By my estimation, there must be two Ridley Scotts directing
in Hollywood today who, for brevity’s sake, we’ll call Alien Scott and Prometheus
Scott. Alien Scott has a deft understanding of film as a visual medium,
using it to enhance his story and characters whether or not he has extensive
visual effects to back him up (see: Gladiator,
Kingdom of Heaven). On the other
hand, Prometheus Scott is who we seem
to have been stuck with for at least the past five years, using film as an
excuse to stage elaborate setpieces at the expense of telling an interesting
story or creating compelling characters (see: Exodus: Gods and Kings, Robin Hood). So I was a bit wary to go see The Martian, as I could very easily see
how putting Prometheus Scott anywhere
near a science fiction premise could spell recipe for disaster.
Thankfully though, after much goading from my peers and
after everyone on planet Earth seemingly having watched this before me, I got
to see how Alien Scott proudly
suppressed his lesser instincts and asserted control. I think this is because The Martian, though a piece of science fiction, has an incredibly
simple premise: what if one man were stranded alone on Mars? The comparison has been made that this story
is a combination of elements of Cast Away
and Apollo 13, as we see the stresses
and difficulties of being stranded alone in a hostile environment alongside a
scientific exploration of a team looking to problem-solve their way to bringing
their lost astronaut home. And
miraculously, that could have been an overly busy film is incredibly watchable
and entertaining.
I think a lot of it comes down to excellent casting. Matt Damon is pretty much perfect for
stranded astronaut Mark Whatney, a character who could be a bland cipher if
placed in the wrong hands. Thankfully,
Damon is such an effortlessly likeable actor that he brings crude humor and
tragic emotion to his part while still remaining charismatically neutral enough
to act as an audience surrogate as he spends most of his screentime alone. You’re right there with Whatney, feeling his
triumphs and setbacks just as he does.
The cast back on Earth and in the returning space vessel
that mistakenly left Whatney for dead are equally impressive, a collection of
characters so vast that it is impossible to list or even remember most of their
names. However, Scott played this smart
by giving most key characters a well-recognized actor to play them, including
Chiwetel Ejiofor, Jessica Chastain, and Jeff Daniels to name a few. Their characters are well-developed enough to
give them distinct personalities and make them immediately recognizable, but
not so well-developed that the audience is given more information than they can
handle. It’s the kind of large cast
management that would make Joss Whedon blush, and I think that is the biggest
contributing factor to Ridley Scott’s success with The Martian.
There’s obviously a lot more that goes into a film than its
characters, but as I’ve said in other reviews, sometimes the seamlessness of
direction is precisely what makes a film so great. The script is rock solid, the story beats
land perfectly on the exact emotion the audience needs to feel at a given
moment, and the science-positive message of an entire world looking to save one
man is simply awe-inspiring. I know for
a fact that Prometheus Scott would
not have been able to direct one of the best films of the year. But Alien
Scott, the true Ridley Scott, most assuredly has.
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