Genre Grandeur January Finale – The Martian (2015) – Life of This City Girl

For this month’s final review for Genre Grandeur – Sci-Fi, here’s a review of The Martian (2015) by Natasha of Life of This City Girl

Thanks again to Natasha of Life of This City Girl for choosing this month’s genre.

If you missed any of them, here’s a recap:

This month we had 17 reviews for GG:

Turbo Kid (2015) – Darren
Cowboy Bebop: The Movie (2001) – SG
Blade Runner (1982) – Niall
Predator (1987) – Drew
Automata (2014) – Niall
World of Tomorrow (2015) – Tom
Flash Gordon (1980) – SG
Sunshine (2007) – Anna
The Thing (1982) – John
The Terminator (1984) – Rob
Inception (2010) – Reut
The Martian (2015) – Rob
The Machine (2013) – Cindy
Guardians of The Galaxy (2014) – Rob
The Fifth Element (1997) – Vicki
Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015) – Rob
The Martian (2015) – Natasha

Thanks to everyone who participated this month!

In addition, I watched and reviewed 4 additional movies from this genre for my Genre Guesstimation series. Unfortunately, none of them will be now included in my own favorites of the genre.

Mission to Mars (2000)
Sphere (1998)
Red Planet (2000)
Virtuosity (1995)

Next month’s Genre has been chosen by Dan of Slipthrough Movies We will be reviewing our favorite Crime Movies.

Please get me your submissions by the 25th of February by sending them to criminaldan@movierob.net Try to think out of the box! Great choice Dan!

Let’s see what Natasha thought of this movie:

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Genre Grandeur: The Martian (2015) – Life of this City Girl

Plot: During a manned mission to Mars, Astronaut Mark Watney is presumed dead after a fierce storm and left behind by his crew. But Watney has survived and finds himself stranded and alone on the hostile planet. With only meager supplies, he must draw upon his ingenuity, wit and spirit to subsist and find a way to signal to Earth that he is alive (IMDb)

First of all, thanks for letting me choose the topic this month, Rob. I chose the genre Sci-Fi not because I am a die-hard fan (sorry guys) but because it is such a broad topic that most people probably have films in here that they can pick from easily. I pulled the definition for Science fiction films from our eternally trustworthy soure Wikipedia to show that my choice IS Sci-Fi (and Google throws it up when you search for Sci-Fi Films). Anyway, so here is the definition:

Science fiction film is a film genre that uses science fiction: speculative, fictional science-based depictions of phenomena that are not fully accepted by mainstream science, such as extraterrestrial life forms, alien worlds, extrasensory perception and time travel, along with futuristic elements such as spacecraft, … (via Wikipedia)

Let’s get on to things then, now that I’ve established that I’m allowed to talk again about the Martian. It is listed as my favourite film of 2015 here, and my complete review is available here, because I really loved the film quite a lot when it was released. I rated it a full ten out of ten, something I’ve never done before. I still think that it is the best film of 2015, but it is more like a 9.5 now for me J

Why did it work so well? It is firstly a completely feel-good film. Mark Whatney is so brave and determined and his human spirit won’t be downed even when he is stuck on Mars. Then there is the incredible performance by Matt Damon, who is always awesome but even this time around. I can also list the supporting cast as another contributing factor to the film’s success – Sean Bean with his LOTR references (and he stays alive, which is another miracle), and Sebastian Stan and Jessica Chastain being great in their respective casting roles. Although the film is very long, it is such a great watch that I didn’t want to walk out of the cinema at any given time. The Martian also showed me the importance of Botany, and I studied really hard for my exam paper in Botany because I mean what if I am stuck on Mars one day? Girl’s got to be prepared!

So, there you have it in a nutshell why I really enjoyed the film. If you haven’t seen it yet I recommend you give it a watch. Even if you don’t end up a super fan, it is definitely a strong contender in the Space Film category.