‘Martian’ star Matt Damon says he’d probably never go to space

Thanks to a great cast, especially a likeable Matt Damon, it manages to inspire hope in our space program, which may not even be close to sending folks that deep into space, but maybe this is a preview of what we can expect to see – minus the accidentally stranding one of our homies though. Or the fact that we even had cell phones.

As directed by Ridley Scott and written by Drew Goddard, the seriousness of The Martian lies somewhere between Apollo 13 and Space Camp. This movie stands out from the crowd in so many ways and is an enjoyable ride the whole way through. This time around, with The Martian, director Ridley Scott proves that in space no one can hear you scream about doing countless handyman projects. Watney has to use his brain and science to endure a planet not exactly made for survival until someone somewhere can rescue him. Weir’s novel is primarily narrated via Mark’s logs with occasional flashes over to the action back on Earth. Watney returns to the habitat used by the crew and assesses his chances. Jessica Chastain, along with Kate Mara, Sebastian Stan, Michael Peña and Aksel Hennie all have moments to shine.

And lastly, we have the folks at on the ground. Once Watney’s crew finds out that their friend was left behind, however, they see little choice but to go back for him.

As such, 20th Century Fox has partnered with Mail a Spud (yes, that’s a real company) to let fans of the film ship an unpackaged potato through the mail to themselves or to whomever they desire – so long as they live in the United States.

Meanwhile, his crewmates have returned home and are unaware of his predicament, although NASA colleagues played by Jeff Daniels, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Sean Bean struggle with whether or when to inform the other astronauts of Watney’s plight.

The aspect of “The Martian” that really pleased me, though, was the humor. And Hollywood star Matt Damon, who plays an astronaut in Ridley Scott’s The Martian, says the idea of man setting foot in Mars is well within human reach and could soon be a reality. “The Martian” is entertaining not because of how it ends, which you can probably guess, but from watching a whole bunch of really smart people figure out how to get there. “I’m going to have to science the s– out of this thing”, he declares in his video log. But it’s also hard to do a film like this one without massive amounts of exposition, and when scientists are using staplers and desk props to show the head of NASA how physics works, it all starts to feel a bit absurd. Like Sandra Bullock in 2013’s excellent “Gravity”, he’s stranded and has to fight to survive, but unlike Bullock, he has the luxury of talking his way through his problems at a more leisurely pace.

But the characters most short-changed by the overstuffed cast are those of Watney’s crew members, in what is likely the least successful part of the film. Aside from the awesome spectacle of the film itself, it is actually quite amusing and tells a very good story.