MOVIE REVIEW | The Martian

I went and saw The Martian last night with my boyfriend and I absolutely loved it.

I did read the book (listened to it on audiobook) a couple months ago so I knew what was coming.  I have to say that I was disappointed with the previews because it told you the entire story and all the surprises I don't understand why they did that but what can you do.

With that aside, walking into the theater I was a little nervous about Matt Damon.  Mark Watney (the main character) is very funny in the books - sarcastic mostly but he made me laugh throughout the story - and I was nervous about Matt Damon making the role too serious.  The story is intense, I mean he was left on Mars alone for over a year (almost two? more than two?) but there are so many funny moments in the book I didn't want those to get lost.

And he pulled it off! The movie did do a great job of including other funny people.  Jessica Chastain's character, the commander of the Hermes ship, is also hilarious along with most of the team.  Vincent Kapoor also has many moments with the girl who finds Watney via satellite that made me giggle.  So overall I think they did a great job mixing humor with the intensity of the story.

I was also surprised by the casting of Kristin Wiig. She plays Annie, the person overseeing all of the press in relation to NASA and the Mark Watney situation, and she does have a really good line toward the beginning which I loved but they really cut down her role a lot in the movie. In the book she is constantly pointing out things and how the people of the world will see the choices being made, but for the most part she's just a background figure in the movie, and I wish they had utilized her more.

The one thing I didn't like about the book was the long drawn out explanations of how things worked and how Mark Watney was going to do things to help him survive. That got a little old and a little boring. So I was glad to see that a lot of that was cut out; the movie was much faster paced than the book and I enjoyed that!

I was disappointed that they took out one of the most intense parts of the book - the storm that Watney drives into on his way to the Hermes 4 mav in the crater.  That was probably the part of the book where I was most anxious while reading and they completely cut it.  Obviously I understand that time was a key factor in this - they didn't need a three hour movie - and so I get WHY it wasn't in it, but I'm also so sad that THAT is what they chose to get rid of.

This movie gets a 5 star rating for me, I would probably see it again in theater!

p.s. I saw it in 3D which I usually hate but they didn't over utilize the 3D aspects, it just barely added a little depth and that was pretty cool.