The Martian (Sci-Fi Film Review)

          The Martian is the film I chose to watch for the Sci-Fi film this week. This movie was a sort of drama/thriller with its plot and events, but it is never in shortage of comic relief. In this film, Matt Damon plays Mark Watney, an astronaut who has an unbelievable ability to stay positive and humorous in any circumstance he faces. One memorable scene in the film showed him eating potatoes for dinner again for his several donzenth time. He is upset about it, but still makes a video journal full of jokes for somebody to hopefully see one day. All of the actors in this film seem to fill their roles adequately. None of the actors stood out supremely to me, besides Matt Damon. Much of the movie just consists of scenes of him alone on Mars doing work, and he brings an interesting performance without dialogue to any other characters. His solo acting impressed me. The story was entertaining for sure. This is a movie based on a book. It had success as a novel for its intriguing plot, and this surely translated into box office success. The cinematography in this movie was incredible. The vast landscapes of what were supposed to be Mars looked like authentic, high-quality NASA feeds. Apparently, this was shot in a desert in Jordan, but it looked like a real Mars to me. The shots in space were also interesting. Other notable scenes were the Mars storm at the beginning and the views inside of capsules during launches or flights that often showed backgrounds of space that were incredible. The sounds in the movie were also authentic-sounding. I am no expert, but to me this film seemed like it could have been close to a documentary on space rather than a movie (besides the Iron Man scene in the end, which was ridiculous). I might recommend that others see it, but I would not go out of my way to see it again. I give it 8.5 potatoes out of 10.