The Martian

I have to admit I almost didn’t watch this movie as I felt the movie was over hyped.

I didn’t even bother to watch the trailer but boy oh boy was I glad that I bothered.

Matt Damon gave a perfect performance as an astronaut mistakenly left for dead on planet Mars by his co-astronauts during a storm that forced them to evacuate Mars before schedule.

Damon was forced to use his botanical knowledge to grow crops (green house technology stuff). He had to use his poop as manure ( urrgh) on desolate Mars.

He also had to figure out how to create moisture on a desolate planet for the crops using hydrogen .He had to figure out a way to communicate with mother Earth.

It was a battle for survival against all odds, while  back on Earth  efforts were being made to get him back , bearing in mind that another rocket launch would take months to get to Mars .

Damon showed the power of brains-over-brawn in his struggle to survive and that with a sense of humor set the tone of the movie. The following quote by Damon in the movie sums it all.

It’s space. It doesn’t cooperate. I guarantee you that at some point, everything’s going to go south on you. And you’re going to say, ‘This is it. This is how I end.’ Now you can either accept that…or you can get to work.”

He continues: “You do the math. You solve one problem. And then you solve another. And then another. Solve enough and you stay alive.”

Damon was backed by an ensemble cast in the form of Jeff Daniels, Chiwetel Ejiofor,Sean Bean ,etc.