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The Martian
The key to any successful movie truly lies with its protagonist.
If you win the heart of your audience with a likable main character, then the
audience will naturally fall in love with the rest of the film as they grow to
love and support the protagonist on their journey.
The first point to make about this thrilling sci-fi epic is Matt
Damon’s outstanding performance as protagonist Mark Watney, who is left stranded
on Mars after a manned mission goes horribly wrong. He is not only able to
portray every emotion that a man in this position would experience with
wonderful accuracy, but he is also able to make the character incredibly
likable, as he plays up to every aspect of the character’s often funny and
charming personality. This also benefits the film as a whole, due to the
aforementioned ‘winning the heart of the audience’ thing. The only problem
with this is that many of the other performances in the film are simply average
by comparison- they just cannot measure up to the film’s leading man (although
to be fair, they have substantially less material to work with).
The likability of the main character is also helped massively
by the humour of the film as a whole, which also helps to balance out the
darker aspects of the plot. In fact, the entire film is refreshingly funny and
even upbeat in some places, considering how stereotypically dark the plot could
have become. Much of the focus goes towards the protagonist actually succeeding
in his attempts to survive, which balances out the tone of the film in addition
to increasing the tension when things do go wrong. Scientific accuracy seems to
also be a major focus during these scenes, which makes the film both more
interesting and more realistic.
Speaking of realism, the set of the Martian looks incredible
and is shown through some amazing cinematography, although this is slightly
underused at some points. They build up an amazing set and it is shown in some
amazing shots, but then there are many opportunities for establishing shots
that are frustratingly missed.
However, overall this film has all the thrilling tension action
and sci-fi, whilst adding in some refreshing elements and centring itself on an
incredibly likable protagonist, all of which is a recipe for success.
