The Martian

By: Robert Murphy


The question of what the next milestone of space exploration will be has probably made plenty of people curious in these recent years, we have managed to see further and further into space but we haven't officially set our sights towards sending someone out among the stars once more. The Martian however follows humanities next logical course of action by finally having a human set foot on Mars and actually, by the time the movie takes place, we've already done it twice before. It's incredible to think about especially since the story isn't set too far into our own future but what would happen if you were to end up being stuck out there. Astronaut Mark Watney (Matt Damon) finds himself millions of miles away from home and trapped on the desolate red planet after a terrible storm threaten him and his team. Stranded and presumed dead, Watney must not only find some way to survive on a planet with no food or water but also find some way to make it home.

I will note that the next thought that comes out of my mouth was not something that I thought of myself but rather it was the random note given to me by the waiter I had serving me before I watched the movie but it is an insanely genius observation. The Martian plays out much like an outer space version of Cast Away and almost depends entirely on the performance of the stranded party, in this case Mark Watney. Watney's journey and struggles to survive were all incredible to watch as he tackles each endeavor with remarkable resourcefulness, and a large amount of sarcasm. The audience learns about everything he is doing thanks to the video blogs he begins to keep recounting his efforts to try and somehow make food to live off of, regain contact with NASA and highlight the absolute crap storm of a situation he finds himself in.

Thanks to this The Martian gains quite a level of believablity as we get an in-depth look into all the ins and outs of his situation. Just like an episode of Bill Nye the Science Guy, you are given a remarkable amount of information about what Watney is going through but not to a degree that it feels like you're stuck inside of a classroom. Matt Damon adds his swarthy charm to the astronauts as well, he approaches each situation with a degree of how could this possibly go wrong and often you find out the answer, some being worse than others. And while there will obviously be the neigh sayers in the whole situation, the degree and manner to which everything in the story is presented was done quite well and in a way I wouldn't have expected.

That being said, getting Mark Watney back to Earth did require a large amount of moving pieces when the story shifts it's focus away from our lonely little Martian. The movie features a richly star studded cast of characters such as Sean Bean, Jeff Daniels, Donald Glover and Kristen Wiig to name a few and while their introductions are handled quite smoothly it was a bit jarring at times to have so many different characters all trying to have their moment. I understand that there are a lot of moving parts at NASA and when you're trying to save a man trapped in space you need some help but the time spent away from Watney proved to move much slower than I would have liked and undid plenty of the tension to be had.

This isn't to say that these scenes are all bad, far from it actually, considering that their is a crew somewhere in space thinking they lost a member of their team but now he is actually alive. The crew members of Watney's team were all exceptionally cast and they all pulled off the same level of emotion that Matt Damon brought to his role. They all want to see that he gets home safe but they're also giving up a lot in order to save him since they all have lives and family of their own at home but they move forward regardless and it's very heartwarming. You then have people like Mitch Henderson (Bean) who spend the movie stuck in a moral battle with the big wigs at NASA, mainly Teddy Sanders (Daniels), over letting Watney's crew know what's happened to him. Sanders isn't necessarily a bad guy in the whole thing but he knows that you have to play the political game in order to keep funding for NASA's future missions, he sees the bigger picture and that's good but there's the issue of doing what's right too. 

Things don't move completely smoothly throughout The Martian, but it still one of the best science fiction space tale that I have seen in awhile. The whole world is remarkable to look at, from the NASA gadgets and equipment to the simply staggering Martian landscape, everything shines. And as I said in the beginning of my review, I think this is exactly what we can expect from our future as we move out among the stars and conquer new frontiers. We keep pushing forward and that's what this movie does too.

As a final note, my personal score for the movie is a whole point higher do to the Sean Bean and Donald Glover scene involving a supposed "secret meeting" which had me busting a gut in the theaters.

Good:

- Matt Damon as Mark Watney

- The level of care that went into making the science believable

- Impressive visuals on all fronts

Bad:

- Tension slows as the story shifts back to Earth

Scully Rating: 8.8 out of 10

The Monuments Men

By: Robert Murphy

How to best describe The Monuments Men if I had to put it into a few words? I would have to describe it as a puzzle with all the right pieces but it somehow came out as the opposite of the picture on the box. The story takes places during World War II shortly after the storming of the beaches at Normandy and puts the question in your head of “who will save the culture and art work of man kind in this bloody and terrifying war.” Perhaps my favorite line in the film has to be from George Clooney as he states “You can wipe out an entire generation of people but if you take away the art work and burn away its culture, it can’t be replaced, it’ll just be ash.” And so at the request of George Clooney’s character and with permission from the President of the United States a team is put together with the task of protecting the remaining pieces of art from being destroyed by the Germans as the war comes to a close.

The Monuments Men is a film that sends George Clooney and his merry men into war stricken Europe and the cast list reads Matt Damon, Bob Balaban, John Goodman, Bill Murray, Hugh Bonneville and Jean Dujardin who all play various expert in a field of art in the era. When you hear these names though they are the last people you would imagine in a war film due to age and generally being well pudgy men but that’s okay because they fit the gambit for cultural aristocrats quite well. And perhaps one of the movies best qualities is too point this fact out, that aside from Matt Damon and Jean Dujardin, these are out of shape men going into a war zone and they themselves can’t help but marvel at the situation. While these men do find themselves in a dangerous situation once or twice throughout the film, there is quite a bit of chuckling and amusement as these men are from art circles and know one another in some shape or form and poke fun at their discernable characteristics. What touched me most about the film had to be the art work itself, I am in no way an art scholar and if someone said lets spend the day at the art museum I’d most likely get smashed before hand. But all the pieces that appear on screen from sculptures to portraits and more were all very beautiful and an incredible sight, it really makes you enjoy the premise of the film even more as these men set out to preserve these masterpieces.

Now unfortunately things don’t continue to hit me at a high note as the story proceeds to go on a serious of miss adventures with its cast. Through a sizeable portion of the movie Matt Damon’s character is sent to Paris where he must convince a friend of the resistance there, Cate Blanchette, to reveal where stolen pieces of art were sent when the Germans pulled out. This was a forced romantic entanglement that went on for the longest time and when it reached its climax it soured me even more and not even Matt Damon’s charm could save it. The film also adds other non important scenes as well with the land mine moment where Matt is stuck standing on a mine while the other Monument Men try and devise a way to get him off it without losing his legs. This took fifteen unnecessary minutes away from the screen and was suppose to be a touching moment I realize but it just wasn’t.

All in all, The Monuments Men amounts to a film that had the right players but it never was given shape, it amounted to an assortment of misadventures with some chuckles thrown in. The films quality cast is really one of the things that holds it up especially John Goodman who in the first scene of the Monument Men going through basic training makes you laugh as he chuckles about training with teenage men at his age. In my mind I just wish that the film had chosen one direction and stuck with it but you had the moments with Matt Damon in Paris and then George Clooney who starts strong but ends up obsessing over a piece of art for the better portion of the film. Still there are those good witted and heart warming moments you will love along the way and of course the incredible pieces of art you see as well, so you’re left in a middle area with The Monuments Men.

Good:

- A great premise for the film and an even better setting

- The incredible master pieces that the movie shows off make even a non art goer like me think they’re amazing

- A truly stellar cast but not all of them will hit their high points such as Matt Damon

Bad:

- The film lumbers about on many misadventures and lacked a shape and direction

- Matt Damon’s ill gotten adventures in Paris felt too long and forced 

- Many unnecessary scenes were put in the film and make you question why they are there

Scully Rating: 5.5 out of 10