With “Gravity” (2013) and “Interstellar” (2014) firmly dominating the epic extraterrestrial disaster genre, it is a suicide mission to enter their orbit for fear of entering that black hole of comparison. Director Ridley Scott takes on this challenge with his “The Martian” (2015), based on Andy Weir’s eponymous 2011 novel and crafts a light-hearted thrill-ride with enough pace and levity to escape the genre’s event horizon.
The film opens with the Ares III mission performing data surveys on Mars when a massive windstorm strikes, and the crew escapes to their Hermes spaceship to evacuate the planet. Astronaut-botanist Mark Watney (Matt Damon) is struck by debris and left for dead. Hours later, he awakens to a desolate, crew-less Martian tundra. Like an extraterrestrial “Cast Away” without a Wilson, Watney is only accompanied by his enormous ego and “must science the [expletive] out of this” to survive.
Survive he does. A muscular MacGyver, Watney makes science sexy, guiding us through water creation, botany, nuclear energy and radio transmissions. Unlike his “Interstellar” character, Damon’s Watney maintains an indefatigable hopefulness as if Mars had become his quasi-vacation home, which precludes any cabin fever psycho-dramatics. Only an empty ketchup bottle seems to unnerve him, leaving his potatoes painfully ungarnished. His good humor keeps him, and the film, alive, brightening potentially arid scenes with fist pumps and wise cracks.
Back on Earth, Watney receives a hero’s martyrdom until a NASA scientist notices on a satellite feed the Martian base has been rearranged. After the initial disbelief and media fiasco, the hometown NASA team (including Jeff Daniels, Kristen Wiig and Chiwetel Ejiofor) rallies to send Watney a supply rocket to sustain him until the next mission, Ares IV, arrives four years later. Their haste makes waste, however, as the rocket explodes upon liftoff, dashing Watney’s hopes until the China National Space Agency steps in to lend their payload rocket. While the motivations and politics of this move are dubious, it transforms the film into an international humanitarian affair, akin to tsunami or earthquake relief efforts. In a vision of comradeship, China and the United States team up in nationalist pride to save their stranded hostage with their rockets’ red glare.
When it becomes clear that Watney will not be rescued in time, however, the Hermes crew must turn around to save their hero, now a spectacle on Times Square mega-screens. The final rescue scene provides all the explosions and nail-biting thrill-seekers have been craving for two hours in a ballet of geeky science, ingenuity and Watney swagger. It’s the type of scene young kids can watch and say, “I want to be an astronaut.”
Beyond the action, Scott brings fresh air with his 1950s inspired disco score, with highlights such as “Turn the Beat Around” and “I Will Survive,” which replace the traditionally visceral, colossal scores of “Interstellar” and “Gravity.” These remove the yoke of the traditionally freighted outer space soundtrack and bring life and pop to the barrenness of space. Ridley Scott also returns to Wadi Rum, Jordan, after “Prometheus” (2012) to film the region’s rusty, Martian terrain, and creates a veritable coffee table book of sandstone vistas and desolate landscapes. You don’t need 3-D to enhance this beauty — unfortunately the only thing the 3-D enhanced was the ticket price.
While the tagline may say, “Help is only 140 million miles away,” Scott fills that vacuum of space with the resolve and hope of humanity. Indeed, Ridley Scott has turned his beat around, creating a thrill ride sans the nihilism of his “Alien” (1979) and “Prometheus” that reminds us that outer space isn’t just an entropic deathtrap, but also a playground.
Rating: 8.5/10
“The Martian” is now playing at The Nugget Theater in 2-D at 6:40 p.m. and in 3-D at 4 p.m.
