The Martian

[kerravonsen]

I just saw The Martian with JB. It was good. I'm now going to retract what I said to him on exiting the movie; I said that it was better than both Apollo 13 and Gravity. I love Gravity too much to let that stand: The Martian was just as good as Gravity, but in different ways. Gravity was... more intense; The Martian was more real.

What made The Martian better than Apollo 13 was that there was no melodrama. Oh, there was drama, but one of the things that slightly annoyed me about Apollo 13 -- because I had read the book beforehand -- was that some of the characterisation was Hollywood-ized to make for a more emotional story -- that is, they added some melodrama as compared to the book. I felt that the characterisation of the main character in The Martian was more... steady, more believable. Not that he didn't have his moments of almost-despair and irreverent rebellion, but... I dunno, there's a difference between using swear-words in one's messages, and taking off one's life-signs monitors (which was the "melodrama" which I referred to in regard to Apollo 13).

One of my favourite things in both Apollo 13 and The Martian was the "Hey, NASA, we've got to improvise life-saving equipment with plastic tubing, a tarpaulin and duct tape" kind of thing. And of course in The Martian there was more of that because Our Hero was doing plenty of improvising before he actually got in contact with NASA.

Who needs melodrama and technobabble when real science is so interesting?

The potatoes were awesome. I was so sad when they died.

I am so proud that I called the "turn the Hermes around" before it was revealed that that was what the astro-guy had thought of.

I very much liked how it ended, with Our Hero lecturing the trainees, and the lines "... you're going to die. You can either accept that, or get to work." and "... and you solve the next problem, and the next problem, and if you solve enough problems, you get to come home." Because that's really what it boils down to: not last-minute miracles; not white knights on dazzling steeds; but perseverance, cleverness, and hard work. Being clever once isn't enough; you have to keep on being clever so as to solve the next problem, and the one after that, and the one after that. Which is basically the way life works, isn't it?

So many heroes survive due to the fact that they don't give up. And I don't mean that one is required to run around with a burning optimism, not at all! But I remember thinking about this while watching Highlander (the TV series); so often in these sword-fights between Our Hero Duncan McLeod and the baddie-of-the-week, Duncan wins simply because he doesn't stop fighting, he doesn't resign himself, he never thinks "oops, I've lost"; whereas often you see the look on the face of his opponent, where they are thinking exactly that, resigning themselves to defeat - even if it's only for a split second. And then, more recently, we had that bit in Doctor Who, in "The Witch's Familiar" where Clara and Missy figure that the Doctor usually succeeds because he goes into a situation assuming he is going to succeed, even if he doesn't know what his plan is yet. The Doctor is very good at improvising, but you can't improvise if you aren't looking for your opportunities.

In The Martian, there were moments of defeat -- I think the saddest was still the loss of the potatoes -- and Our Hero was not made of ice, he did react. But then he pulled himself together and got working again. Perseverance.

Comments

[cheyinka]

It was also a really good adaptation of the book, which made me happy - the book had much more lurching from one near-catastrophe to the next near-catastrophe, but it didn't feel like the movie was missing anything, and the ending was actually better, in my opinion. (Well, I had wanted to see how the movie dealt with Watney accidentally rolling the rover and having to dig it out and turn it back right-side-up, but I think that would have just stretched the movie out with no real dramatic payoff.)

[kerravonsen]

Ha! I had actually been expecting some disaster to happen to the rover, so hey, I called it for something that happened in the book!

So how was the movie ending better than the book ending? How was it different?

[cheyinka]

It worked better both for a movie and as an ending - most of the book is told through his log entries, and the end of the book is his only entry headed with Mission Day 687 instead of Sol 549; he has just arrived on Hermes and is waiting for the painkillers to kick in before he showers, because he smells "like a skunk took a shit on some sweat socks". It would have been funny to have the movie end with the rest of the astronauts gagging at how he smells once he's out of his suit, but it would have been humor in the wrong place.

The movie also changes the 'moral of the story' to "you have to solve the problem, and then the next one, and then you come home" from "humans will go to extraordinary lengths to help other people", but that fits the tone of the movie better, because what the movie shows is people repeatedly solving the problem and then the next one, even if Watney might still think of it as the whole world working to save "one dorky botanist".

[kerravonsen]

(nods)

That makes sense. I mean, it makes sense that they have different themes, because the book, being told mainly from Watney's point of view, (a) he's not able to see the other people doing their problem-solving, and (b) he's going to be looking at it from a personal perspective. While with the movie, you see all that behind-the-scenes problem-solving, so having the theme of problem-solving makes perfect sense. And I do like that theme very much.

[kerkevik-2014.livejournal.com]

Apollo 13 was also a real story; paraphrased for the cinema, but real.

kerk

[kerravonsen]

Yes, the Apollo 13 movie was based on a true story -- which made me even more annoyed at the Hollywoodization of it.

[kerkevik-2014.livejournal.com]

I can see how that would be, but it's also hard to see how a major hollywood movie would do anything else. I recall loving every minute of Braveheart, but being endlessly annoying about pointing out the major flaw that they portrayed the battle of Stirling Bridge (and Falkirk for that matter) on the same field WITHOUT a darned Bridge to be seen - without which they could never defeated the best heavy cavalry in mediaeval Europe, and which was also the reason William Wallace chose that as the battlefield.

At least they've apparently removed the statue of William Wallace from the monument, which only did not resemble Mel Gibson through being inanimate, now. Hopefully one day something better will go up.

I loved From the Earth to the Moon mini-series, but hated the Apollo 13 episode because it focussed on the journalism and not the fight to get the astronauts home, still they had less than half the time to tell the story that the movie did, and I'm not sure less than a full season of episodes would do real justice to the real story of Apollo 13 and what was NASA's greatest achievement; not the moon landing,b ut getting those men back home when everything said they were dead from the moment the disaster began.

kerk

[kerravonsen]

Well, there's a difference between cutting things out -- which is needed because of time limitations -- and adding things in that weren't there in the first place.

[(Anonymous)]

I was happily relieved that in The Martian they didn't try to fudge an explanation of hex, just used it. Next time I have use it as inspiration:to teach networks, I might challenge students 'to do better'.
djd

[vjezkova.livejournal.com]

I haven´t seen the film yet but I read the book and wow, it was GOOD!:-)

[kerravonsen]

The person I went with had also read the book, and he said it was very true to the book.

[vjezkova.livejournal.com]

Did he? Then it is another reason for me to go and see the film. Thank you!:-)

[helenarickman.livejournal.com]

Oh, I agree with everything you said! I saw it Sunday and was blown away.
I think my favorite scene was when he was first able to make contact and communicate with NASA - all the emotion, his tears of joy - what an intense emotional and joyful scene.

[kerravonsen]

And the other joyful emotional scene - when he made voice-contact with the crew of the Hermes.

[izhilzha.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed the movie very much, for all the reasons you discuss above (and I also adore Gravity). I came out of the movie and told my husband--who is a naturally bouncy, optimistic sort, very like Mark Watney--that he missed his calling, that all astronauts should be like that, because those are the ones who will both get the mission done and make it back home.

[kerravonsen]

8-)

[tardis-stowaway.livejournal.com]

Yes! The Martian was so good. I loved the science and the problem-solving. The emotions were strong without being melodramatic. Plus, I loved the moments of humor. Retaining a capacity for humor is another trait I think is key in people who succeed against the odds.

RIP, brave little potatoes.

[kerravonsen]

8-)

sci films

[(Anonymous)]

Agree. All 3films were/are good. I slightly preferred The Martian as (a) unlike Apollo 13 you didn't know the outcome - unless you'd read the book which I hadn't.and the humour was fitted in well. I also bought the soundtrack was great, not a huge fan of disco, but it was used cleverly, e.g. 'hot stuff' when he loads the RPG into the rover - the orchestral bit was also blended in well, esp for me 'crossing mars' has a powerful emotional undertone. The CGI added to the story without distracting from the human elements.
I recall seeing it first time on a longhaul flight and cursing the small screen!

djd