The Martian (2015) by Ridley Scott

[cranefly]

In an alternate universe where the laws of physics are different, a man struggles to survive on Mars.

For any hard science fiction movie coming out of Hollywood, one must invariably cringe on the wildly whipsawing suspension bridge of disbelief, with the lingering hope that once one reaches the far side, there will be adequate reward.

In this case, there is. It's a very good movie. Perhaps even a great movie. Highly recommended.

So I shouldn't be taking pot-shots.

And yet still I cringe.

P.S. Why must Hollywood be so Republican in its science?

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

As someone has pointed out, from Saving Privater Ryan to Interstellar now to the Martian, we sure spend a lot of money rescuing Matt Damon. Maybe it's time to get Damon to stay in one place?

[The Queen]

I just finished reading the book. I'm going to be attending an event ("More to Explore, A Space Celebration with Bill Nye") where the author will be speaking, and I wanted to make sure I knew what he was talking about, as I knew I probably wouldn't have a chance of seeing the movie before the event on October 24th.

I know from commentary I've read that scientific accuracy was purposely sacrificed in favor of a good story, and that was most definitely achieved in the book. Okay, yeah, it's "truthiness," but this is supposed to be fiction and entertainment, not news, not politics. And if it gets people psyched enough to have an incentive to spend more on real science, I'm all for it. I read that the JPL Open House today was so mobbed that they had to turn people away. Pretty cool!

[cranefly]

The author will be at the Stanford bookstore up here on Oct. 15. We might attend.
http://events.stanford.edu/events/543/54377/
Though your event sounds more interesting.

[Drunk Monk]

Some other parents said that their kids got all excited about calculus after seeing the film, and that's the only class t is not getting an A+ (including 4 ap classes) so we went. We all enjoyed it but s didn't think there was enough calculus, t thought the end was too tense (we saw it in 3D which I would highly recommend, and I was very amused by the play to the China market, but disappointed the Matt didn't have a sword fight with a Martian ninjette with tentacles.

It was funny, which made me care less about the science and just enjoy the visuals.

Star man was a bit overdone.

[cranefly]

If I was ever put in charge of reforming our educational system, I'd give far greater weight to three things in the classroom:

1) Critical thinking -- perhaps best taught by analyzing ads and commercials (the deceptive wording, psychological games, etc.) -- though the corporate world would fight it tooth and nail for threatening consumerism.

2) Logical fallacies -- closely linked with the above, but making students fluent in identifying and naming the kinds of bullshit coming out of people's mouths. This could greatly shorten debates, as rebuttals could be simple fallacy names.

3) Problem solving -- learning how to break a problem down into its component parts, the better to solve it; and learning how to deal with failure.

The Martian does an excellent job with number three. Apollo 13 was also outstanding in this department. But I think The Martian sends a clearer message that, hey, even you could do this shit!

It's also highly inspirational, as you've noted. Hell, it's even gotten the Republicans saying, "Hey, NASA. Let's get serious about putting humans on Mars!"

Incredible. Who woulda thunk....

Obama's greatest legacy may be that he never pushed for putting humans on Mars. Had he done so, the Republicans would have been opposed to it to the ends of time. Now there is hope.

[thatguy]

Much better than Gravity in terms of deux ex machina moments in the story. The soundtrack felt like it was trying to riff on Guardians of the Galaxy a little bit.

I paid for the overly expensive d-box seats, and this was not really an action movie, so I got to enjoy a gentle sway to the left and right for all of the space and martian landscape pans. It was very relaxing, a lot like a porch swing. This was intermingled with the occasional chair massage during rocket launches. The big advantage to the seats were that they were directly in the middle of the theater with an empty row in front, and unoccupied handicapped seating on either side. Add to that the decent beer offerings at the Scotts Valley cinema, and the snappy dogs our friends provided (see <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.gtweekly.com/index.php/dining-wine/santa-cruz-dining-reviews/6934-garys-old-fashioned-snappy-dogs.html">http://www.gtweekly.com/index.php/dinin ... -dogs.html</a><!-- m -->), and the flask of a very decent whisky a friend had given me for my b-day last year, and we had a very nice time.

--tg

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

After slogging my way through the Bone Clocks, this was quite a refreshing change of pace. I put it away in a day.

Very clearly written. Watney is a fun narrator and I hope that carries over to the movie. I was a little bored by the constant problem solving and I'm glad when Andrew Weir shifted the narrative focus to other characters otherwise I probably would have stopped reading.

There is some nice tension in the book, lots of humor. I liked it.

[Drunk Monk]

She scored over 100% in that class due to the extra cred.

[Greg]

I have now seen the movie. It was like getting a recap of the book. What a great comedy!

[King Bob]

Finally saw this. Enjoyed it. Then read the book. Enjoyed that too.

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

Don’t read his second book. This pony had only the one trick.