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Yes. The visuals and acting make it worth it. I’m a big fan of the book and the movie adapts it brilliantly. They blaze through the crunchier problem-solving parts so you don’t really get a sense of exactly how long everything is taking, but I think that’s a minor issue at worst.
IMO that depends fat more on you than on the movie. They had to change some things to keep it from ballooning to a far longer film than it ended up, so if you don’t like the choices they made them no. But if you are open to the fact that there are details that are just different and deductive chains of thought that are shortened drastically so they can emphasize other things, then yes it was worth it.
So he doesn’t end up eating himself in the movie? Fuck it, not going.
No hamburger
*meburger
If that bothers you, you’ll really hate that they even put plants in the Hail Mary, implying that there’s some expectation that they’d be needed at some point. But it’s still supposed to be a suicide mission.
Exactly what I feared. 2 hours is just not enough to get into the details books get into. Ryan Gosling seems to be a really Great choice for the actor, I guess I’ll wait for ott release then.
Also what about stratt? Her personality seems much softer in the movie than in the books, is it actually that way?
Yes, it definitely was, it sort of confused me at first but I think it sort of makes sense, the book is kinda from his perspective, but the movie is from a separate one, so the decision she makes is less unreasonable seeming/cold in the movie
Yep. Of course they cut a few things out and yadda yadda’d/exposition-ified some elements making it somewhat less science heavy in order to be approachable to a general audience and more manageable on time (it’s still 2.5 hours). The book is still superior, especially if you like that incremental problem solving with real(istic) science style that Anthony Weir is known for, and as always with dense novel stories, I think a miniseries would have let them make a better adaptation.
But I think they did a great job with the edits to still have the story flow and make sense without as much dense science work, and still focus on the main plot points and themes of the story, the heart and humor of it, and make the main characters endearing and fun to watch. I had a lot of fun and teared up a couple times too, even having read the book (2-3 years ago). It’s worth a movie ticket just to see the book come to life, I promise.
I loved the book and found the film worth it, but it’s clearly streamlined from the book.
For example, mild spoiler for the very start of the film:
When Grace wakes up in space, the computer tries to establish his cognition by asking him 2+2.
In the book, this period of testing isn’t limited to 2+2 and goes on A LOT longer than what the film does.
The computer wants it to go on longer, right? He just left.
If the changes are like that, that’s fine. Movies are significantly shorter than books.
It’s been two years since I read the book, but everything lined up with my memory. For two days after seeing it, my wife was unpacking stuff and asking me to explain things, which I was able to do.
She loved the movie without the context and I loved it with it. It was fun seeing her think I’d drug her to see a horror movie for about a minute at the end of the first act.
I’ve read the book 2-3 years ago, and I liked the movie plenty. Yes it’s different (and condensed) on a lot of points, but a) it’s a different medium and b) if I wanted it to be identical I’d re-read the book.
I agree. But if that’s the case I guess I’ll wait for ott release.
Fair enough, but to be honest, I’ve got my money’s worth from my ticket, and I haven’t seen a trailer while in there where I tought that would also be the case.
Yeah it looks like a visual spectacle, But I have to choose between two movies. Hence I’ll skip for now
Yeah it looks like a visual spectacle
It’s not. Like it’s okay but it’s definitely not a film I would be going to see only for the visuals. Most of it takes place on Earth or the spaceship, and the space stuff looks pretty cheap in some scenes.
Yes, but only if you can accept that a movie and a book are very different mediums. I’ll explain.
The movie and the book tell the same story, but they use different methods to approach that story.
The book is largely focused on man vs problem. This is made possible by being inside Grace’s head.
The movie is more man vs self. The problem is sort of secondary. You could remake the whole film where he’s a wizard trapped in another dimension and it would still work.
I adore the book (I think I’ve read 4-5 times now)! I loved the movie (saw it twice lol)! They both do a good job of storytelling, they’re just different, because books and movies are inherently different mediums. There are things I like more in the book version, and things where I liked the movie’s take better.
Stratt is much more human in the movie, which makes for an interesting take on her choice to send Grace on the mission. The actress is great, and a more human Stratt becomes some of the backbone for Grace’s journey. Grace is not as clever in the movie, which some people didn’t like but again, changes some of the motivations and I think it works since the focus is on Grace’s struggle with himself (more so than in the book, anyway). I love love love the deep science stuff from the book. It’s basically not in the movie. They skip a TON of the science. They also drop some of the fake science stuff from the book though. I don’t like the change to Rocky’s attitude about eating in front of Grace. I loved that they removed the coma resistance subplot (felt very contrived in the book anyway). Overall, they are both great, just understand that they aren’t trying to do exactly the same thing.
The film is visually stunning and despite being quite long it doesn’t ever feel too slow, even in those moments where it’s meant to give you a chance to breathe.
I have exactly one complaint with the film that I stand behind. We already know what’s on the other side of the wall when we first see Rocky’s claw. There is one (1) totally unnecessary, overly loud jump scare noise. Bad bad bad.
Having read the books a couple of times, I walked out of the movie. They turned the main protagonist (Grace) into Homer Simpsons. He can’t walk without falling over and is brain dead stupid. They also skipped most of the science (this was to be expected, it’s a movie) but waste so much time with setups for stupid visual gags.
But I’m clearly in the minority so feel free to completely ignore this comment :)
This was my issue. Compared to The Martian there’s little science in the film. More following basic chains of logic.
The main character is deliberately led to point A only to observe object B and has no choice but to then decide to take it home for goal C.
It was entertaining but not really fulfilling.
Someone freshly in zero g is going to be bumbling and incoherent and clumsy. Lol.
Just watched it the other day. Stayed true to the book in the very broad strokes, but lots of differences when you look closely. Didn’t like the choice of making him a goofy, clumsy, socially awkward idiot; I feel like they went way too far with that.
I would have loved to see more of a progression with Ryland’s interactions with Rocky. He meets him, then like 2 scenes later, he’s got a voice synthesizer hooked up with an essentially complete Human - Eridian dictionary. Would have been nice to include a montage, at least. It just all felt so rushed.
Anyway - I give it like a 6.5 - 7 out of 10. It’s ok, but probably not one I’m going to want to watch again. It’s no “The Martian”.
What about stratt? Her personality seems much mellower in the trailer than from the book
Yeah - she was definitely way more chill in the movie than in the book. The two characters were similar, in the way that a dragonfly is similar to a dragon.
That sucks. I liked her borderline kim Jong un personality.
She has much less screen time in the movie than in the book. They don’t dedicate any time to her being given carte blanche from every government in the world to do whatever she thinks she needs to do to get the job done, laws, resources, and money be damned. So it does make less sense in that context to make her such a hard-core “fuck you, do what I say” type. Her movie incarnation still has an edge, and is still stand-offish, but she clearly has a soft spot for her team, including Grace. I honestly think that it leads to a more satisfying moment when she finally betrays his wishes and forces him into the mission. If you weren’t already in the know, it comes as a total shock that she would go to those lengths, where I don’t think it was really surprising in the book, given what you have already seen from her.
It was a directive choice, and I think it was the right one given the time constraints and narrative structure of the movie. But I agree it would have been fun to see her telling the worlds’ authorities to get in line or get the fuck out of her way. As someone said though, that still exists in the book. It just didn’t fit into the movie that way.
I think the shocker in the book was her actually her making herself emotionally vulnerable during her betrayal. It’s okay, it’s their choice, but I would have loved seeing an HR manager type lady peacefully asking for help, and going full stratt mode after rejection.
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I enjoyed PHM the novel maybe 10-20% more than the Martian, but I enjoyed the film version of PHM maybe 50% more than the Martian film.
The main character in both novels is pretty goofy. Hell one of my favorite parts in both books is when the guys at NASA have figured out Mark is still alive and stranded on Mars. They are all freaking the hell out (onviously) and one of the directors tells everyone to stop and think about what Mark must be thinking right now while all alone on a inhospitable planet. Cut to his inner monologue criticizing Aquaman comics because “whales aren’t fish. How does he talk to them? It makes no sense.”
I thought one of the weaker points in the Martian was that they lost some of that goofiness. In the novel he uses his humor to cope with the situation. It helps him persevere. It gives him heart to keep going. And it gets harder for him to keep his good humor towards the end as his situation gets bleaker and harder, which makes it feel all the more dramatic to the reader. They kept a bit of humor at the beginning (a few dad jokes like being the best botanist on the planet hyuk hyuk) and that humor does decline in the movie as his situation worsens. But it was not goofy enough at the start to make the absence of it as stark and apparent later.
I love that they keep the humor in PHM. Not only do I not think it’s detractive at all, I think it adds a ton to the heart and endearment of the film, particularly for the Grace-Rocky bromance. And it fits very well with Grace’s character, someone who no one has taken seriously, who is full of doubt about his own abilities, etc. Also he’s not clumsy and awkward when he’s with his class, when he’s teaching, and when he’s doing real science. It makes him seem way more competent at those things, because he is. That’s his element. He’s only awkward outside of that element.
They also did a good job with Grace coming off as awkward in a quirky but believable way. Often a similar character is either full robot or like changed into the Fonz. Here he seems fairly sociable, but can’t really perform in front of the room, and doesn’t know what to do at the party. But one-on-one he’s at ease and has no trouble bonding.
It’s not book-accurate, but it seems like a more nuanced way to depict an awkward nerd than we usually get and I appreciated that.
In my opinion yes. I enjoyed both, and thought the movie a good adaptation.
However I did read the book years ago so might not remember any inconsistencies
Yes. Good movie (visually pretty, well made/written similar too the book) but its half an hour too short IMO
Agreed with others… bit of a cliff notes version. I also thought Ryan Gossling played the role a bit more humourous than it should. Preferred Matt Damon in the Martian as the hapless hero. Rocky was good.appreciated the visuals of his ship. I enjoyed the movie, good pacing, but did feel sort of squished
It’s a movie. It’s fun. Just watch it. You can’t judge if you’ll enjoy it until you see & hear how it’s all put into context of a movie.
That’s an impossible question to answer for you because it will up to you, and we don’t know you.
I read the book a few months ago and enjoyed the movie.
Haven’t seen it or read it, but a friend read the book first and they said they kind of wish they hadn’t. It seems the movie is great but frustrating if you’ve read the much more in-depth book. So maybe do it the other way around.
I have found this is how I prefer it if the movie or show being made is how I discovered the book exists. Cuts are always made and its more satisfying to get more content reading the book after having watched the movie/show rather than the other way around.
Yeah, it’s hard to imagine all that depth being translated to a movie. Half of the people would just snore through it if movie were as deep as the books. It’s just it’s much harder to be engaging in movie vs the book
