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The Martian, 2015
Mark (Matt Damon) is a botanist who is part of a crew on a mission to Mars. When a sudden storm threatens the crew, they evacuate, but Mark is left behind, believed dead. But Mark is not dead. And left on his own with logistics meaning that rescue is hundreds of days away, he must find a way to survive with limited rations. Back on Earth, NASA realizes that Mark is not dead and hustles to mount a rescue mission.
I realize the old it's not as good as the book argument can be tiresome. Howevah! I think that this film is an interesting case in what happens when a film adapts a book that tried to avoid certain film-ish tropes and ends up stranded between loyalty to the source material and wanting to go fully cinematic with the premise.
Nowhere else is this contradiction more apparent than in Damon's performance as Mark. To be really clear, I think that Damon actually captures the tone of the character---ie a nerdy sarcastic type---really well. And then he takes off his shirt and you're like "Oh, right. They tried to put this nerdy character in a gym-toned celebrity body." This lack of coherence spills over into every aspect of the film. Things that were dismissed in the book explicitly as "If this were a movie, then everyone would XYZ." And then in the film . . . . everyone does.
I'm sorry, guys, but you can't have it both ways. You can't have a film where one current is pulling the narrative in the direction of realistic science and debates about strategies and then have your main character flying around space "like Iron Man." I constantly had whiplash from these competing narrative desires.
What makes this worse is the comedy, which takes the sardonic commentary from the book and amps it up to shots that could be straight out of a cartoon. After Mark's first attempt to synthesize water has explosive results, he sits down to film a video log and he is literally still smoking. At one point a character clicks a pen open by pushing it against Kristen Wiig's character's head. I really did not care at all for the silliness.
My favorite element of the film was the way that it used its supporting cast to show the complex range of scientific and ethical questions that come with a situation like the one in the film. Sean Bean brings a weary warmth as the man responsible for the wellbeing of the crew on the Mars mission. The always welcome Benedict Wong plays the scientist whose team is repeatedly given orders to produce usable technology on incredibly tight time frames. While I didn't love the way that Wiig's character was treated--and repeatedly used as the outsider that all the science people can explain things to--she is a very funny person, and I laughed out loud at her disgust when the scientists decide to call a secret meeting the Council of Elrond.
The premise of the film is also very strong. Imagine being alone on a planet. Imagine knowing that you will not see another person for at least two years, if ever again. Mark's decision to live his life on Mars one day at a time, solving one problem at a time, is just neat to watch a lot of the time. The look of Mars is really beautiful, but also vast and intimidating. Space stuff always gets me, because it manages to be claustrophobic and agoraphobic at the same time.
It's impossible to know how I'd have felt about this one if I hadn't read the book first, but the overall issue with the clash of tones and objectives is something that doesn't have to with the fact that it's an adaptation. The cast was stacked with great actors, and it was a pleasant enough viewing.
The Martian, 2015
Mark (Matt Damon) is a botanist who is part of a crew on a mission to Mars. When a sudden storm threatens the crew, they evacuate, but Mark is left behind, believed dead. But Mark is not dead. And left on his own with logistics meaning that rescue is hundreds of days away, he must find a way to survive with limited rations. Back on Earth, NASA realizes that Mark is not dead and hustles to mount a rescue mission.
I realize the old it's not as good as the book argument can be tiresome. Howevah! I think that this film is an interesting case in what happens when a film adapts a book that tried to avoid certain film-ish tropes and ends up stranded between loyalty to the source material and wanting to go fully cinematic with the premise.
Nowhere else is this contradiction more apparent than in Damon's performance as Mark. To be really clear, I think that Damon actually captures the tone of the character---ie a nerdy sarcastic type---really well. And then he takes off his shirt and you're like "Oh, right. They tried to put this nerdy character in a gym-toned celebrity body." This lack of coherence spills over into every aspect of the film. Things that were dismissed in the book explicitly as "If this were a movie, then everyone would XYZ." And then in the film . . . . everyone does.
I'm sorry, guys, but you can't have it both ways. You can't have a film where one current is pulling the narrative in the direction of realistic science and debates about strategies and then have your main character flying around space "like Iron Man." I constantly had whiplash from these competing narrative desires.
What makes this worse is the comedy, which takes the sardonic commentary from the book and amps it up to shots that could be straight out of a cartoon. After Mark's first attempt to synthesize water has explosive results, he sits down to film a video log and he is literally still smoking. At one point a character clicks a pen open by pushing it against Kristen Wiig's character's head. I really did not care at all for the silliness.
My favorite element of the film was the way that it used its supporting cast to show the complex range of scientific and ethical questions that come with a situation like the one in the film. Sean Bean brings a weary warmth as the man responsible for the wellbeing of the crew on the Mars mission. The always welcome Benedict Wong plays the scientist whose team is repeatedly given orders to produce usable technology on incredibly tight time frames. While I didn't love the way that Wiig's character was treated--and repeatedly used as the outsider that all the science people can explain things to--she is a very funny person, and I laughed out loud at her disgust when the scientists decide to call a secret meeting the Council of Elrond.
The premise of the film is also very strong. Imagine being alone on a planet. Imagine knowing that you will not see another person for at least two years, if ever again. Mark's decision to live his life on Mars one day at a time, solving one problem at a time, is just neat to watch a lot of the time. The look of Mars is really beautiful, but also vast and intimidating. Space stuff always gets me, because it manages to be claustrophobic and agoraphobic at the same time.
It's impossible to know how I'd have felt about this one if I hadn't read the book first, but the overall issue with the clash of tones and objectives is something that doesn't have to with the fact that it's an adaptation. The cast was stacked with great actors, and it was a pleasant enough viewing.