martian. It is a testament to how powerful the human will is and that by solving one problem at a time you can achieve great things. All of the actors carried their weight and when delivering their lines they seemed to really know what they were talking about, even when it came to the math and science portions of the film. Matt Damon was funny and relatable, he was a fantastic pick for the lead and he did not disappoint. It was so awesome to see a female as the Commander of a space mission and who was so incredibly knowledgeable about science and math. The only thing that threw me off about this film was Kristen Wigg playing in a dramatic role, it seemed strained and forced. Other than that I think this movie was top notch and the effects were nothing short of amazing. I highly recommend this movie and I know I will be watching it many more times.