Andy Weir published his first novel back in 2011. It got good reviews right out of the gate and gained in popularity every since. It got so popular that it was turned into a movie starring Matt Damon and Jessica Chastain. I finished reading the book right before seeing the movie. Quite literally right before. I was sitting on the couch at work and read the last few pages so I was able to go into the theater ready to enjoy the movie, but also ready to compare the two. I was playing a dangerous game, I know. Sometimes you wind up really disappointed like with World War Z or The Hobbit. Sometimes it’s the opposite with the movie being better like with The Maze Runner or The Lord of the Rings (Yes, I found the books to be long winded and boring. Send your hate mail to BilliamReviews@gmail.com) But every once in a while you get the magic combination where both are remarkable. My friends, The Martian is one of them.
I plan on doing a short review of the book and a slightly longer one of the movie. If you just want to read the review of the movie then please scroll down a bit. Remember folks, my movie reviews are always spoiler free unless otherwise clearly noted. Both the book and movie review will contain no spoilers.
The Martian: Book
I mainly read fantasy with an occasional jaunt to another genre. I had just finished yet another Dresden Files book when I realized that The Martian was coming out in theaters soon and I should get on it before I miss the opportunity to read it before seeing the film. I opened it and was sucked it right away. I was so taken by the book that the other two books I was reading, one suggested by a friend and the other by my girlfriend, were put down and weren’t even looked at until just yesterday. Usually it takes me a chapter or two to really get into a book and I think that’s the way with most people. You have to take time to get to know the characters, learn a bit of the story, or give the author time to get her/his hooks into you. But Andy Weird got me right away.
If you’re a writer, or even just read a lot, you’ll quickly pick up on the fact that this is Andy Weir’s first novel. It’s not bad at all. He just makes some basic mistakes, frequently. These aren’t grammatical mistakes, mind you. They’re just rookie mistakes that new writers do a lot because they either think it sounds better. Either that or they don’t know proper sentence structure. Sure, anyone can make a mistake. What was really remarkable is that the book was so good that these frequent mistakes didn’t turn me off at all.
Mark Watney was a fantastic character and the first person perspective (for his chapters, the rest was 3rd person personal) and his personality made me grow attached to him within the first page. The characterization was great and the plot was so engrossing that I gladly ignored the writing errors. A reader is willing to put up mistakes if the story is good enough.
The Martian is now up there on my list of favorite books with such titles as Neverwhere, The Hobbit, and Jurassic Park. This is a great hard sci-fi book that shouldn’t be missed by anyone. Unless you hate good books that is.
The Martian (Book) gets an 11 out of 11
The Martian: Movie
The first thing I noticed about the movie is that they were doing things out of order. The very first scene doesn’t happen until later in the book, but it ended up working better this way. The Martian was only two hours and twenty-two minutes long, so the 369 page book was going to have a hard time fitting into that time. If they had just cut the book without moving things around, they would have There were some changes I questioned, but they weren’t bad. I just didn’t see why they changed them.
Matt Damon WAS Mark Watney. He was everything I envisioned Watney to be. It was like they pulled him straight out of the book. His charm, wit, and foul mouth were all there in spades… well… except for the foul mouth. The use of perfectly timed swearing added humor to the book but since this movie was PG-13 they had to watch how many they used. Thankfully they found ways around it. I cared for Mark Watney the book character and Damon helped me grow attached to and care for the Watney the movie character. Damon even showed Watney’s frustration better than the book did. I’m not sure Damon would have been my first choice had I read the book before he was announced, but after seeing the movie I realize that it had to have been him all along.
The other actors did a great job too with Jessica Chastain (Interstellar), Michael Pena (Shooter, Ant-Man), and Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave) as the shining stars of the supporting cast. This movie is another case of everyone doing a great job but some people not getting much to do. The performance was spectacular for those who did get sizable roles. Jeff Daniels (Dumb and Dumber) was good but I think his character was cut a bit too much, though not as much as some of the others. The only reason he wasn’t noted as one of the best of the supporting cast is that his portrayal of Teddy Sanders, head of NASA, was a lot like his performance as Will McAvoy in The Newsroom. I didn’t see much difference between the two characters and that’s probably because some of the missing book scenes that would have filled out his character more.
The visuals in The Martian were fantastic. I think this movie is going to be able to stand the test of time as far as visual effects go. There was only one part near the end that looked like obvious CG but that was quickly forgotten as the movie continued to be awesome distractingly entertaining. The HAB, the rovers, and the MAV looked just like I thought they would while I was reading the book and thanks to things like this and the great casting, there was a sense of awe throughout the film. When you get to see something you’ve imagined come to life, it’s beautiful. The Martian wasn’t perfect but it did a great job bringing everything to life and leaving me speechless.
I did have two problems with the movie but they’re minor ones. The first is that Kristen Wiig (Brides Maids), Donald Glover (Community), and Mackenzie Davis (Halt and Catch Fire) all had their roles cut down to a mere whisper of what they were in the book, which is a shame because I think they would have been great. Kristen Wiig didn’t even get that many lines even though Annie Montrose was a prominent character in the book. Again, it’s hard to keep everything true to the book when you have such limited time frame to work with. The last problem is that I don’t quite understand one of the final changes. Now since this is a spoiler free review I can’t go into details but let me put it this way. The climax of the movie is almost exactly like the book except for one change which I can see why they did it for dramatic purposes, but I didn’t think it added all that much to the movie.
The pros of The Martian far outweigh the cons and the cons weren’t even enough to drag the final score down. Movies like this are all about fun and entertainment. That’s why there are worse movies that get good scores because even though it may have been cheesy, had bad dialogue, or some other downside, it was entertaining. The Martian was a tense ride from beginning to end that I can’t wait to see again. It made me laugh out loud on multiple occasions and made me hold my breath an equal amount. This film proves that a happy balance can be found between book and movie so both can be great even with problems like time constraints.
The Martian should be seen in theaters, it’s that good and the experience of the big screen only adds to it. I have no review of the 3D because my friends went to see a regular D showing so if you see it in 3D, let me know what you think in the comments or by sending me an email. But enough talking…erm… typing. I think you can guess my final score.
The Martian gets an 11 out of 11