The Martian - Grading & Discussion
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Well, I just got back from seeing the movie again. It was that wanting to see it again that badly and I had a free ticket's worth of points on my Stubs card,
When they blew the atmosphere out of main rocket they did it with the inner hatch, leaving the outer hatch open and the explosion only damaged that inner hatch. So they would have been able to close the outer hatch and re-pressurize the cabin of the spacecraft and still have been able to make use of the simulated gravity module and only have lost any items not tied down and the explosive decompression didn't seem to really move much. (Which may be accurate, it's a lot of air moving very fast, but it may not be enough to much disturb large objects.)
It's true they didn't even mention the effects of solar radiation whether on Mars or even for those in the spacecraft. We could probably argue the spacecraft had shielding for solar radiation. I even remember once seeing a "mockumentary" on a manned trip to Mars saying a spacecraft would have a heavily shielded area everyone would have to seek shelter in in the case of extra high solar radiation that couldn't be dealt with by the crew naturally or by any minimal radiation shielding on the craft itself.
In the movie, I believe the writer -and this may in the book- says that the spacesuits, habitats and vehicles had shielding on them for the radiation. Realistically any such radiation shielding would be quite thick and cumbersome but, feh, we'll say "future technology." Hell, the habitat, vehicles and spacesuit generate an electrical field that acts as a radiation shield. Some lip service for this would have been nice, though.
Shallow moment: Man, Jessica Chastain is a lovely woman.
I'm unclear how much time passes between Matt's rescue and the "Day 1" sequence on Earth. It seems "suggested" not much time has passed, but the NASA PR woman had a very different look -that made her look older- and even Matt Damon looked a bit older than he did in most of the movie, grayer hair and glasses. So did the epilogue take place weeks or even months after the ship returned or years?
I do kind of wonder what NASA had to say when the ship returned, I mean it's going to need some repairs before the next mission. (Notably the blown up hatch.) I assume general maintenance is expected, but I suspect the door would be an expensive repair.
And, man, NASA must have gotten some powerful budget considering the craft and such they have to do these missions to Mars when I myself struggle to find a reason to "justify" such trips beyond concepts like "doing something grand," and the essence of exploration. There's something to be said for exploring for signs of ancient, or present, life but it seems to with enough missions there'd be a lot of contamination of Earth life making in search for present Martian life difficult.
So, he goes to the other escape vehicle for a future mission (which apparently hasn't been knocked over in any Martian sand-storms like what threatened his team's rocket.) Why isn't there a habitat constructed there? Is that next mission really meant to land there and then construct their habitat? Even if it's modular that seems like a real undertaking and that the habitat would already be there, broken up-sections that need assembled if not somehow remotely, robotically or automatically assembled.
I do wonder why he chose to go in through the door to his garden. Sure, he's got no reason to suspect the hatch would have broken, but seems like that'd always be a risk and it would have been wiser to use the other entrance. (Though, I suppose, no matter which one would have blown it would have had the same effect. And it blowing was pretty much "Gravity" levels of "shit going wrong because it can." Like when Bullock's character taps on a fuel gauge which causes it drop to show the truly empty fuel tank on an escape rocket.)
Take any computer or device from 1997 and try and connect it to a computer or device today. More than likely you're going to run into a lot of problems getting a c.1997 Mac to talk to a present-day Apple computer.
How on Mars did he manage to hook up Pathfinder to his equipment in order to power it up?! This is NASA we're talking about, as much as they try and to simplify things there's still the basic concept that the two devices were made 20 years apart by different teams probably some components of it made my different companies! Would they even share the same kind of connectors? Wouldn't the modern equipment have USB, fiber-optics, and other crazy stuff and the Pathfinder a, I dunno, a serial port?
Anyway, this is me getting into a nitpicky sort of mood and over-analyzing things. Which, generally, means by brain's kickstarted which is really a testament to how good this movie is. I could nitpick quite a bit from it but, in the end, it's a fantastic movie. I stand by by A+ rating and would go as far as to say this my favorite movie of the year.
Andy Weir did say that in reality, Watney would have gotten cancer but he let that slide to tell the story.
I've been rethinking that too. I thought it was less than a year but maybe it was longer.
Maybe Beth didn't get pregnant on the mission after all.
I'm surprised that Rick Martinez signed up for another mission.
I was kind of wondering about that, because it was said that even if they successfully rescued Mark using the information slipped to the Hermes crew, NASA wouldn't likely allow any of them to go into space again as a means of protecting itself. Maybe one could argue that if Martinez got to go on Ares IV then that's not the actual outcome.
I gave it an A. I found it really gripping---fascinating to watch, good touches of light humor, with a great performance from Matt Damon.
Hubby and I both really enjoyed it.
Hubby and I both really enjoyed it.
I saw it in 3D, which I seldom do, and I didn't really feel like that added much. I don't really bother with 3D much though.
As much as I love 3D, I find that it's better to see a 3D movie in an IMAX theater, as the picture is brighter.
So, am I the only one to be annoyed by the changes they made to the ending? (Although I'm guessing, judging by the comments in the thread, that not many had read the book before seeing the film.)
I mean, I get that it's an adaptation, and that things will (and have to) be changed to fit the different medium, but this didn't make any sense. Up until that point, I had absolutely loved the film (a few quibbles about things like the rovers aside), but it completely ruined it for me.
By having Lewis leave her post and impulsively decide to go after Watney herself; instead of resolving the crisis of confidence in her command abilities - by trusting her crew to do their jobs, and trusting herself in relying on them - she learns entirely the wrong lesson for a leader (that she should do everything herself).
Furthermore, Beck, whose job is EVA specialist (you know, the guy who is supposed to be best placed to handle spacewalks) is robbed of all agency and purpose. All he gets to do is climb around the ship and back again.
And Watney, who up to this point has survived by planning and thinking things through carefully, decides to get out of his seat with two broken ribs, dangle out of a spinning spacecraft, and then fly out of it! The whole purpose of the 'Iron Man' conversation was to trigger the idea to blow the VAL, not to have it actually happen. It makes no narrative sense other than to artificially add 'drama' to what is, in the book, already a very tense sequence.
And why does the MAV start spinning wildly after jettisoning the second stage anyway? Where does the angular momentum come from? There's no way it's how it normally works, since you'd never be able to dock with Hermes.
Furthermore, Beck, whose job is EVA specialist (you know, the guy who is supposed to be best placed to handle spacewalks) is robbed of all agency and purpose. All he gets to do is climb around the ship and back again.
And Watney, who up to this point has survived by planning and thinking things through carefully, decides to get out of his seat with two broken ribs, dangle out of a spinning spacecraft, and then fly out of it! The whole purpose of the 'Iron Man' conversation was to trigger the idea to blow the VAL, not to have it actually happen. It makes no narrative sense other than to artificially add 'drama' to what is, in the book, already a very tense sequence.
And why does the MAV start spinning wildly after jettisoning the second stage anyway? Where does the angular momentum come from? There's no way it's how it normally works, since you'd never be able to dock with Hermes.
The movie has to be accessible to everyone and give the average Joe a good payoff. So a more dramatic ending is justified. Besides, there is an in-character reason too
In the book, the Hermes managed to slow down sufficiently that it was possible to execute a standard tethered spacewalk.
In the movie not only was the MAV farther away, the delta-V between the Hermes and MAV was three times higher than in the book. It wasn't possible to execute a standard space walk. Lewis knows this and rather than risk another crewman's life in a knowingly dangerous situation, it is conceivable that she opts to personally take on the risk. And there is precedence. Right at the beginning of the story, Lewis ordered everyone to evacuate while she personally searched for Watney. So its not hard to imagine her personally rescuing Watney.
In the movie not only was the MAV farther away, the delta-V between the Hermes and MAV was three times higher than in the book. It wasn't possible to execute a standard space walk. Lewis knows this and rather than risk another crewman's life in a knowingly dangerous situation, it is conceivable that she opts to personally take on the risk. And there is precedence. Right at the beginning of the story, Lewis ordered everyone to evacuate while she personally searched for Watney. So its not hard to imagine her personally rescuing Watney.
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I saw the movie today and I gave it an A- but maybe I am being a bit unfair and should have rated it even higher.
I first listened to 'The Martian' as an audiobook and it was very well narrated by RC Bray and I found I didn't like the Matt Damon's Mark Watney as much as the RC Bray's Mark Watney.
When the book came out as a hardback I bought and read it (with RC Bray's voice in my head).
Before seeing the movie I said if the movie was half as good as the book I would be pleased. It was better than that so I was extra pleased. However, because it was so true to the book, the movie wasn't as suspenseful as it was for someone who hadn't listened to/read the book.
I first listened to 'The Martian' as an audiobook and it was very well narrated by RC Bray and I found I didn't like the Matt Damon's Mark Watney as much as the RC Bray's Mark Watney.
When the book came out as a hardback I bought and read it (with RC Bray's voice in my head).
Before seeing the movie I said if the movie was half as good as the book I would be pleased. It was better than that so I was extra pleased. However, because it was so true to the book, the movie wasn't as suspenseful as it was for someone who hadn't listened to/read the book.
So, is the Disco Music soundtrack from the book, or is that the studio trying to capitalize on the popularity of "Guardians of the Galaxy"'s retro soundtrack? And of the six of them who went to marks on Chastain's character brought a music collection? I'm assuming it was stored digitally and not on physical media and we know one character had left behind her a laptop with her games and hexadecimal information on it so I assume everyone else had personal computers and items that was left behind. No one else had music files on abandoned equipment?
And I was thinking of the hexadecimal thing, which was a brilliant way to find a way to communicate with NASA given their limited options. When Damon's character sets it up he doesn't yet know he can hack into the rover's computer for more direct conversation. As far as he knows the hexadecimal technique is all he's going to have.
First off, I wonder if the rover stored pictures locally in order for him to retrieve them and see what points it was directed at in case he missed one or a message came in when wasn't around.
And the way he does this is drawing a circle around the rover and breaking the circle into 16 segments, one for each character in the hexadecimal code (0-9, A-F.) 16 segments being easier to determine where the camera is pointing as opposed to have possibly over 30 segments for the letters of the alphabet, numbers and any special characters he may see himself needing.
Now, each character is represented by two hexadecimal code characters, with the rig he has set-up the camera can clearly point at one of those characters and provide him a string of hexadecimal characters for him to decode. I dunno, I think I would have made it an iota easier on myself and put a seventeenth segment in there for a space.
And I was thinking of the hexadecimal thing, which was a brilliant way to find a way to communicate with NASA given their limited options. When Damon's character sets it up he doesn't yet know he can hack into the rover's computer for more direct conversation. As far as he knows the hexadecimal technique is all he's going to have.
First off, I wonder if the rover stored pictures locally in order for him to retrieve them and see what points it was directed at in case he missed one or a message came in when wasn't around.
And the way he does this is drawing a circle around the rover and breaking the circle into 16 segments, one for each character in the hexadecimal code (0-9, A-F.) 16 segments being easier to determine where the camera is pointing as opposed to have possibly over 30 segments for the letters of the alphabet, numbers and any special characters he may see himself needing.
Now, each character is represented by two hexadecimal code characters, with the rig he has set-up the camera can clearly point at one of those characters and provide him a string of hexadecimal characters for him to decode. I dunno, I think I would have made it an iota easier on myself and put a seventeenth segment in there for a space.
As far as I recall the disco music was not in the book.
The word 'fucked' occurred many more times in the book than in the movie.
Edited to add - Johannsen had a Beatles collection, Lewis had crappy TV shows (Three's Company)
The word 'fucked' occurred many more times in the book than in the movie.
Edited to add - Johannsen had a Beatles collection, Lewis had crappy TV shows (Three's Company)
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Lewis did have disco music. He found her USB stick in the Rover.
Disco music and 70s television shows are both mentioned in the book. Although the book mentioned Watney watching Dukes of Hazard, not Happy Days.
I'll say that I knew absolutely nothing about this movie going in. I hadn't seen any trailers or anything. I just knew that Matt Damon was on Mars, and didn't know that he would be stranded or anything. And despite all of that, it was still obvious to me that the story was about how he survived, and not that he is rescued at the end. So I wouldn't have been worried about what trailers do and don't give away in this case.
I thought it was a good movie. Lol @ the above Sean Bean / Elrond comment. I don't even know why that didn't occur to me during that scene. I think at this point I see Bean more as Ned Stark. The one thing I did think was, "How are they going to kill Sean Bean in this movie?"
I thought it was a good movie. Lol @ the above Sean Bean / Elrond comment. I don't even know why that didn't occur to me during that scene. I think at this point I see Bean more as Ned Stark. The one thing I did think was, "How are they going to kill Sean Bean in this movie?"
Yeah I only read the first half of the book, but it did feel to me like the movie's ending stretched credibility quite a lot, and felt a lot more Hollywood blockbustery than it should have.
Even if every one of the extreme steps taken during the rescue has a basis in real science, the way the movie just kept piling one on top of another (on top of another) at the end came very close to taking me out of the story.
People like to accuse Gravity of stretching things a bit, but I'd say this movie has it's fair share of implausibilities as well.
The movie left things out from the book that'd make it an even bigger challenge.
While modifying the rover Watney shorts out the Pathfinder lander and loses communication with NASA until he reaches the MAV. He also runs into a dust storm that cuts his battery charging. Also, when he's just about to get to the MAV he descends into a crater and drives across soft powder - the rover flips on its side.
While modifying the rover Watney shorts out the Pathfinder lander and loses communication with NASA until he reaches the MAV. He also runs into a dust storm that cuts his battery charging. Also, when he's just about to get to the MAV he descends into a crater and drives across soft powder - the rover flips on its side.
^Well, a complete adaptation of a 400-page book would probably be a 4- or 5-hour movie at least. Films based on novels always have to trim some things out.
Of course - but the point was if you think things were manufactured and they stretched credulity in the movie the fact is there were even more obstacles in the book.
^Oh, I see, you were responding to davejames. The problem with the BBS format is that there's often a time gap between reading a comment and its response, so one can lose track.
Actually those are the kinds of more realistic obstacles I wouldn't have minded seeing at the end, versus some of the crazier stuff we see happening up in space later.
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