The Martian

The Martian is Gravity + Apollo 13 + Castaway + Macgyver. It's the story of a Mars mission that ends abruptly following a powerful storm. In the storm a man is left behind, but that man is Matt Damon (astronaut/botanist Mark Whatney), and he's invincible and awesome. Damon's character finds himself covered in dust, wounded, and without anyone within a thousands of miles, probably more like hundreds of thousands of miles. His status report is incredibly grim, but he has steely resolve, true grit, Jason Bourne blood, knowledge of botany, and testicles the size of bowling balls. He sets about various tasks to grow potatoes on Mars, increase battery life on his rover, create water for the garden, etc. NASA frantically tries to figure out ways to get first supplies, and then a rescue to astronaut Mark Whatney. A great cast is assembled with Jessica Chastain, Jeff Daniels, Michael Pena, Kate Mara, Sean Bean (SPOILER, he actually lives through this movie firmly planted on Earth) and Chiwetel Ejiofor (I needed to look up the spelling again). Drama is everywhere, but you find yourself legitimately pulling and caring about every twist and turn in the Mark Whatney saga. The lady next to me in the theatre was squirming, laughing, gasping, and was clearly emotional invested in the film. Matt Damon is just too damn likeable. Bottom Line: 9.4 out of 10. Fairly certain this is my favorite film of the year and therefore the early favorite for Best Picture Oscar as well as another Best Actor nomination for Matt Damon, possibly a win. Run and see this in theatres, though I feel seeing it in 3D like I did is unnecessary.