Movie Adaptation Review: The Martian

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image source: here. edited by me.

MOVIE ADAPTATION of The Martian

read my review on The Martian by Andy Weir

"At some point, everything's going to go south on you ...

You can either accept that, or you can get to work."

Let me state this right from the beginning that I'm writing this movie adaptation review from the perspective of a person who have read the book beforehand. And I'd have to say I was slightly disappointed by the movie—which I already expect, considering how amazing the book was for me and I know how difficult it will be to translate into a 2-hour movie. But that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it, because I did. It's still action-packed and has its own funny moments. All I'm saying is, it's not the best movie adaptation out there because it doesn't really do justice to the book (in my opinion). Anyway, here's my non-spoiling review for the movie adaptation of The Martian.

"If the oxygenator breaks down, I'll suffocate. If the water reclaimer breaks down, I'll die of thirst. If the Hab beaches, I'll just kind of implode. If none of those things happen. I'll eventually run out of food and starve to death. So yeah. I'm fucked."

The movie starts off with the Ares 3 crew just doing their daily tasks on Mars, when suddenly a huge storm is heading their way. Commander Lewis decided to abort the mission and leave as soon as possible. On their way to the spacecraft, one of the crew named Mark Watney was hit by a debris and was presumed dead—when in fact he wasn't. By the time Mark gained consciousness, he realized he's now alone in Mars with absolutely no way to contact NASA. With limited amount of food and life support, Mark has to figure out a way to survive.

For the most part, the movie stayed true to the plot / storyline of the book; but there are some differences in the details and how the story is delivered to the audience. Even though there are times when I was a bit disappointed with the alteration (not going to go into too much detail to avoid spoilers), I still thoroughly enjoyed the movie. If I've forgotten about the book or had absolutely no expectation towards it, I'm sure I'd enjoy it a lot more. Most importantly though, I'm really glad people who didn't read the book really loved the movie. Because Mark Watney definitely deserves a lot of love <3

"Technically, Mars is international waters, meaning Maritime Law applies. And since I am illegally commandeering a vessel in international water under maritime law, that makes me a pirate. Mark Watney : Space Pirate."

If you've read my review on the book, you'll know how much I adore Mark Watney's character. In the movie, Mark Watney's character is played by Matt Damon. I had already lowered my expectation towards his portrayal since I saw the trailer and promotional videos—I just knew that he won't be as crazy as Watney was in the book. Even though I think that Watney's brilliance and crazy demeanor wasn't fully portrayed in the movie, I do think that Matt Damon did an amazing job acting out Watney's emotions during his days in Mars. While reading the book, Watney is always so optimistic and upbeat—which made me think that there are times when he's okay with the situation. The movie made me realize how difficult his situation was and Matt Damon's acting was on point. Another thing that amazed me was how Matt Damon's physical appearance changed drastically after he spent a lot of days eating only potatoes. I'm not sure if that's real or just some computer magic.

There are a lot of side characters in the movie as well, including the Ares 3 crews and also the NASA team who tried to figure out a way to save Mark. The first one that caught my eye was Sean Bean, who played as Mitch! It's Ned Stark, lol. Then there's also Chiwetel Ejiofor (I recognized him from 12 Years a Slave movie) who portrayed Vincent Kapoor's character. Which is odd, because I remember in the book his name was Venkat Kapoor and not Vincent :1 I have no idea why they have to change that. Among the Ares 3 crews, I love Martinez the most (played by Michael Peña, whom I've seen in Ant-Man movie). His character wasn't that memorable in the book but I adore his cheerful personality in the movie :) And of course I won't skip Sebastian Stan (you might now him as Bucky in the Captain America movies) who played as Chris Beck! I love him ever since I saw the trailer, unfortunately he didn't do much in the movie. The ending part which was supposed to be done by Beck in the book was taken over by Commander Lewis (played by Jessica Chastain), which I also don't understand why they had to change that :1

"They say once you grow crops somewhere, you have officially colonized it. So, technically, I colonized Mars. In your face, Neil Armstrong!"

I have several favorite scenes from the movie, but if I write them all down here, I'm afraid it's going to spoil a lot of things for those of you who haven't read the book or watched the movie. So I'll just say that one of my favorite scenes is when Mark Watney breaks down and was overwhelmed by emotions. It's actually heartbreaking to see Watney in that state, because I've always imagined him as this bright and extremely cheerful person :') Another favorite part of mine from the movie will have to be the Mars landscape view. I know it doesn't involve any certain scene or anything, but it's just so freaking beautiful ! I'd have to say they did an amazing job with the visual effects on Mars; because I saw the before and after visual effect pictures on Tumblr. It's very beautifully made !

Besides that, I also love the funny moments in the movie—even though I personally think the book cracked me up a lot more. Some of the jokes from the book got changed, which kind of disappoints me because I think the jokes in the book are good as it is. But I'm sure they've got a reason to alter those things. The one that disappointed me the most is that they skip this joke down below! ↓↓↓↓↓ I was highly anticipating because I laughed so hard at that part in the book :( It's probably because it's a PG-13 rated movie (it's rated for teenagers in my country).

"I don't want to come off as arrogant here, but I'm the greatest botanist on this planet." 

To sum it all up, The Martian is a great movie that deserves all the love it's been getting. But in my personal opinion, the book is so much better than the movie adaptation. In the book, we get Watney's full perspective and his experiences in thorough details. While in the movie, it focuses a lot on NASA as well, so there's not that much time to develop Mark Watney's character / personality. Due to the time limit, the pacing of the story isn't very smooth either because they had to skip a lot of things. 

Like I said earlier though, despite my disappointments, I'm really really happy a lot of people enjoyed this movie! My friend who didn't read the book loves it and said that it was very intense from start to finish. I'm always very happy whenever someone enjoyed a movie adaptation of a book that I've read and love, because then I can rant about how different it is from the book and that the book is so much better :p If you need more Mark Watney in your life, I suggest you pick up the book version of The Martian. Because I can never get enough of this amazing man :)))

"Every human being has a basic instinct: to help each other out. If a hiker gets lost in the mountains, people will coordinate a search. If a train crashes, people will line up to give blood. If an earthquake levels a city, people all over the world will send emergency supplies. This is so fundamentally human that it’s found in every culture without exception. Yes, there are assholes who just don’t care, but they’re massively outnumbered by the people who do."

by.stefaniesugia♥ .