A lot of you read my review on this book. I absolutely loved it and I was beyond excited to hear it would become a movie and even more so to hear it would star Matt Damon. It seemed like he was reprising his role in Interstellar but being less of a jerk. Side note- why does Matt Damon always need saving? Did Private Ryan set him on this course? Just curious.
Things I Thought Were Awesome
The Mars set. It was hard to imagine the Mars terrain while I was reading the book, but the movie brought it to life really well. The rust color and rocky landscape were really great and if they were built on a lot, I wouldn’t have known.
Matt Damon. Especially the drastic slim-down he did. I’m not a fan of actors doing that to their bodies, but it was incredible. I thought Damon was a great choice for Watney because He was able to carry the sarcastic humor that I loved in Watney while still being believable as a great scientist.
Changes That Didn’t Really Bother Me
Not losing contact with NASA. While it forced Watney to be more independent and resourceful in the book, it didn’t change much about his communications with NASA in the end. They still talked and that was that. It was a setback in the book but didn’t need to be in the final movie.
The windstorm being taken out. Again, something that showed how awesome Mark was. NASA was freaking out about the windstorm while Watney figured it out and a solution in a day. Very anticlimactic. I liked the removal.
Things That Were Taken Out and I’m Still Wondering Why
Annie’s personality. I was really looking forward to Kristin Wiig getting to play the sarcastic and hard-to-like Annie. I thought she could do a great job at it. I wanted to see her in a more serious role, but nothing too theatrical and I thought Annie would be great. But she fell really short to me. There was a lot of her dialogue that was taken out that I would have loved and she was very pushed aside. I don’t know why because Annie was a great character.
The closing log entry. This bothered me a lot, probably because I watched the trailer for the movie right before I finished the book. So in the trailer, I hear this great monolog from Damon about humanity banning together to help him and how cool that was and I liked it. Then I finish the book and see that’s how it ends and I think, “Cool, I like that the ending is him on Hermes and not on Earth because that’s not important. This is cool.” But then that monolog, which I know Damon recorded, isn’t int he movie?! Why? How does this even make sense? Instead of this great closing monolog, we have Watney teaching astronaut school. WTF?
Things That Changed Too Much
The final rescue. That was out of character for Lewis and I wasn’t OK with it. She would have trusted her crew’s skills and would have let Beck do the rescue the same was she trusts Johannsen’s calculations and Martinez’s maneuvering. She wouldn’t have taken that job from him. I could almost forgive making the rescue more dramatic for a movie, but making it Lewis ruined it a bit for me.
Beck’s character. Yes, this is related to the previous point. Beck had a minor part in the book but what defined him for me was the rescue at the end. In truth, Beck and Vogel could have been combined into one character from a story point of view but I’m guessing Weir kept them separate to be more accurate to NASA. Whatever. The point is, Beck was expendable in the movie because the one important thing he did got taken away from him. That means he was only important because Johannsen was attracted to him and there could be a romance in the book. Wooptie-freaking-do.
Reader, I’m dying to know what you think. What did you think of The Martian movie? Do you think Matt Damon’s performance was great?
Until next time, write on.
Taking On a World of Words 