sweeneyhooper Personally i really enjoyed this film and it got me really intrested in the science behind the film. However others are giving it alot of hate not too sure why. Matt damon suited the role well and i felt he really brought some thing special into this film. Along side that the visual effects were wonderful and brought out an awe inspiring first look at the red planet. The only thing that was wrong was the ending. The way he sent himself from the pod to the ship was just absurd Overall solid film anyone can enjoy

Smoky Congratulations to Ridley Scott, this was a great one! I love good science fiction movies, but they are so hard to find. In most "science fiction" the "science" is thin at best and an excuse for special effects or some absurd action.The Martian is different and it really is a great one! When it started out with this unrealistically strong sandstorm I was ready to bury my hopes, but then it got better and better by the minute. there was one more inaccuracy that was initially a bit off-putting - the non-martian gravity, but apart from that the science was sound. And better yet, it was the core of the action. Getting stranded on a distant planet is challenging :-) and the challenges in the movie felt like they were the real thing. How to survive? How to get food? How to take off? How to reach earth? All these are tricky to figure out and it is a blast to watch a bunch of smart, friendly and cooperating people figure them out - always with that smirk that old-timers know from the heroes of the Apollo days. Yes, they've got the right stuff and they need plenty of it to "bring him home".Apart from this technical side, there is something even more wonderful about this movie. Through the extremely intelligent choice of (sometimes very bad) music and little hints here and there it has a curious "retro" feeling. It almost makes you feel like this is an alternative reality, playing out sometime in the last decade of the previous century, in a world where after the moon landings we did not stop but just made the logical next move to go to mars. And somehow this feels so right and so upbeat, it is a joy to watch.In any case, the Martian is a joy to watch from beginning to end. After all, whan did you last see a movie that let kept you excited with the intricacies of celestial mechanics?

caubiz I grew up when NASA first started sending people into space and it captivated me so much so that I would build models of the spacecraft and hang them out my window when a mission was on. I'm also a fan of Ridley Scott but this movie missed the mark by a wide margin for me. First of all, it is WAY TOO LONG and I found my inner child constantly saying "are we there yet?" This was the result of a lack of dramatic tension in the screenplay and lack of depth to the characters. I agree with other viewers who say there should have been more angst about being alone on a planet millions of miles from home. If it was me, I would be freaking out! (Then I would pray). Also some great shots of that isolation against the magnificent universe would have been awesome but we were given none of these.We have seen these movies before done better - my standard is always "Independence Day" where you had real character development, dramatic tension, and excellent humor in the script. None of these elements are present in this script. In fact, we know we have been here before, and just like making copies of a tape, successive versions aren't quite as sharp as the original. This movie must have been the 10th copy! Not good enough for a Ridley Scott movie. Matt Damon does well with what he has but he is not given a whole lot to work with. And was it me, or was that a stand in doing the nude scene of Matt emerging from a shower?I would have preferred to see Jeff Goldblum do the lead, though I get it that he is not a big enough box office draw. I think he would have done much more with the thin gruel given to the lead. Waste of talent all around.

rsvp321 The book is all about clever science, the movie has hijacked it and made it a bravado propaganda monster for a country that can't even get astronauts into orbit, anymore!They should have just stuck to the book.