Author Topic: eevBLAB#15 - The Martian Movie Review  (Read 79169 times)

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Offline HP-ILnerd

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Re: eevBLAB#15 - The Martian Movie Review
« Reply #25 on: October 02, 2015, 05:41:36 pm »
Just saw it.  Loved it!  Will probably see that a few more times.   :)

Sorry for the following vagueness, but I'm trying to keep this spoiler-free.

Re: the "Iron Man" bit.  I agree it was probably a mistake.  I can also see exactly why the screenwriter (Drew Goddard) put it in, because in the book, the protagonist is completely passive in a critical moment, and that would have grated hard against his writing instincts.  (writer hat on) I'd suggest keeping the joke about him doing it, but having Lewis do what she suggested.  You could frame the subtext right there as "there's a point when you've done all you can and you need help." This idea was threaded through the film already, so it wouldn't be wandering off the reservation to add one more instance for punctuation.  Plus teamwork!

On the other hand, I loved the actual ending, which also wasn't in the book.  Weir's ending was uber-disciplined, but lacked the closure the audience would want.  Goddard, I believe to his credit, gave it to them.
 

Offline TiN

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Re: eevBLAB#15 - The Martian Movie Review
« Reply #26 on: October 02, 2015, 06:10:26 pm »
Watched just now, great movie. Only thing made me "meh" is a part about bomb, closing can of Liquid oxygen with tight cap. That bottle would have explode in few minutes just from pressure buildup and gas expansion. I know as working with liquid nitrogen commonly, and was making "bombs" with cocacola bottles filled with LN2 and cap on :)
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Online Psi

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Re: eevBLAB#15 - The Martian Movie Review
« Reply #27 on: October 03, 2015, 05:03:30 am »
The only line in the movie i felt shouldn't have been there was that scene in Chinese mission control when Mitch Henderson insults the big China boss guy.

He says something like "no disrespect, but we haven't done it that way since Apollo era" in the middle of them trying to help.
It was pointless, why insult them at all.
« Last Edit: October 03, 2015, 05:09:05 am by Psi »
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Offline EEVblogTopic starter

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Re: eevBLAB#15 - The Martian Movie Review
« Reply #28 on: October 03, 2015, 05:21:01 am »
I liked how they shot one particular outburst from the outside of the rover so you couldn't hear what he was saying, but still clearly see it.   ;D

Yes, clever!
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Offline EEVblogTopic starter

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Re: eevBLAB#15 - The Martian Movie Review
« Reply #29 on: October 03, 2015, 05:23:54 am »
On the other hand, I loved the actual ending, which also wasn't in the book.  Weir's ending was uber-disciplined, but lacked the closure the audience would want.  Goddard, I believe to his credit, gave it to them.

Yes, I would have felt cheated if they ended it like the book.
 

Offline TSL

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Re: eevBLAB#15 - The Martian Movie Review
« Reply #30 on: October 04, 2015, 04:39:04 am »
I've just come back from seeing it and its and excellence movie :-+

If they're trying to raise science awareness in the general public, this is a good way to go about it :)

Yes, there is some "Hollywood physics" but not so much that it ruins the film.

I'm hoping a directors cut comes out on BlueRay with more in it  :popcorn:
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Online Psi

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Re: eevBLAB#15 - The Martian Movie Review
« Reply #31 on: October 04, 2015, 04:59:39 am »
I'm hoping a directors cut comes out on BlueRay with more in it  :popcorn:

+1 for ~4hour long LOTR style directors cut :)
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Offline EEVblogTopic starter

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Re: eevBLAB#15 - The Martian Movie Review
« Reply #32 on: October 04, 2015, 07:47:04 am »
I'm hoping a directors cut comes out on BlueRay with more in it  :popcorn:
+1 for ~4hour long LOTR style directors cut :)

Yup, give the nerds what they want!
 

Offline warp_foo

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Re: eevBLAB#15 - The Martian Movie Review
« Reply #33 on: October 04, 2015, 12:28:11 pm »
As the story unfolds we find that although the crew were only to be on Mars for 30 Mars days, the ascent rocket had been there several years waiting for them.

Yes, that's actually part of the plan for several real viable Mars missions, like Mars Direct for example.
But yes, it's a plot hole with the whole wind thing. Weir knew that but couldn't figure out a better way to do it.

J. Michael Straczynski puts it best: The plot needed it. I'm OK with it, as long as the story is good.

And let's be honest here, Hollywood making good movies on new stories is a rare beast these days.
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Offline adamf

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Re: eevBLAB#15 - The Martian Movie Review
« Reply #34 on: October 06, 2015, 10:07:21 pm »
Yes, there is some "Hollywood physics" but not so much that it ruins the film.

Noticed that too, but in any case, nowhere near as much as other recent good movies like Interstellar.

Anyway, loved the movie, and it was really cool to see Murph rescue Dr. Mann.  ;D
« Last Edit: October 09, 2015, 01:32:37 am by adamf »
 

Offline drws

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Re: eevBLAB#15 - The Martian Movie Review
« Reply #35 on: October 07, 2015, 04:43:17 pm »
Finally saw it today. Very good movie in all I thought.
Shame a few bits were left out, but understandable for time.
It felt like the last third of the book happened in the last fifth of the movie.
There's more I could say but not without a spoiler warning...

Will need to watch it again when it's out on bluray.
 

Offline coppice

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Re: eevBLAB#15 - The Martian Movie Review
« Reply #36 on: October 08, 2015, 04:43:16 am »
I just saw the movie. It definitely should be seen on the big screen. I was a bit hesitant about Matt Damon (whom I liked in other movies) but he does the role very well.
Why were you hesitant? He was nominated for an Oscar for playing a fairly similar character.
 

Offline drws

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Re: eevBLAB#15 - The Martian Movie Review
« Reply #37 on: October 08, 2015, 05:06:49 pm »
Anyone seen the Internet chatter showing people who think the movie is based on a true story?
Ok, the sampled people are probably a little simple but I think it says a lot about the production of the movie (and narrative of the book) that it seems believable enough to some to be seen as a true event. (Or is a damning insight into the stupidity of humanity)

I was also hesitant about Damon in the starring role, nothing against him but he wasn't the Watney I'd pictured when reading the book either. Maybe too sticky or not nerdy enough, not sure. However I think it worked.
I liked Pena as Martinez, that's who I thought of when I read the book. Mainly because of his role on The Shield. (Ex-military, cheeky chap etc.)

 

Offline phamuc

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Re: eevBLAB#15 - The Martian Movie Review
« Reply #38 on: October 08, 2015, 07:41:06 pm »
Here is the real back ground info of the Martian story. Direct from the "horse's mouth". He knew the sand storm was BS. Enjoy!
« Last Edit: October 09, 2015, 05:13:15 pm by phamuc »
 

Offline apis

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Re: eevBLAB#15 - The Martian Movie Review
« Reply #39 on: October 08, 2015, 10:29:42 pm »
I watched it tonight, I think it was good. Now I will have to read the book.  ^-^

As others have said, there were some "hollywood physics" but it was mostly visual things so I assume it wasn't exactly like that in the book (except the storm maybe). (And I can understand the "need" to make things more visually interesting/dramatic.)

Love the way he's just cavalier about handling hydrazine inside the hab without any protective clothing - that stuff will get you seven different kinds of dead well before you've extracted enough hydrogen to start a fire/explosion from the hydrogen.
I winced a bit at the hydrazine setup, isn't that stuff extremely toxic? I think I would have taken more precautions, but I suppose it could be made to work and Watney didn't have much to loose.
 

Offline HP-ILnerd

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Re: eevBLAB#15 - The Martian Movie Review
« Reply #40 on: October 09, 2015, 07:27:21 am »
Here's a deleted scene from the movie!
Now I really hope there's a stretched version for the Blu-ray.

 

Offline TSL

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Re: eevBLAB#15 - The Martian Movie Review
« Reply #41 on: October 09, 2015, 01:07:07 pm »
Here's a deleted scene from the movie!


Wow! - excellent - makes me want more  :-+
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Offline Noise Floor

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Re: eevBLAB#15 - The Martian Movie Review
« Reply #42 on: October 10, 2015, 10:05:36 pm »
I liked the book and movie.  Refreshing to have content not be completely dumbed down for theatrical release.  Thought Matt Damon and Ridley Scott (and countless others) did the source material justice, which is about as good of compliment I can give when book is made into a movie.
 

Offline aargee

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Re: eevBLAB#15 - The Martian Movie Review
« Reply #43 on: October 12, 2015, 11:29:33 am »
OK, saw the movie. Impressed.

I was under strict instructions from the better half not to open my mouth until the credits finished.  :popcorn:

As Margaret P would say, "What do you think David?"
David S: "Most movies require you to suspend your disbelief to come along for the ride, I'm glad to say that 'The Martian' did not require a great suspension of disbelief."
(Most Aussies should get this reference).

Go see it.
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Offline kfitch42

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Re: eevBLAB#15 - The Martian Movie Review
« Reply #44 on: October 13, 2015, 02:29:38 pm »
I have to agree with Dave, TWO THUMBS WAY UP!

I am guessing the line that Dave disliked was the one about Gods.

From a technical/science perspective, the move was WAY better than most of what comes out of Hollywood. But, that level of performance makes the few gaffs I noticed stand out more in relief.

NOTE: Spoiler-ish stuff below.

1) The suit heads up display showed pressure in PSI. NASA don't use no stinkin' Imperial units! Although I can kind of understand this was to help the "general" audience grok "pressure" at a glance, (Kilo)Pascals probably aren't as recognizable as PSI,but I could live with atmospheres or Bar, which would probably be recognizable.

2) The hex dump we see when the text file is opened up is definitely not ASCII. I immediately noticed numbers below 0x20 (there was a 1A or 1E or something like that) and above 0x7F (pretty sure that was a bunch of AA or similar). I actually wondered for a second if they were changing this bit from what was in the book.

3) VERY SPOILER: The "Iron Man" scene felt weird. He cuts one glove, and is suddenly out of control. But later seems to be steering himself with both hands... When/how did he cut the other one while steering himself with a cut glove?

EDIT: Almost forgot, the hydrazine. He takes way more precautions with it in the book. I don't think it was really necessary to dumb that one down.
« Last Edit: October 13, 2015, 02:35:19 pm by kfitch42 »
 

Offline T3sl4co1l

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Re: eevBLAB#15 - The Martian Movie Review
« Reply #45 on: October 13, 2015, 02:52:43 pm »
Speaking of pressure, they could reduce pressure considerably to save on vehicle, suit and habitat structure.

Space suits usually use around 0.3 atm.  Although the ISS uses SLP, so they probably want to keep things safer in the larger structures (dilution with N2 or Ar provides some cooling that keeps fire hazard lower than reduced pressure O2 -- let alone full pressure O2).

Speaking of structures, the bag-over-burst-hatch depiction only inflated to about, what, a foot of water column, if that?  (Of course, it would've been easiest on set to just get a big powerful fan and point that at the patch.)  That ~1.5m hatch would've had to actually bear about 5.4 tonnes of force*, minimum, and more likely 10-15.  (Any guesses how much duct tape would be required? :) )

(*That is, tonne-force, i.e. 1000 kgf, as in, the accepted figure on Earth.  Dang, kgf etc. would all be different units, following their colloquial definitions, on Mars, or the Moon.)

Curious how the book handled it; I expect it was simplified for the movie.

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Offline olewales

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Re: eevBLAB#15 - The Martian Movie Review
« Reply #46 on: October 15, 2015, 12:21:48 pm »
I just watched it yesterday and I must say that although I was having very good time for 2+ hours in the cinema I feel that praising this movie for being "scientific" or "plausible" is a bit too much. Maybe Dave's review set my expectations a bit too high but I really couldn't tell which one of the scenes in the ending sequence Dave found most ridiculous (and I would include even more as candidates if I didn't know that I was to expect it at the end). I guess, for me the "density" of "holywood moments" in the movie was a bit too high. I think I would like reading the book more.

Still, I would recommend this movie to almost everyone. But don't despair if you didn't get to watch it on the big screen. Visuals, although great, are not the main reason to see it.
 

Offline EEVblogTopic starter

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Re: eevBLAB#15 - The Martian Movie Review
« Reply #47 on: October 15, 2015, 01:51:30 pm »
I just watched it yesterday and I must say that although I was having very good time for 2+ hours in the cinema I feel that praising this movie for being "scientific" or "plausible" is a bit too much.

Apart from the dust storm, the rest is pretty plausible, and that's why the book has gained the popularity it has. The other major point of the movie is that is showcases science, and that's essentially the main point, most hollywood movies don't attempt that. Still problems of course, but an order of magnitude more plausible than most hollywood space fluff.
 

Offline EEVblogTopic starter

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Re: eevBLAB#15 - The Martian Movie Review
« Reply #48 on: October 15, 2015, 02:04:02 pm »
I am guessing the line that Dave disliked was the one about Gods.

Bingo! First one to guess it.
Yes, I groaned and shook my head at that line. The part with the cross is in the book, but I felt like they changed a line for the movie just to appease the religious. (I have to watch it again to be sure I heard it correctly)
In a movie that showcased science, I found it disappointing and a cop-out.
And from my perspective, a missed opportunity to ram home the point of the silliness of religion and the triumph of science over it, which I think was Weir's subtle intention in the book with that part (he's agnostic/defacto atheist).
 

Offline olewales

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Re: eevBLAB#15 - The Martian Movie Review
« Reply #49 on: October 15, 2015, 02:08:54 pm »
Apart from the dust storm, the rest is pretty plausible, and that's why the book has gained the popularity it has.
Well, maybe I am just a pessimist then. Apart from science related stuff I even doubt NASA (or the US government) would't try hard to cover the whole thing up from general public.
Still problems of course, but an order of magnitude more plausible than most hollywood space fluff.
Yeah, but that's probably why I wasn't impressed as much as many other people. I was already expecting much more from it than from any other hollywood movie. I had somewhat similiar "problem" with Interstellar. Too much hype.
 


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