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Late to the game, and I haven't read much of this thread, but I just saw this movie last week and bitched about it in the "Irrationally Irritating" thread. I didn't think it was all that great. 6 or 7 out of 10 maybe. It wasn't terrible by any stretch but the one dimensional characters, the flat jokes and even a lot of the acting just really took me out of the film. I liked the parts that addressed the feelings of isolation and panic. The cinematography was terrific for the most part. I usually like Jeff Daniels and Matt Damon but their characters, ALL of the characters in fact, seemed reduced to stereotypes and chippy one liner "jokes" that just never registered. Good actors didn't have much worth to work with here and I thought the script was kind of weak. It was like a serious attempt at a film, like Appollo 13 or Gravity only with Independence Day levels of characterization and dialogue. The entire NASA team were absurdly cartoonish and not in a good way. The strongest moments were Damon's "oh poo poo. oh poo poo" moments where he's genuinely terrified, the segments where we see him improvising and the parts that were mostly silent which, sadly, were far and few in between. I thought the film could have used MORE silence to add to the sense of isolation and definitely should have upped the focus on the mental fatigue factor that Damon would certainly have been experiencing. The narration was overdone and detracted from the eerie sense of hopelessness that parts of the film did so well. The parts that were supposed to be funny weren't. I would have preferred to see of more Damon slowly going insane and less of the NASA team. I never got enough sense that Damon was really scared or in serious danger beyond a few really well done scenes. The only thing the film gave us to show the ravages inflicted upon his psyche was his beard and his weight loss. Some of the top down panoramic shots were fantastic but the film would immediately cut away from them and go back to the NASA scientists. ... TL/DR: The Martian was OK but nowhere near the hype. As far as "stranded and scared" movies go, I much prefer Castaway, The Thing, Lord of the Flies or even Enemy Mine. Even Castaway's "scientific" problem-solving felt more visceral and engaging and I know that movie catches a lot of poo poo too and had some problems but it was still better. I wish I had chosen to see The Walk instead. Luneshot posted:Although not explained in the movie at all, there's a very good reason they landed the Ares 4 MAV beforehand. I thought it was an escape vehicle left over from a previous manned mission that they just never needed. That's how I read it anyway. BiggerBoat fucked around with this message at 19:34 on Nov 8, 2015 |
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Nov 8, 2015 19:22
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The other MAV was there because it makes its own fuel from the Martian atmosphere, but the process is really slow so they have to send it way ahead of time.
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Nov 8, 2015 19:50
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Also, the book is way better at the "desperation/truly stranded" feeling because it focuses a lot more on Watney, and a lot of the perils of his time on Mars are totally cut out of the movie entirely. It's full of technical detail but it's really worth a read.
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Nov 8, 2015 22:27
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babua posted:When he goes into space he's wearing an EVA (extra-vehicular activity) suit, which has to be a lot sturdier and bigger than the planetside suit, because it has to withstand the pressure difference between the inside of the suit (1 atm) and vacuum (0 atm). It also needs to house systems that take care of storing the excess body heat temporarily, since you can't just cool off with air (like you could on Mars), since the suit is a completely closed system and can't lose heat to the outside. Mars' atmosphere is about half of a percent of the pressure of Earth's, so it's practically a vacuum. So that can't explain the difference in the suits. I like to think of it as being that the surface suit needs to be comfortable and mobile for daily usage and quick donning for a month, and they are able to achieve that with a super duper advanced design... which also came with a super duper advanced price tag, so they stuck with the old one on the Hermes, where they were there only for contingencies anyway. Plus for something needed for emergencies, it's a good idea to have a known quality instead of the bleeding edge tech. Kind of like modern jet cockpits that have more flat panel displays than an Apple store, but still have a mechanical gyro in case everything goes dark. (As an aside, space suits run about 1/3 atm) vessbot fucked around with this message at 08:54 on Nov 9, 2015 |
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Nov 9, 2015 08:45
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I think I've read some of that bulk in modern EVA suits is micrometeorite protection, which Mars' atmosphere is still thick enough to protect against.
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Nov 9, 2015 08:52
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NotJustANumber99 posted:I realise I'm annoyed by commander Lewis buggering off to save the day at the end. I don't remember it being spelled out in the movie, but if you think about how that dude basically just circumnavigated the outside of the Hermes with no safety tether (the airlock he left looked like it was a bit aft of the center point, the airlock he put the bomb in was at the nose) and the teaser scenes that made you think he was going to miss a handhold and go dutchman, the dudes had to be at least a bit worn out/on edge. I could totally see the captain pulling rank with the argument that she's 'fresh' having not just done a bunch of dangerous EVA stuff; too bad the movie didn't think of that.
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Nov 9, 2015 23:08
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Apologies if this has been handled already, but I have a question: Why would a botanist be sent to a planet with no plants or botanic organisms?
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Nov 18, 2015 11:56
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well why not posted:Apologies if this has been handled already, but I have a question: Why would a botanist be sent to a planet with no plants or botanic organisms? Well why not
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Nov 18, 2015 12:01
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well why not posted:Apologies if this has been handled already, but I have a question: Why would a botanist be sent to a planet with no plants or botanic organisms? He was both a botanist and mechanical engineer, in addition to his more critical role as engineer his scientific role was was to study the soil chemistry of Mars and do some growth experiments. Also he'd be doing zero-G plant experiments all the way there and back.
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Nov 18, 2015 12:18
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MikeJF posted:He was both a botanist and mechanical engineer, in addition to his more critical role as engineer his scientific role was was to study the soil chemistry of Mars and do some growth experiments. Also he'd be doing zero-G plant experiments all the way there and back. Cool, that makes a bit of sense. It kind of felt cheap that the dude just happens to be a botanist - the one possible career that would have the skill set needed to survive.
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Nov 18, 2015 12:23
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well why not posted:Cool, that makes a bit of sense. It kind of felt cheap that the dude just happens to be a botanist - the one possible career that would have the skill set needed to survive. Farmer's dont have botanist degrees and they survive just fine. Anyone can grow crop.
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Nov 19, 2015 00:13
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ON MARS?
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Nov 19, 2015 10:56
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I suppose they are all also kind of uber competent at everything. Although Watney is more so than the others I think. He appears to be the second most competent 'computers' nerd on the team. Contrast his attitude to patching just '10 simple instructions' or whatever in hex into his space pickup truck against the crew on the spaceship having to ask Johanssen because they can't open their email attachments. Also his smirking at her nerd games that surely noone er... normal would even recognise. Also he seems to have some big botany book with him? Or is that just his own CV? That would be odd.
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Nov 20, 2015 02:19
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NotJustANumber99 posted:I suppose they are all also kind of uber competent at everything. It wasn't so much that they couldn't open their email attachments as the file was an unrecognised binary text disguised as a JPG; Watney would've called Johanssen in the same case. That said, being Mechanical Engineering generally requires a decent bit of computer competence and basic programming at the very least. All the crew basically doubled up; Johannsen was the Systems Operator and also the Fusion Reactor Tech, Beck was Flight Surgeon and Biologist (bit of a gimmie there), Vogel was Astrophysics, Navigation and Chemistry, Lewis was Commander and Geologist, and Martinez was Pilot and... um. General astronaut dude. I don't know if Martinez had a specific secondary role. They would've all been given basic training in all areas and likely each would've also been specialised as the understudy for another crewmember in case of crew loss. MikeJF fucked around with this message at 02:40 on Nov 20, 2015 |
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Nov 20, 2015 02:25
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NotJustANumber99 posted:Also he seems to have some big botany book with him? Or is that just his own CV? That would be odd. That's probably his mission experiments plan or activity schedule or something. A big binder with a billion procedures and checklists for his parts of the mission.
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Nov 20, 2015 02:42
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MikeJF posted:That said, being Mechanical Engineering generally requires a decent bit of computer competence and basic programming at the very least. I don't know if it's different for astronauts, but my university is primarily known for its mechanical engineering program, and if any MEs showed up in one of my CS courses, they had no idea what the hell they were doing.
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Nov 20, 2015 02:50
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MikeJF posted:stuff that makes sense Yeah, I totally agree with all this, but I think its obvious Watney is a bit more of a... next generation renaissance man. There are hints in the film he himself is especially of this opinion. Like his respectful yet snarky reaction to earth's best botanists reviewing his farming setup, the mission commander saying he has a tendency to tell people that disagree with him to go gently caress themselves, his sarcasm that the best minds on earth can only come up with drilling holes and smashing things and even his obviously a joke but actually not quite reaction to them making a bomb 'without him'. Dude is a know it all. Music too, all he can do is bitch and moan because someone else has the wrong taste in music. Sorry, I'm not trying to be all negative about the character, or even intending to say anything other than idly chatter that really I quite like the Watney character as a well done likeable know it all. Earlier on he is trying to convince the boss lady to stay and even during their evacuation is offering solutions to stabilise the rocket ship. Really its his dream come true to be stranded without a boss. Edit- what I forgot to say is that I cannot see his character going to someone else to open an email thats gone wrong even if they were more expert than him, he'd figure it out himself, and that is basically the point, it doesn't matter whether he is a botanist or not, he would figure it out. Its about how if your an intelligent problem solver you can literally be the best on the planet at anything. But in a good way. NotJustANumber99 fucked around with this message at 03:12 on Nov 20, 2015 |
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Nov 20, 2015 03:06
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MikeJF posted:Martinez was Pilot and... um. General astronaut dude. I don't know if Martinez had a specific secondary role. "Martinez... I'm still not sure what is is that you do. Honest to god I really couldn't tell you... I don't know why we bought you." Joking aside, Martinez was the 2IC for the mission and their top astronaut, meaning he was across all the mechanical systems for the Hermes and was more than capable of preforming maintenance and making repairs if needed. Watney was meant to have a masters in Mechanical Engineering and had a reputation for Macgyvering solutions, but if Watney was otherwise occupied or unavailable, Martinez would have been the one to fix any problems. However on the surface of Mars, it's likely he just helped the others with their work as needed. ... he probably had a Home Depot sticker above his bunk.
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Nov 20, 2015 05:26
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NotJustANumber99 posted:He appears to be the second most competent 'computers' nerd on the team. Not necessarily. At the risk of making this the eleven billionth case of "it was clearer in the book", it was clearer in the book. At one point he wanted to override the environmental failsafes in the Hab computer, but he couldn't figure out how, so he had to trick it with an oxygen tank and a bunch of duct tape. And here's a line from his email to Johanssen: Mark Watney posted:Looking like that, why are you such a nerd? And you are, you know. I had to do some computer poo poo to get Pathfinder talking to the rover and oh my god. And I had NASA telling me what to do every step of the way. Competent with the mission computers? Sure. An expert? Nope.
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Nov 20, 2015 05:29
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Nth Doctor posted:I don't know if it's different for astronauts, but my university is primarily known for its mechanical engineering program, and if any MEs showed up in one of my CS courses, they had no idea what the hell they were doing. Probably more along the lines of using matlab, a hexediter, and maybe a bit of emacs rather then real CS stuff. Like most things the basics really do cover a lot of useful applications.
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Nov 20, 2015 06:28
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BiggerBoat posted:Late to the game, and I haven't read much of this thread, but I just saw this movie last week and bitched about it in the "Irrationally Irritating" thread. I didn't feel the NASA team was that bad but I'm with you on other stuff, especially silence. I wished for it in the very first scene. They are on the surface of Mars! Doing science! Isn't that exciting in itself? Apparently it isn't to the director so he had them babble corny jokes.
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Dec 26, 2015 10:17
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Doctor Malaver posted:They are on the surface of Mars! Doing science! Isn't that exciting in itself? Not really, no. Not dramatically exciting on its own anyways. Raxivace fucked around with this message at 10:34 on Dec 26, 2015 |
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Dec 26, 2015 10:32
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In real life the idea of someone doing something on the surface of Mars is mindbogglingly exciting and would be one of the absolute coolest things any of us would ever see in our lifetime. In a film it just isn't. It's incredibly hard to evoke a sense of wonder and amazement when the characters in the film are performing what is to them a routine task and the audience has seen the surface of Mars being studied and explored dozens of times before.
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Dec 26, 2015 10:36
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ImpAtom posted:In real life the idea of someone doing something on the surface of Mars is mindbogglingly exciting and would be one of the absolute coolest things any of us would ever see in our lifetime. Bullshit, even in real life you're not going to be walking around on Mars for 30 days straight in reverent silence.
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Dec 26, 2015 10:39
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If you think about it, the only comparable experience were the Moon landings. And other than Neil Armstrong's famous words, the rest seemed like pretty drat casual conversation to me. See this example from Apollo 16. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uuv6TVv0r44
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Dec 26, 2015 10:43
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broken clock opsec posted:Bullshit, even in real life you're not going to be walking around on Mars for 30 days straight in reverent silence. No, but they didn't ask that, they asked why the director chose to have them being chatty instead of focusing on the silence and the reason is "it just isn't exciting enough on its own."
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Dec 26, 2015 10:49
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Dalael posted:If you think about it, the only comparable experience were the Moon landings. Go right to the source: http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/history/mission_trans/AS11_CM.PDF Apollo 11 command module audio transcript
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Dec 26, 2015 10:52
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It's to establish relationships and friendships between the characters. Five minutes of everyone peering at equipment in silence probably wouldn't manage that.
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Dec 27, 2015 02:02
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Seriously, who actually wants to see Cast Away in space?
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Dec 27, 2015 02:27
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I do but only if it's actually tom hanks reprising the same character from the first movie.
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Dec 27, 2015 10:30
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ImpAtom posted:No, but they didn't ask that, they asked why the director chose to have them being chatty instead of focusing on the silence and the reason is "it just isn't exciting enough on its own." OK I guess I'm special and I'll go and watch some 2001 Space Odyssey alone.
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Dec 27, 2015 16:23
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broken clock opsec posted:Go right to the source: http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/history/mission_trans/AS11_CM.PDF Don't forget the extreme scientific chat from Apollo 10 May 23 1969, as inspired by the Topic Cast: CDR - Commander Thomas P. Stafford CMP - Command Module Pilot John W Young LMP - Lunar Module Pilot Eugen A Cernan SC - Unidentified Crewmember code:
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Dec 27, 2015 16:49
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Saw this last night and thoroughly enjoyed it. I wanna watch more space movies. I'm hunting down The Right Stuff, Apollo 13 and Gravity. What else to look for?
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Jan 7, 2016 17:43
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Dr Tran posted:Saw this last night and thoroughly enjoyed it. I wanna watch more space movies. The HBO miniseries From The Earth To The Moon is worth tracking down.
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Jan 7, 2016 18:22
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Intersteller has great visuals but its not really a science movie.
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Jan 7, 2016 19:07
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M_Gargantua posted:Intersteller has great visuals but its not really a science movie. It's as much as 2001 is.
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Jan 7, 2016 19:13
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Well, for visual science Intersteller gets the optical illusions of blackholes and wormholes right. At least from the outside obviously. And It makes Saturn so sexy.
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Jan 7, 2016 19:22
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Dr Tran posted:Saw this last night and thoroughly enjoyed it. I wanna watch more space movies.
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Jan 7, 2016 20:38
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Congratulations to the Martian and Matt Damon for their Golden Globe wins for best comedy and actor in a comedy respectively  Wait did Watney ever sing? Maybe it counts as a musical.
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Jan 11, 2016 05:49
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A lot of the movie is played for laughs, so I don't think classifying The Martian as a comedy is completely absurd.
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Jan 11, 2016 05:53
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