Matt Damon is the front-man for Ridley Scott’s latest endeavor into the outer reaches of our galaxy, this time adapting a worldwide bestseller into a commercial blockbuster. Which he does in strides. The Martian is an excellent example of a director knowing how to execute a precise vision while focusing on the greater depths of characters –  (not just Matt Damon stranded in space – which is probably how this was sold to the studio anyhow) – with real emotions. While that dates backs to its source material (the book penned by Andy Weir) – yet enough can’t be said about the screenplay in itself by Drew Goddard who manages to be an acrobat bursting with inventive wit. That’s not to say The Martian is a perfect film, because it is not. What The Martian really is (other than legal propaganda about the United States, one of the many “minor” flaws) is an achievement of striking beauty, and a realistic engrossing, often hilarious, survival tale.

Damon is a knockout as Mark Watney an intelligent botanist/astronaut for NASA, who, along with his crew – Melissa Lewis (Jessica Chastain), Beth Johanssen (Kate Mara), Rick Martinez (Micheal Pena), Chris Beck (Sebastian Stan) and Alex Vogel (Askel Hennie) – are doing a routine SOL trip on Mars. The specifics of the trip are never really foretold, I assume it has something to do with the recently discovered flowing water on mars?. As fate seems to have it, almost immediately into the film, is when a dangerous storm comes rumbling in, (kind of like that twister from Wizard Of Oz). This leads to an immediate emergency evacuation, which THEN leads to Watney getting taken out of commission by a sudden burst of debris. Which THEN leads to the crew forced to accept he is long gone, and they leave the planet thinking he is probably dead…

But wait, Watney is alive.

Alive indeed he is. Waking up stranded on a planet that is effectively working against you, is not my idea of comforting. The odds are against the lone comrade, whose only hope of survival lies in his keen (very smart) abilities as a professional botanist. What eventually ensues is an endless array of sudden bursts of excitement, and moments where hope ideally seems to be lost. Two and half hours never seemed to go by so quick.

The main problem I had with The Martian was not the performances or the visual perspective – (as I could argue this film was far better enact than Gravity was) – it’s the cause and effect. YES, I understand that we can’t show every single waking moment or else the film would probably run somewhere of up to four hours. But I still couldn’t help but feel cheated when some of the science lingo was just washed over to keep the movie going. Instead of sitting down the audience and explaining certain scenarios (which is what made Interstellar amazing) they say things like “it checks out”. Sure this is a strategic cheat used to help progress time, however, SOME things I needed just a little more perspective.

Then there is a top notch cast which includes Jeff Daniels, Kristen Wiig, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Sean Bean, which for the most part excel in their respective performances. Daniels especially as Teddy Sanders, the director of NASA, as well as, Ejiofor. Then there is Wiig, who plays publicist Annie Montrose, wherein the film has absolutely nothing for her to do, these are just minor occurrences which took me away from the action on screen.

It’s quite remarkable to sit there in a theater and watch Damon do his thing, much like Tom Hanks did in Cast Away or Robert Redford in All Is Lost. A man with hardly any wits, but it’s good to note Damon’s performance has enough light hearted humor to at least keep you heckling throughout the movie. Because of this, it makes Damon’s character far more sympathetic, which only hurts even worse when things don’t go his way, or he hits a roadblock on his mission for salvation. A running joke throughout the whole movie relies on some disco music that was left behind on the ship. You would think that having all these minor bits of humor would take away from the end product, it does not. In fact: I actually could not picture The Martian without the comic sense of relief that made it in the final cut.

At it’s core, those scenes which feature Damon stranded on Mars are the most inspiring. Now here is a guy who knows how to save his life, and damn it, if we are not rooting for him the entire movie. I wanted very, very badly to see where the film would end, which is a true testament to work done behind the scenes to get us to a thundering conclusion, but also how predictable events in real time seem. Between this, Saving Private Ryan and Interstellar I think we can all universally agree that Matt Damon needs to stop getting himself into sticky situations, or he just knows a good movie when he sees one. Grade: B+