By Melanie Limon |Staff Writer|
“The Martian” exceeds expectations with a twist on how to to survive on Mars.
Released on Oct. 2, this movie pulled in $98.9 million worldwide during its opening weekend.
Director Ridley Scott had a serious task to make this movie stand out from its competitors such as “Interstellar” and the award winning “Gravity.” His attempts were a success earning great reviews from critics ranging from the New York Times to Rolling Stone.
The movie takes place on Mars where six astronauts who are out on a mission, on their ship Ares III, accidentally leave a member behind (Matt Damon) after believing he was dead due to a horrible accident that occurred moments before departing.
Damon, famous for his “Bourne Identity” films, plays the main character Mark Walker, who is left to fend for himself on this strange planet with limited food, water supply and a high risk of running out of oxygen at all times.
After weeks of trying to get in contact with NASA, he succeeds with his skills in botany, he manages to grow potatoes off human waste allowing him to survive longer.
Jeff Daniels plays the malicious character Teddy Sanders, director of NASA, who is faced with the decision of bringing this astronaut back home which could potentially ruin the company’s reputation or cost millions of dollars to bring this astronaut back home.
“I find the movie inspiring, it’s exciting thinking about the possibilities we could experience in our lifetimes, we’re getting to a point where commercial space tourism is now possible,” said student David Cabaldon.
As an avid movie goer I can say that this movie did not disappoint.
I went in without seeing a single trailer of it so I had no idea what to expect. I looked around the theatre and I could see that this movie grabbed the attention of people of all ages which surprised me.
CSUSB student Abby Soria said, “even though the movie was longer than two hours, there wasn’t a single boring part in it, I truly enjoyed every minute of it.”
Although suspenseful at times, most of the movie was pretty calm and I liked that.
It wasn’t your typical space movie about guts and alien fights, it was more about a man surviving in the most oddest of places but with a different twist.
Both the director and Damon succeeded in fooling with the viewers emotions, because although the story line seemed far fetched, some of us still felt sadness for Damon’s character.
I loved the movies message of how you are not alone even though you are lead to believe you are. There is always someone watching, in this case literally.
I can also say that the cinematography in the movie was absolutely beautiful with scenic shots of what we believe to be Mars.
The producers also managed to make Mars seem very peaceful yet frightful all at the same time which is a very hard combination to achieve.
Dr. Charles Metts, a professor of development in motion pictures, mentioned and used this movie as an example in his lecture, about how although he believed that “some of the music was over the top in places where it didn’t need to be [that overall the movie was] very fun and entertaining, nothing deeper than that.”
Kimberly Flores expressed her interest by saying “In real life, I know that the U.S. wouldn’t go back for one person. It’s too costly…and they would rather have us believe that that person was dead. In this movie his friends take the risk to get him home knowing that they have a lot at risk. I really want to know how [the movie] ends.”
Although a lot of the students were very interested in going out to see the movie, most seemed to agree on waiting until it was out on DVD. “I don’t think I would go pay to go see it, I’ll just watch it once it comes out on Redbox,” said student Erika Guillen.
Student Felipe Gutierrez contributed to Guillen’s statement and said, “it looks interesting, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to watch it.”
Whether people prefer seeing the movie in theaters or at the comfort of their own home, this aesthetically beautiful movie manages to capture even the youngest of minds.
Anyone with even the smallest interest in space will definitely enjoy this movie.
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