BY MARC CHAPPELLE
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Director Ridley Scott iterates on the space sci-fi genre with a grippingly humanistic story.

Although believable science surrounding The Martian’s quest to bring a stranded astronaut home lays the foundation, this movie would never have taken off without said spaceman and protagonist Mark Watney (Matt Damon). Damon’s execution of conversational screenwriting brings everything down to an engaging human level.

This is, like many other movies within the space genre, a pretty optimistic story of human will and advancement. The near-world of advanced technology is exciting and immersive for anyone with even a slight interest in science. For those interested in politics, this movie depicts a cooperative and open relationship between NASA and the Chinese National Space Agency, which seems like a pipe dream in our present affairs.

Drew Goddard adapts Andy Weir’s book into a screenplay the overcomes the challenges of a story where often, there is little interaction between Watney and other humans. The screenplay makes something exciting out of Watney essentially talking to himself through video diaries throughout his Mars exile.These video diaries keep us engaged with Watney’s emotional struggles that we find across a variety of space sci-fi films – a sense of hopelessness being prime among them. They felt like something that a scientist really would do when left to his own devices to document his quests alone. rather than something forced. Through these, I felt attached to Watney. I rooted for him in his successes and became anxious when his plans went awry.

In Watney’s unpredictable version of space, it’s important that I, as a viewer, could touch base with his human reaction to scientific triumphs and disasters. Watney’s story, despite being grounded in realistic pop science, needs to be more than solving one problem after another, and this movie succeeds in that due to a combination of effective screenplay and Damon’s performance.

Watney’s portrayal of a seemingly hopeless astronaut left me with no complaints. I felt connected to not only his doom and gloom (which is to be expected in a situation like his), but his witty remarks and celebratory video diaries that keep the mood from skewing too dark and inaccessible. Besides, as far as plot goes, Watney definitely needed to channel something more than the sheer anxiety of being stranded to achieve what exciting scientific marvels he did. Watney didn’t take himself too seriously, but I still empathized with his ups and downs.

Although Watney’s humanizing effects on a starkly scientific situation give greater impact, Ridley’s ability to interpret and portray the science and math behind a lot of the plot’s feats for a wider general audience is impressive.

The movie elevates viewers, myself included, to a greater engagement with science. I walked away from the movie excited about the technology of the future. Hell, afterward, I read a six thousand word article about Elon Musk’s ambitions to take his private space company SpaceX to Mars and other planets. What can I say – Watney’s story inspired me. Because of the tangible scope of people that have to collaborate to get Watney home, a variety of NASA workers make their way in and out of the picture.

Like Watney, they have their fair share of wit and humor, but at no point was I really able to establish a meaningful understanding with them.
Across the board, the screenplay seems slightly confused on how to balance between Watney’s arc on Mars and NASA’s arc on Earth.
That slight disconnect parallels the story itself – Watney can’t reach Earth – but that’s only by coincidence.

Ridley adapted the source material to screen in a markedly less abstract manner than space sci-fi’s in recent memory, like Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity or Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar. Where Gravity was a clear sensory experience that employed deliberate silence and Interstellar featured transcendent melodies, The Martian is grounded firmly in the physical. By no means is this movie an ugly one – cinematographer Dariusz Wolski turns the red, dusty planet into a spectacle.

This is a celebration of very cut and dry (but still relevant and exciting) science and technology.