The Martian

Released:  October 2^nd, 2015

Rated:  PG-13

Distributor:  20^th Century Fox

Starring:  Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Kristen Wiig, Jeff Daniels, Michael Peña, Kate Mara, Sean Bean, Sebastian Stan, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Aksel Hennie

Directed by:  Ridley Scott

Written by:  Drew Goddard

Personal Bias Alert:  loved the book, likes the cast

7.5 of 10

            It must’ve been hard to decide on a release date for The Martian.  It staunchly doesn’t fit into traditional categories, proving far too light to be an awards season contender, too sciency to be a blockbuster, and too sprawling to be a thriller.  These oddities can be traced directly back to the book’s author, Andrew Weir, who first self-published the story chapter by chapter for free on his personal website.  Without the influence of editors or the publishing gristmill, Weir was free to craft the story as he pleased, and his chosen blend of hard science fiction with survival grind struck a chord with readers.  A legit publishing deal and a long stay on the New York Times bestseller list led to this most improbable situation:  a big-budget movie adaptation with an A-list cast and a legendary director.

            The story itself is a blend of the extraordinary and the mundane, following the world’s attempt to save an astronaut stranded on Mars.  It’s extraordinary to think of a man alone on an entire planet, while it’s mundane in the logistics and coordination.  This is a 100 million dollar movie that features a PR spokesperson, physics, chemistry, and potato farming.  It’s not edge-of-your-seat thrills, but for most of us, the endless strategy meetings and the small victories will hit closer to home than Ethan Hunt taking down mysterious international criminals.  Because of this familiarity, there’s moments in The Martian that hit you like an emotional sledgehammer, without warning making you realize how much you’ve connected with astronaut Mark Watney (Matt Damon).  This realism, a hallmark of hard science fiction, is the film’s greatest strength, and it’s something that audiences are clearly clamoring for.

            Coming in just behind this highlight is the extraordinary performance by Matt Damon.  He must pull off the smart, optimistically dark-humored astronaut with no one to play off of, not even a sentient computer like HAL or GERTY.  It’s hard to think of anyone besides Damon who could command the screen and make you care so deeply for a man without the manipulative trappings of a wife and kids left behind.  In fact, you only get a brief mention of his parents back home, and the connection you form with Watney is directly due to Damon’s vivacious performance.

            The rest of the star-studded cast breeze in and do their jobs, all of them correctly choosing to appear as average joes supporting the extraordinary Watney.  There’s almost no plot outside of the struggle to save the astronaut, which becomes both a strength and a weakness for the film.  The upside is that the story focuses on its strongest aspect:  the convoluted problems that must be worked through to even have a chance at saving him.  The downside is that there’s nothing to back that mystery up.  If, as many have, you’ve already read the book, then you’ll know all the solutions and problems that crop up along the way.  It’s still a pleasant ride to see it all play out, but without anything additional to sink your teeth into, the film feels a bit flat for long periods of time.  You’ll likely feel the same way if you attempt to watch the film multiple times, which will greatly affect the film’s staying power.

            Director Ridley Scott, who’s had lots of experience filming space movies, gives the film a solid if uninspired visual palette.  The rocky redness of Mars is occasionally beautiful, but in adhering to the book’s spirit of accuracy, the space stations were designed to look cleanly familiar.  As an offset to this occasional beauty, there’s also occasional stumbles on small things like the simulated weightlessness of space, evening out any high points and leaving Scott’s contributions rather unremarkable.  The visuals simply aren’t enough to demand rewatching, fitting in with the rest of the film’s one-off greatness.

            Most filmgoers will likely find The Martian to be a crowd-pleasing mystery populated by likable characters in an extraordinary setting.  They won’t catch on to the only other thing this film has to offer, which is a subtle love letter to space exploration and the wonders of science.  This element is much more prominent in the book, and as wonderful as it is that it remains here at all, its diminishment lessens the film as a whole.

Other Notes:

Ø  I’ve heard some pessimistic rumblings about the involvement of the Chinese space program.  This plot point is present in the book and serves to emphasize the cooperation that large scientific efforts encourage.  The fact that people don’t pick up on this proves how detrimental the downplayed pro-science stance becomes.

Ø  Drew Goddard was initially going to direct this.  I’m curious what his film would have looked like.

Ø  Spoiler alert:  Sean Bean doesn’t die.

Ø  That’s all I’ve got.  Now I need to go science the shit out of something.

Jupiter Ascending

Released:  February 6^th, 2015

Rated:  PG-13

Distributor:  Warner Bros.

Starring:  Mila Kunis, Channing Tatum, Eddie Redmayne, Sean Bean

Directed by:  Andy Wachowski, Lana Wachowski

Written by:  Andy Wachowski, Lana Wachowski

Personal Bias Alert:  likes big sci-fi spectacles, likes the Wachowskis

4.5 of 10

            Excess.  Excess is the Wachowski’s enemy, and they often lose to it.  Their first film, Bound, is known for excess violence, Speed Racer for excess color, V for Vendetta for excess words, and The Matrix Reloaded for excess raves.  By that trend, Jupiter Ascending fits right into their catalogue, delivering what is a decent story that’s done in by an excess of metaphors, world building, and general oddities.

            Jupiter (Mila Kunis) is a young, broke immigrant who discovers that Earth is but a small part of a big, well-populated universe when a rich dynasty she unwittingly belongs to tries to kill her to protect their inheritance.  Saving her repeatedly throughout the film is Channing Tatum’s Caine, a wolf-human hybrid who spends much of the movie skating through the air on hover shoes.  Did you notice anything familiar in that summary?  You should, because for all its window dressings, Jupiter Ascending is a tale as old as time:  people fighting over wealth.  Structurally, it’s laid out like many a classic fantasy stories where the main character discovers and accepts their newfound power.  And the woman doesn’t really get to do much beside get saved by a man that she, of course, falls in love with.

            Even with the annoyingly stereotypical gender dynamics, it’s hard to argue that this plot setup doesn’t work.  It’s so familiar from the first installments of Star Wars, Harry Potter, and pretty much every sci-fi/fantasy series that it slides down like butter, easy and delicious.  The problem is, the Wachowski’s try to cram in so much half-baked commentary and needlessly complex world building that the whole thing becomes bloated and difficult to swallow.  Sidetracks that seem to exist only to discuss capitalism, predeterminism, and to cause general boredom leaves viewers wishing the Wachowski’s would just stick in the reel of Ferris Bueller’s advice on -isms and leave it at that.  It’d save everyone a lot of time and leave a leaner, more sure-fire plot.  Plus, we’d all get to watch some of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.

            What you can’t knock the Wachowskis for is delivering a bad-looking film.  The trailer, which has been kicking around for months after a delayed release, promised fantastical new worlds, completely realized by two of the best visual directors working today.  Jupiter Ascending certainly delivers, giving viewers a planet-hopping extravaganza complete with strange outfits, spaceship dogfights, and a flying reptilian/dinosaur creature.  There’s actually many strange-looking aliens, again a bit too much, but at least the Wachowski’s aren’t short-changing the visual splendor.  It is, for this reason, worth seeing in theaters without the 3-D.  3-D will only muddle the image of some crisply rendered CGI, denying you the pleasure of the Wachowski’s meticulous eye for detail.

            Forty years from now, if I had to sit down with a young film buff and explain why the hell the Wachowski’s matter, I’d probably show them Jupiter Ascending.  It’s not their best nor their worst work, but it might be the most emblematic of what they do as filmmakers.  They take classic genre storylines, spruce them up with lavish, slightly over-the-top visuals, and are never dissuaded from telling stories exactly how they want them to be.  They brush off people like me who say their movies are too overdone, they invent new camera techniques to achieve the exact shots they want, and they never pander to Hollywood’s status quo.  It’s important to remember that Jupiter Ascending is a big-budget film that’s neither a sequel nor an adaptation, an oddity that few can get funding for in today’s Hollywood.  It takes people like the Wachowski’s, with a firm belief in what they do to make these kinds of films, even if their films are a bit of a mess, Hollywood would be a lesser place without them pushing us forward.

            Other Notes:

Ø  The performances were universally solid, even Eddie Redmayne.  He delivered exactly what was asked of him.

Ø  The romance between Kunis and Tatum wasn’t given the time to work.

Ø  SPOILER ALERT:  Sean Bean doesn’t die.