The beginning. This movie jumps right into the thick of things. No sappy sob story with Watney’s family wanting him home, no overlong trip to mars to connect to the crew, just some astronauts doing space stuff and things go wrong. I appreciate not trying to force emotional connections and allowing the characters to show what and who they care about.

Pacing. I tend to harp on this a lot, but the way a film moves is important. The Martian moves smoothly, we get a decent balance of Watney’s survival and NASA’s plans to get him home. Both are interesting and unique and cleverly mirror each other as the film moves on. We slowly learn about these people through how they handle the problems put in front of them, from NASA trying to deal with the press and when to release info, to Watney rationing food. It all compliments each other fantastically. Watney is usually talking to the camera and the audience while he takes records of the events and it makes for some good scenes without going to easy exposition.

Matt Watney. It’s rare you get a character as likable as this. As punchable as Matt Damons face can be (MATT DAMON) he pulls off an excellent and likable Watney. Funny, charming, brilliant, seeing him figure out his survival and even marvel at his situation was fun to see. We watch him figure out his problems and rarely fall into the depression and self-doubt that comes with these survival movies. He has a foul mouth but explains much of his science in a way that made sense…even though I know nothing about science. The audience spends the most time with Watney and we care for his survival and not through superficial means either. We feel for his plight because we see the work and frustration he is putting into survival. He’s a problem solver and when he is hit by factors out of his control, it hurts because we have all been there before. It makes his triumphs mean so much.

Supporting Cast. Wow, what a stacked supporting cast. From Chiwetel Ejiofor as the smart and hands on Vincent Kapoor to Jessica Chastain as the tough but sympathetic captain everyone NAILS their roles. Every character has a role and plays some immediate importance to the story, there were no wasted characters on screen. Some of my favorite scenes came from some of the minor players and they created some dynamic moments.

No real Villains. Usually in “race against time” movies you have some big stuffy white guy in a suit making bonehead decisions because of “numbers” and “cost”. Going into this one would think that its the obvious Jeff Daniels as the head of NASA. As stuffy and suited he may be, he wanted the same thing everyone else wanted to do, bring Watney home. Its refreshing seeing a movie where everyone is united to accomplish a real goal and the only obstacles are circumstance, not a convenient villain just because we need one.

It’s beautiful. The isolation and loneliness comes through with the many gorgeous Mars landscape shot. Ridley Scott has always been one to capture the feel of his films in the framing and we get a lot of wide open shots on mars that show how alone Watney is. Even inside of the mobile base he is in, its shot wide and we see how empty it is, how devoid of outside life besides Watney. Yet we get closer when Watney gets in communication with the outside world, it’s clever and well done.

The Writing. I never expected to laugh this much. I don’t know if its more a credit to the book, but man was this movie hilarious. Almost every time Watney was on screen i was smiling, or chuckling.  “I need to science the sh-t out of this” is a line I’m not going to forget.  The dialogue was fast-paced and snappy and the conversations moved at a fresh pace. Nobody over explained, and told their audience their arc. Oh a character has a family back home? Yea he asks someone from tech to help him open pics of his wife and kids on his computer. The science speak was grounded and was usually showed some kinda visual immediately after, so as soon as you say “wait what kinda rocket” boom, you see them building said rocket.