The Martian (2015)

THE MARTIAN follows botanist Mark Watney who, during a manned mission to Mars, is hit by a fierce storm and left behind by his crew who presume that he's dead. But little did they know that he's still very much alive, stranded on the hostile planet. With limited resources at hand, Watney must draw upon his ingenuity in order to survive.

Having only seen the trailers, I went into this film unaware of how much humor there would actually be. In that regard, it's quite faithful to the source material; Drew Goddard was able to inherit author Andy Weir's snarky dialogue and translate it from the pages of a novel onto the pages of a screenplay, while Sir Ridley Scott brought it all to life.

Speaking of Ridley Scott, it looked as if the legendary director's best days were behind him, entering a career slump of sorts with The Counselor and Exodus: Gods and Kings, both of which were dull and uninspired chapters of his otherwise impressive filmography. THE MARTIAN, however, marks Ridley Scott 's return to form. It's captivating from beginning to end, enjoyable from beginning to end, and is full of personality from, you guessed it, beginning to end.

A lot of that personality, if not all of it, is due to the incredible group of actors that have been rounded up here, most notably Matt Damon. If not for him and the way he charismatically delivers his lines the sarcastic dialogue, which is really just Damon talking to a video recorder, would 've just ended up being really awkward. Chewitel Ejiofor and Jessica Chastain both make strong impressions as well, along with the rest of the cast who have small, yet potent moments of their own.

Despite having convincing performances, the film didn't do as good of a job trying to get me to naturally invest in these characters. Sure, you care for Mark Watney's life but that's only because of the situations that the story places him in and forces him to face; there was no real emotional through line for me to grab hold of.

But the thing that stops me from calling THE MARTIAN "great" is that it's a very safe, by the numbers, sci-fi film. It doesn't have the technical drive of Gravity or the emotional punch of Interstellar; it's very good, but it could've been so much more.