The Martian by Andy Weir

[GeorgeG]

I read the book twice (first time March 2014 in 2 nights), and also listened to the audiobook 2 months ago. HUGE fan of the book and have looked very forward to the movie. I loved it!

Andy Weir himself said that he would have made the same cuts for the sake of a movie that even at 2:15 is pretty darn long.

An example of something changed that I agree was a practical necessity as well as something that would have taken up a lot of time otherwise:

Pathfinder not dying works fine for the movie, indeed pretty much a storytelling necessity.

Keep in mind that SO MUCH of the information in the book was with Watney by himself, cut off from communications for so long, that the movie needed to be able to have the communications opened up for better storytelling.

I mean, if you'd not read the book it would make perfect sense that what I described above went the way it did in the movie. No point in obsessing that it's different from the book, for the sake of obsessing about things different from the book. Stuff had to be cut, condensed, or modified for the movie.

I like the ending better than either of the two endings the books had (yes, the original ending in the book was changed for later editions. Perhaps when it went from self-published to being "real published").

So, I understand why various things got cut or changed. Though I wish the moment of

Mindy Park's emotional reaction as she showed Kapoor the images on Mars, as he slowly realized what she was trying to show him, had not been cut. That was a great OMG emotional moment that was lost, not nearly as powerful as the later reveal to others as the movie showed.

But again, the movie needed to have a lot of things shortened/cut. But I hope they shot that scene anyway (and a few others), in which case it might show up as a a DVD extra or even a Director's Cut as with "The Abyss".

Anyone who can't get over the movie being different from the book, try this: READ the book "The Right Stuff" by Tom Wolfe. Which was said at the time to be impossible to turn into a movie. Then watch the movie. BOTH are great, but also many differences (massive parts of the book left out of the movie, and other things cut or condensed or changed). And even at THAT the movie was well over 3 hours long, contributing to its box office failure. But it was a great movie, regardless.

The Crew "mutiny", of course was in the book (I'm not going to spoiler this since it was included in several of the trailers and commercials). The movie emphasized more that aspect of aspect of the crew decision, while my take on it from the book was the

clash in on the ground about keeping the crew in the dark, first about Watney not being dead, then not letting the crew know about how they could save him. Until the Flight Director secretly sent them the information, so the crew could decide for themselves. Which when the Flight director secretly sent the crew that info, he knew it was pretty much 99% sure thing they would do exactly what they did. Literally an unspoken question if they wanted to try to save Watney themselves or not.....they did NOT think of this on their own.

What human being worthy of being a trusted crew member on a mission to Mars and back would NOT choose to do what they did? In the military, there are situations where a mission is so dangerous, that rather than order them to do it, they ask for volunteers. I take this more as the crew "volunteering" to do something that nobody on the ground was going to (or allowed to) officially ask them to consider doing. Now if this was a real world incident, one could get wrapped up in arguing legal technicalities. But also NASA and the military would look like idiots to press charges against crew members who did such a heroic thing for the sake of another crew member as opposed to non-heroic personal reasons as in the two real-world examples below.

Read up on history about Apollo-7 and Skylab 4. I mean real NASA history, not movies. Apollo-7 had in a way, a crew mutiny against mission control, and Skylab-4's crew went "on strike", both sparked over mission control loading them up with too much to do and reaching critical points (plus some general crankiness before even launching in the case of Apollo-7. Not wanting to do any TV broadcasts at all, which was a new thing greatly appreciated by the public). None of them ever flew again, though Schirra was already retiring after the mission anyway (which freed him up even more to be extra cranky, without any effect on his future as an astronaut. But his two other crew members paid for it).

Anyway, back to the movie…. I give it 10 out of 10. Perfect? No. The last perfect movie I ever saw? Still waiting to see the first perfect movie. Top Ten movies I have ever seen..... yes this one makes my list.

Only disappointment is that I no longer am waiting to see it (Saw it at 10:15 PM Oct 1st in 3D). Well, not waiting to see it for the first time. I'm now waiting to see the local $5 Tuesday showing, and will see it at least a third time while it's still in theaters. Eventually, will get the Blueray DVD (likely out in January).

- GeorgeG

Yep, this is me..... the more handsome guy on the right....

Edited October 3, 2015 by GeorgeG

[Dodgey]

I'm watching the ads in the V Max showing of it now!

[SpaceXray]

39158f3d47b89918e9466b3b6634f041

[Cannon]

What are your opinions about the movie, i saw it in cinema on 30th September in 3D, it was awesome!

[Red Iron Crown]

Merged in a duplicate thread.

[Fingal]

Just back from seeing the film. As someone who loved the book I thought the film was spot on, walking a perfect line between geek stuff and keeping a mainstream audience happy. Although I can't help thinking that if everyone in the film had painted their face green this would pretty much have been a live action version of Kerbal Space Program.

[FishInferno]

My one complaint is how they used stock footage for the rocket launches. The Atlas V I can understand, but using an Atlas as the Chinese booster, really? Surely there is a video of a

they could have used. And the Delta IV at the end? It is basically confirmed now that humans are never going to fly on a Delta IV.

[magnemoe]

Just back from seeing the film. As someone who loved the book I thought the film was spot on, walking a perfect line between geek stuff and keeping a mainstream audience happy. Although I can't help thinking that if everyone in the film had painted their face green this would pretty much have been a live action version of Kerbal Space Program.

I laughing out loud then they came up with the lighten the aries launcher plan, it was pretty much the definition of kerbal and something everybody complains about being unrealistic.

Only thing I did not like was eva phase on the end, everything else was more realistic than I expected.

[TheSaint]

Saw the movie last night. Very pleased, well worth the $8.50 price tag.

I can't believe I'm saying this, because it's the exact opposite of my usual complaint with book adaptations, but I actually think they may have kept in too much from the book. There were some parts, a lot of the stuff Earthside, for example, that just felt rushed. Even at two hours and twenty minutes, it felt like the pacing was a bit quick.

One part I think totally misfired was Annie Montrose. That whole character was much better in the book than the film, she had a lot of great lines. I felt like Kristen Wiig was just window dressing for the most part. Which is odd, because she is a fairly big name, I'm sure she wasn't inexpensive. I wonder if a lot of her part was left on the cutting room floor. Or, maybe it's just more of Hollywood's phobia of strong female characters.

And I was a little disappointed with some of the censor cuts. I mean, come on guys, you're dropping F-bombs left and right, but you won't let Annie accuse the guys in Project Elrond of never having gotten laid in high school? And Watney's response when Kapoor asks him to clean up his language was much funnier in the book.

Yeah, they pepped up the ending to make it more exciting and give Lewis more of a role in the conclusion. I'm neither thrilled nor surprised by it. I like the ending in the book better, it feels more realistic to me. But I understand from a screenwriting perspective why they did what they did.

But these are nitpicks. Overall the movie was superb. Even having read the book I was still laughing out loud at all the right parts and tense at all the right parts. Well worth seeing if you haven't.

[benjee10]

Very enjoyable film, can't say I have any faults with it at all really! Probably the best book to screen adaptation I've ever seen. I was skeptical about Damon as Watney but he really pulled it out of the bag and there were a lot more laughs in the audience than there have been at some comedies films!

I feel like this is the space movie we've been waiting for and is sort of the culmination of those we've had in the past few years. It has the beautiful visuals & thrills of Gravity coupled with a more complex plot, without getting bogged down in the self-importance or pseudo-science Macguffins of Interstellar. It was light without being superficial, delivered plenty of laughs, I felt attached to the characters (though probably less so than in the book considering how much faster paced the film had to be) and there were genuine emotional moments which never felt forced and almost managed to move me to tears. Overall a fantastic movie, not just for a space enthusiast but in its own right.

I don't really believe in giving quantitative ratings to movies since my opinion of them can change so rapidly and it's such a subjective thing, but in this case I can't give anything other than a 10/10. Absolutely sublime.

[problemecium]

I admit I didn't read the book, but I did just go watch the movie yesterday and Matt Damon's Watney was pretty amusing.

[_Augustus_]

Good film, except for the inaccurate depictions of the rockets.

I wanted to see Watney fly like Iron Man anyways

[rodion_herrera]

It's rocking the RottenTomatoes site at 94%, pretty rare for a Hollywood spacy sci-fi film (good ones averaging only around between 75-85%...exceptions are cult classics like 2001, Alien, etc). I think the last good rating that reached 90's was "Edge of Tomorrow" at 90%.

EDIT: Ooops my bad, Cuaron's Gravity got 97%.

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_martian/

Edited October 4, 2015 by rodion_herrera

[Motokid600]

Well theres so much I want to say. I liked the movie. But I would've liked to like it better. So instead of a long rant detailing every major scene exclusion I'll say this.

.... They freaking gave Watney a crane. A CRANE. The books Watney is screaming at Matt Damon F YOUUU!

Oh and apparently Matt Damon had an air compressor for pneumatic tools... C'Mon.

Edited October 4, 2015 by Motokid600

[GoSlash27]

It was thoroughly enjoyed by my nerd- gaggle.

Thinkin' about it... Anybody who's reading the KSP off-topic forum is *going* to see this movie, so there's not much point in reviewing it.

Best,

-Slashy

[Motokid600]

Theres gotta be a directors cut. I could've sworn in the previews I saw Matt Damon using an o2 torch to burn off the hydrogen.

[sp1989]

I love these forums!! Every thread in some way is talking about the Martian. Here are Three mods ALREADY being dedicated to Martian parts. And atleast two reinactment thread and YouTube shows in the works. Let's be honest though The Martain is not only one of the most realistic book/movies but it's the most kerbal. Keep it coming what did you guys think of the movie?

[Xannari Ferrows]

The representation of how a MAV would look could have been better, as well as operate [probably the cameraman's fault], but overall, it was amazingly consistent.

[RuBisCO]

Like the mars escape vehicle the movie had to be strip down so much from the book in order reach escape velocities. Many of the characters a trimmed down even Mark and many of the events of the book are skipped altogether, much of a drama in my belief. Still it was a great movie, but the book at 12 hours long in audio-book is 10 hours more detail then the movie had.

[GoSlash27]

Like the mars escape vehicle the movie had to be strip down so much from the book in order reach escape velocities. Many of the characters a trimmed down even Mark and many of the events of the book are skipped altogether, much of a drama in my belief. Still it was a great movie, but the book at 12 hours long in audio-book is 10 hours more detail then the movie had.

One gripe I have is that Watney's self- inflicted setbacks were almost never covered. This was part of the charm of the book that I think was missing from the film; Watney screwed up as often as not, but never gave up. The movie portrayed him as a guy who always knew what to do and this made him a little less relatable IMO.

Best,

-Slashy

[ibanix]

One gripe I have is that Watney's self- inflicted setbacks were almost never covered. This was part of the charm of the book that I think was missing from the film; Watney screwed up as often as not, but never gave up. The movie portrayed him as a guy who always knew what to do and this made him a little less relatable IMO.

Best,

-Slashy

Well, there was

blowing himself up trying to make water

[GoSlash27]

Well, there was

blowing himself up trying to make water

ibanix,

Yeah, which is why I said "almost never". That was also one of the most endearing moments in the film. I think it needed more of that and less "everything's conspiring against me, but I always know what to do".

Best,

-Slashy

[AbhChallenger]

One of the best movies I have ever seen. Most of the negativity I have seen comes from frankly space nerds like us who know the difference between a Delta and Atlas rocket. It is a holywood movie. Not a documentary. I went into the movie expecting to be most excited by the Hermes and the Hab. However, Matt Damon really was the best part how he depicted a human trapped in that nightmare. A really human view of "space is hard"

And that what was so great about the movie. Space is very hard. And there is going to be more disasters. And people will sadly die as we push towards becoming a spacefairng species. That is obvious. And it is absurd to think that human beings will act like perfect PR NASA astronauts in such situations.

I absolutely loved how the Sojourner rover became the Willson of this movie. A many million dollar rover becoming a pet. Loving it!

[GoSlash27]

Also...

When he was

stripping the MAV and chucking stuff overboard

I visibly winced. Especially when

he wrestled the airlock overboard to tumble down the side of the stack

.

All I kept thinking about through that scene was

http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=2543

Best,

-Slashy

[Glaran K'erman]

One gripe I have is that Watney's self- inflicted setbacks were almost never covered. This was part of the charm of the book that I think was missing from the film; Watney screwed up as often as not, but never gave up. The movie portrayed him as a guy who always knew what to do and this made him a little less relatable IMO.

Best,

-Slashy

I completely agree. I definitely think I'm in the minority but I actually did not particularly enjoy this adaptation. Without being spoilery all I will say is that it took the middle road between two good possible paths for this film of which I would have been fine with either. I felt they tried to shift focus away from the technical nature of the book but then never really developed (or even met what I thought should have been the standard) the characters. I had friends leaving this movie thinking Watney was just pompous and cocky, if you read the book you would know there is much more to it than that!

All that being said if you DIDN'T read the book, yea you'll be fine, go see it now.