The Martian: The Nerd's Wife Reviews

I shall start on a very honest note, I was 200% sure that I would not like (understand) the movie. Why you ask? It had all the ingredients for being a bore movie:

 

• Spaceship
• Astronaut
• Same clichéd plot
• Astronaut getting lost
• Astronaut coming back

Then why did I go to watch the movie? Two reasons:

1. My nerd husband wanted to go
2. Matt Damon (For a good uninterrupted 2 Hours)

But as surprised as I was, this one I liked. Why the answer is pretty simple, it didn't aim to be overly complicated. Nor did it aim to shove too many hypothesised theories on to you. But before you start thinking I loved it... let me hold you right there... the most emotional scene of the movie was when the potatoes die.. No, there is no metaphor here whatsoever. This was it! He steps out to check on his crops, there is a storm, the door breaks, the Mars cold chilly evil winds get inside and his plants die.

 

But all this while watching this movie, every time he made some smart discovery like, stapling up the wound to stop the bleeding for example or realizing he needs to stay alive 4 years before being rescued and hence he needs to grow his own food.. I could only wonder.. Man.. this guy is so smart I would have never known how to make water. I would have never been able to survive on Mars. But then, WHY WOULD I EVER NEED TO?

 

Also, what's with all my favourite actors growing so old. I still remember Matt from The Departed, and I'm pretty sure it's a very recent (NOT) movie! does this mean what I think it means? Am I also growing old? Am I?

 

Anyway, even though digressing is my speciality, the movie also used it quite well. You know changing track and not entering the gravity stuff. Either they dumbified the movie for everyone or I'm growing smarter in the Nerd's company. I'm pretty sure it's the former because I'm still waiting on the inter dimensional plot from Interstellar to make sense. Also noteworthy is how subtly a few present world facts have been incorporated into the movie; prime one being "Vincent" Kapoor, a very African looking Indian surnamed man born from a cross cultural wedding, which indeed is common place. Then we have the obvious fact the most of the employees in NASA were either Indian (or Indian Origin) or Chinese. Matt very cleverly used the left behind equipment from the earlier expeditions. And the subliminal messaging that, the countries should stop bickering over space supremacy and just get together and exploit the outer space together. Clever.

 

For all the good things, this movie is a strange cross over between a documentary and a science fiction, let's for the lack of better words call it a Docu-Fiction :P . While I am aware that outer space is the place to be these days, what I don't understand is why? Its been long enough we've been looking for life outside the earth. The fact that we haven't located anyone makes me believe that we have been spotted long time ago by alien life understood to be a threat to anything tangible and thought better left alone. Come on.. can you blame them?  Have seen what have done to this planet? So much so that we're trying to set up a colony in Mars.

 

Now that I have rambled on enough without offering any reviews about the movie, why don't I sum it up? The movie is watchable, the whole setting is believable. The film is based on Andy Weir's 2011 novel by the same name, would have told you if it's a good adaptation, except I haven't read the book (Nor do I intend to!). But the visuals and the comic timing is just impeccable. I really have to know where they shot the scenes on Mars (Please don't be green screens) because that looks just amazing. And goes without saying watch it 3-D, just because 2-D is just so last century :P