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Colonising Mars
Oct. 3rd, 2015 10:02 pmI saw The Martian today. It was great. Just like with Gravity it shows science and space travel as something gripping but unlike Gravity it's all positive. Gravity's message was stay home. This says no matter the odds we can do it and get there if we put our minds in it. It's all for the space travel and exploration. The best advertisement for going out there ourselves.
It obliviously doesn't have the same level of detail that book has - so most of the gruelling part of problem solving and Mark explanations are gone. This loses some of the science and humour but we get the beautiful views instead. In 3D it was almost like the Mars Explorer vieweven if it's Wadi Rum instead.
We all know what happened the last time a British director left Matt Damon stranded on a planet. And once again the spaceship air lock gets blown out. The guys obviously bad luck. He even got Jessica Chastain all upset again. Luckily, Mark Watney does much better stranded on a hostile planet than that other man. He sciences the shit out of it (literally sometimes).
The best part of the book is the humour and they do capture Watney's childish and sometimes gallows humour pretty well. Space is not friendly and nothing there helps you survive - the only thing we have are our brains and all that they made - science and technology. And this is what he uses to find a way to solve his problems. This and little help from his friends. Because the other thing we have are other humans. This is movie about science but also about cooperation. Mark is alone and far, far away from all other human beings but those other human beings still save him. The teams in NASA and JPL and Chinese space program and, of course, the crew of Hermes.
They go through the same cycle of defeat and try again to solve this problem. And just like with the book (Andy Weir, blogged his book and crowdsurced some of the solutions), if you have enough minds working on something one of them can have the right idea. Of course we are human so they sometimes disagree and have to play politics and being not careful enough or too careful - Teddy I'm looking at you - but it's hard to make decisions when you know that if you fail the whole humanity will watch a man slowly die. In a way I feel like the NASA team on Earth is in bigger stress than Mark. I wish there was a little more Mitch and Mindy and Annie but it was already pretty long film - almost 2.5 hours long - so it's OK.
At least we got Elrond meeting. I was so happy I wasn’t drinking anything at that Lord of the Rings joke with Sean Bean. It was already glorious when Sean Bean started to explain the Council of Elrond being a secret meeting but I really lost it when Kristen Wiig’s character asked “How did you know that?”. I almost screamed “Because he was there!” but I was too busy laughing. It was in the book but it's so much better with Sean Bean there and Ridley Scott wanted to take it out. This is one instance of Fox executive meddling I'm very happy about.
Even though the Hermes time is very limited they managed to let us like the rest of the Ares 3 crew. Lewis and Martinez are the main focus and Martinez is the most likeable but we Vogel gets crucial role in getting the plan and blowing stuff. Johanssen does her computer fu and Beck does a lot of EVA and we get a glimpse their romance romance (and for some more meta, now in Marvel - Sue Storm and Bucky Barnes get together - who wants to check if that pairing rises in popularity now?). I was a little disappointed they changed the story so that Lewis goes for Mark but movies love to make it personal and commanding is not very cinematic.
It did have so minor issues. As most people I assumed Mindy Park was of Korean descent and instead she was played by Cameron from Halt and Catch Fire. Venkat/Vincent Kapoor thing is apparently due to last minute casting because the actor they wanted had scheduling conflict right before filming started.
They walk on Mars like it Earth and so they do in spinning section but then that's might be because they muscles have already atrophied a bit after being in lower gravity for so long. Why Mark didn't make double layer seal on the blown out door (in case it was pierced by a stone)? And of course everyone points out the storm but Andy Weir admitted this was one thing he messed up but needed for the whole thing.
But neither of these things really matters because there is fun to be had and places to see.
It's funny how two films I liked best this year are all about the deserts. And they both show them in such a beautiful detail. Even though they get even more inhospitable I still want to go and see. Let's go to Mars and see for ourselves. Or at least watch some more Curiosity photos.
It obliviously doesn't have the same level of detail that book has - so most of the gruelling part of problem solving and Mark explanations are gone. This loses some of the science and humour but we get the beautiful views instead. In 3D it was almost like the Mars Explorer vieweven if it's Wadi Rum instead.
We all know what happened the last time a British director left Matt Damon stranded on a planet. And once again the spaceship air lock gets blown out. The guys obviously bad luck. He even got Jessica Chastain all upset again. Luckily, Mark Watney does much better stranded on a hostile planet than that other man. He sciences the shit out of it (literally sometimes).
The best part of the book is the humour and they do capture Watney's childish and sometimes gallows humour pretty well. Space is not friendly and nothing there helps you survive - the only thing we have are our brains and all that they made - science and technology. And this is what he uses to find a way to solve his problems. This and little help from his friends. Because the other thing we have are other humans. This is movie about science but also about cooperation. Mark is alone and far, far away from all other human beings but those other human beings still save him. The teams in NASA and JPL and Chinese space program and, of course, the crew of Hermes.
They go through the same cycle of defeat and try again to solve this problem. And just like with the book (Andy Weir, blogged his book and crowdsurced some of the solutions), if you have enough minds working on something one of them can have the right idea. Of course we are human so they sometimes disagree and have to play politics and being not careful enough or too careful - Teddy I'm looking at you - but it's hard to make decisions when you know that if you fail the whole humanity will watch a man slowly die. In a way I feel like the NASA team on Earth is in bigger stress than Mark. I wish there was a little more Mitch and Mindy and Annie but it was already pretty long film - almost 2.5 hours long - so it's OK.
At least we got Elrond meeting. I was so happy I wasn’t drinking anything at that Lord of the Rings joke with Sean Bean. It was already glorious when Sean Bean started to explain the Council of Elrond being a secret meeting but I really lost it when Kristen Wiig’s character asked “How did you know that?”. I almost screamed “Because he was there!” but I was too busy laughing. It was in the book but it's so much better with Sean Bean there and Ridley Scott wanted to take it out. This is one instance of Fox executive meddling I'm very happy about.
Even though the Hermes time is very limited they managed to let us like the rest of the Ares 3 crew. Lewis and Martinez are the main focus and Martinez is the most likeable but we Vogel gets crucial role in getting the plan and blowing stuff. Johanssen does her computer fu and Beck does a lot of EVA and we get a glimpse their romance romance (and for some more meta, now in Marvel - Sue Storm and Bucky Barnes get together - who wants to check if that pairing rises in popularity now?). I was a little disappointed they changed the story so that Lewis goes for Mark but movies love to make it personal and commanding is not very cinematic.
It did have so minor issues. As most people I assumed Mindy Park was of Korean descent and instead she was played by Cameron from Halt and Catch Fire. Venkat/Vincent Kapoor thing is apparently due to last minute casting because the actor they wanted had scheduling conflict right before filming started.
They walk on Mars like it Earth and so they do in spinning section but then that's might be because they muscles have already atrophied a bit after being in lower gravity for so long. Why Mark didn't make double layer seal on the blown out door (in case it was pierced by a stone)? And of course everyone points out the storm but Andy Weir admitted this was one thing he messed up but needed for the whole thing.
But neither of these things really matters because there is fun to be had and places to see.
It's funny how two films I liked best this year are all about the deserts. And they both show them in such a beautiful detail. Even though they get even more inhospitable I still want to go and see. Let's go to Mars and see for ourselves. Or at least watch some more Curiosity photos.
