The Martian

A sudden and violent storm causes the team of the "Ares" mission to hastily abandon their camp and return to the relative safety of their orbiting spacecraft and a journey home. Giving the command to leave, their commander "Lewis" (Jessica Chastain) is informed that one of their number has been killed. Thing is, once the dust has (quite literally) settled, we discover that "Watney" (Matt Damon) is anything but. Impaled by an antenna needle he is alive and alone. Now a sort of space-bound "Robinson Crusoe" adventure ensues with "Watney" trying to ensure he repairs the damage to his body the uses his training - as a botanist - to find a way to survive. Everyone back home assumes he is dead - it is only when an eagle-eyed scientist notices that some of the equipment is moving that they try to re-establish contact. Now, with NASA Director "Teddy" (Jeff Daniels) and "Mitch" (Sean Bean) it's a race against time to cobble together a rescue plan before poor old "Watney" turns into one of his life-sustaining potatoes! I found this at it's most effective when it is just Damon using his guile to find innovative ways to survive. I can't swear to the plausibility of the science, but peppered with some pithy pieces-to-camera in a video diary style and his favourite (not) disco music Damon ensures that the film builds nicely allowing us to invest in his survival. I began to lose interest once the political melodrama kicked in, though, and but for the last exciting twenty minutes, I felt the film lost it's way as the scientific responses all just became a little too predictably convenient and oddly enough for a science fiction film, far-fetched! Some spectacular visual effects are put to great use complementing a strong, visionary and speculative, story of a man using his wits to survive and the all but 2½ hours really does fly by. It's even got a bit of ABBA too!