Long, rambly, but mostly non-spoilery thoughts after a cut.

• They did not screw it up. It’s extremely faithful to the book’s old-school “hard sci-fi” sensibility.
• Having read the book multiple times (including one time reading it out loud, which really tends to cement a book in my brain), I was super-aware of any departures from the text. There were very few.
• The main adaptation changes were in leaving some specific incidents out, and glossing over some of the technical detail. Which made sense, given the already-long running time.
• Some of the weaker parts of the book (the back-on-Earth characterizations and dialog, is what I’m thinking of) were fixed by just not having those characters do too much. It turns out that having a two-dimensional/cardboard-cutout level of characterization works just fine as a minor character with only a few minutes of screen time,
• A lot was riding on Matt Damon’s portrayal of Watney. And he delivered. It’s the main reason the movie is compelling. I saw it in a packed theater where the audience was really into it. The lady on my left didn’t know the story, I’m pretty sure, and she was super caught up in what was going to happen. The biggest addition the movie brought to the experience of having read the book was in Damon’s wordless portrayal of Watney’s emotions at key moments. Those parts were powerful.
• There was a smallish departure from the book during the climax. I could see how it made the ending more emotionally satisfying, and it was really quite restrained. I’m a curmudgeon about stuff like this, but I give it a pass.
• I saw it in 3D, which I usually avoid, because the showtime fit my schedule better. And it was fine. I had no issues with the 3D.
• The attempts to make Mars look epically cinematic occasionally felt a little forced. I know it’s Ridley Scott and that’s his look, so it’s okay. I guess my inner curmudgeon wanted something a little more subtle. But you need soaring cliffs and whatnot if you’re going to show off the 3D.

My overall takeaway: For me personally, it wasn’t a great movie, because it just felt a little cold and simple and straightforward. But that was the book. Comparing it to the two other big quasi-realistic space sci fi movies I’ve seen in the last few years (Gravity and Interstellar), I think I’d have to say that The Martian is the best when evaluated strictly by the standards of realistically non-stupid sci-fi, with Gravity the worst and Interstellar somewhere in between. But as a movie, in terms of its emotional impact, The Martian fell a little short of Interstellar, at least for me.

But it was really good. And it was cool to have a movie that was so faithful to the kind of sci fi I grew up reading.

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Tags: science fiction, the Martian.

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