The Martian review: “Ridley back to his best”

The Martian review: Ridley back to his best. A cast to die for, and Matt Damon’s best performance for years.

The best way to describe The Martian would be Castaway crossed with Apollo 13 with a sprinkling of Gravity and a hint of Interstellar. However, there’s no hint of any kind of Alien in this Ridley Scott drama/ adventure, which once again proves that the British director is always at his best when he’s up in space.

Matt Damon stars as Mark Watney, a astronaught and botanist who gets left behind on the Mars following a horrific storm. With the rest of his crew on their way home, presuming his death, Watney use his scientific skills to survive on the hostile planet while NASA, and then ultimately his old crew, battle against the odds to ‘Bring Him Home.’

Scott has once again managed to assemble an all-star ensemble cast for his first venture into outer space since Prometheus, a film which was received very mixed reviews back in 2012. Alongside Damon on his shuttle crew are Jessica Chastain, who gets a field trip after being left behind in last year’s excellent Interstellar, as well as Michael Pena, hot off the great response to his turn in Ant-Man, Kate Mara, this time without the wig in her latest galactic quest, Norwegian actor Aksel Hennie, who you’ll remember from his excellent turn in Jo Nesbo’s Headhunters, and Sebastian Stan, The Winter Soldier himself.

Meanwhile down on the ground, Jeff Daniels handles the politics and the big decisions as the Director of NASA, Sean Bean as Brit scientist Mitch Henderson, as well as fellow NASA colleagues Donald Glover, Chiwetel Ejiofor and MacKenzie Davis, plus Kristen Wiig as their highly strung PR person.

Andy Weir‘s source novel was a massive bestseller when it hit book shelves a couple of years ago, and there was always a worry how this very popular book would translate into a motion picture, particularly because of th solitary character stranded on a very large planet. If there was ever someone to succeed in bringing the story and adapting it for the big screen, then Ridley Scott is that man. With a fantastic script by Drew Goddard, who is mostly known for his work on The Cabin In The Woods, The Martian manages to keep the viewer captivated throughout. Along with the fantastic cinematography from Dariusz Wolski, who has worked with Scott on his last four movies, as well as next week’s big release The Walk, and great editing from the masterful Pietro Scalia, who is also a long-time collaborator of Scott’s, The Martian is perhaps one of the most visually attractive, and best-paced films of the year. There’s hardly an ounce of fat in this fairly lengthy adaptation and Scott, along with his talented cast, have managed to capture a very original and exciting story onto film that does the book every ounce of justice. There really isn’t a bad performance contained within it.

However, this is Matt Damon‘s film, and his Mark Watney is very endearing, extremely funny and the kind of person that you root for all of the way through, which is just as well, otherwise the film wouldn’t really work. His strongest performance for years.

Fans of the book will love it, newcomers to the story will also embrace it. Quite simply one of the most rewarding and indeed enjoyable films of the year. It’s Ridley back to his best.

The Martian review by Paul Heath, September 2015.

The Martian is released in UK cinemas on Septmber 30th, and US cinemas on October 2nd.