The Martians is based from the New York Times best seller novel by Andy Weir and translated into a movie adaption by Drew Goddard, a producer of known TV series such as Lost and Alias. The movie was directed by Oscar nominated Ridley Scott who is also a producer of several known movies such of Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014), The A-Team (2010), and Prometheus (2012), to name a few. The main actors of the movie are Matt Daemon, best known for his character as Jason Bourne in the block buster movie series The Bourne Legacy, Jessica Chastain, also from relevant movie Interstellar, Jeff Daniels, and Kristen Wiiga.
The Martians is about an astronaut who was left in Mars after a strong sand storm and managed to stay alive in the red planet way longer than expected considering the scientific circumstances.
A group of astronauts/scientists were sent to Mars for a manned mission. Among the astronauts is Mark Watney who happened to be a biologist, was hit by debris and was presumed dead after left behind by his crew during a fierce storm. But Watney survived and finds himself stranded and alone in the unfriendly planet. With insufficient supplies, drawn upon his cleverness, wit and spirit he managed to survive and find a way to signal and communicate to Earth that he is alive.
The concept of the movie is very timely since Mars has been on the talks lately when experts discovered that water is present in the planet that leads to the assumption that it could be a livable planet like earth. Like any other planetary adventure movies, the setting of The Martians is practically focused on a satellite base with crawling rovers snooping around the every crater of the planet. The movie is quite fictional but does not totally slap the face of science. In other words, most of the scenarios and solutions presented in the movie are actual portrayal of space travel, gravity, and planet rovers. The Martians also succeeded portraying the usual characteristics of astronauts who are usually borderline genius and risk taker, hot-tempered, team players. Overall, The Martian was on point in the portrayal of the men and women in the field of space exploration.
Personally, I like the movie a lot. Credits to Ma’am Analiza for sharing about the movie to us in fulfillment of the supposed to be book review assignment. I think the whole point of the movie is to accept and understand that universe is very powerful and there are lots of planets out there that are very intriguing yet very deadly to mankind. As what Watney said at the end part of the movie, the space does not work on your favor. The movie also portrays the importance of communication - being able to reach, communicate, and understand a message is very vital.
The movie reemphasized science and that indeed knowledge is power. Watney was able to survive and was rescued because he applied his knowledge in the field of botany, the science of crops to reproduce foods while waiting for rescue. The brilliant minds on earth on the other hand, used science to find and formulate ways to communicate, prepare, and execute a rescue plan for Watney. Science, knowledge and skills can keep us alive. So we should never ditch any opportunity to learn because we might need it someday to survive.
As they say brilliant minds think alike and it was very prevalent in the movie. Since they can hardly communicate at first, Watney from Mars, and NASA from earth exhausted all the technology, old and new, to be able to communicate. Communication is communication, regardless of forms and the manner it was executed. For as long as message is conveyed and understood, it can make a difference. The unspoken communication between Watney and his co-crew members is also exemplary. It is very touching to think that they are willing to risk a lot knowing that their teammates would also do the same for them.
Lastly, the communication between countries is also taken into account in the movie. Who would have thought that China would step in to assist the US government, lending their classified technology to be able to help? I really don’t have an idea if this can be realistic, but it’s a scenario that depicts good thing happens when people, community, and countries would continue to communicate and help each other for the greater good.
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