The Martian

It's been a while since Ridley Scott has made a truly great film, but has his recent direction on The Martian changed all that? Read my full review below to find out!

The Martian follows Mark Watney, an astronaut who has to survive on Mars after being accidentally stranded there by his crew, who believed him to be dead. Let me start by saying, this film has an amazing cast! Ridley Scott has managed to bring some of the best talent around to take part in this film and it really pays off, I mean just read this, the film stars Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Kristen Wiig, Jeff Daniels, Michael Pena, Sean Bean, Kate Mara, Sebastian Stan, Aksel Hennie, Chiwitel Ejiofor, Mackenzie Davis and Donald Glover! The cast is incredible and they all do incredibly in their roles, some of which are relatively small, but they all get their chance to shine. There's a scene which features Jeff Daniels, Sean Bean and Mackenzie Davis together which had me thinking this is the best crossover of The Newsroom/ Game of Thrones/ Halt and Catch Fire that I never knew I wanted. A film is not its cast though, they have to do well and like I said before they all do however, this film mainly falls on one guys shoulders and that's Matt Damon, who has to convince us that he is a scientist/astronaut that is stuck on a different planet. Considering he mainly talks to himself through various video logs, he does this very, very well.

The plot itself is great, yes its a long film, but it's part survival film and part film about the philosophy of the human race coming together to save one man, you can't usually do that in 90 minutes. It's truly emotional at times considering the events themselves aren't based on any truth, I mean the accuracy of the science seems believable, but we have never left someone stranded on Mars. In fact the film is based of the self published novel of the same name by author Andy Weir, now I haven't read the book but from what I have heard, the film is extremely faithful to the source material. The film itself doesn't have one dull moment, you are constantly on the edge of your seat wanting to know what happens next and particularly in the final act of the film, things get very tense, it's brilliant and like with most space films it's exhilarating.

One of the reasons it's so exhilarating is the fact that it all looks so real. We saw a couple years ago with Gravity that effects these days can make outer space look very realistic. Now The Martian is not a special effects orientated film, the effects are there to enhance our experience, but hell, they might as well have filmed in space or on Mars for all I cared because the film looked stunning. Add a great soundtrack to the mix and The Martian has got it all.

This film is set slightly in the future, everything you see isn't out of the realms of possibility, unlike last years Interstellar (which yes I still love), this film presents itself as being very believable. The science, to my ears, sounded plausible enough and even though very geeky at times it was also accessible to a wide audience without ever needing to 'dumb' itself down.

I didn't really have any problems with the film, there was one moment that I felt could have been trimmed or left out but it didn't effect my enjoyment or love for this film. So yes this is a return to form for Ridley Scott, a form I hope continues when he comes around to making the next Prometheus or Alien: Paradise Lost as its being called now...

At the end of the day I am a sucker for these kinds of films, I love a good sci-fi, so much so that the first feature script I wrote was one. Space is something that has always been able to capture my imagination, I love stories that revolve around it and this one is definitely one of the better ones out there! As you can probably tell, I absolutely loved The Martian and therefore am giving it a rating of 5/5.

Have you seen The Martian yet? If so what did you think? If not then stop being a fool and go watch it on the big screen and then after let me know what you thought in the comments below!

Thanks for reading! 

Looper

It's great to see an original sci-fi film come out, that isn't a part of a franchise or a comic book adaption. Looper must have been a difficult film to get made because studios don't take risks on films like this anymore. Which is probably why this film has a small budget compared to other films of this scale. Not that the lack of money shows in this film, apart from a couple of slightly dodgy CGI shots, not that you could notice whilst watching this incredible story be brought to the big screen.

'In 2072, when the mob wants to get rid of someone, the target is sent 30 years into the past, where a hired gun awaits. Someone like Joe, who one day learns the mob wants to 'close the loop' by transporting back Joe's future self.' Joe hesitates when seeing his future self which leads to his older self running away, making whole load of trouble and a brilliant sci-fi film.

The two Joe's are played by Joeseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis, and through the miracle of make up and prosthetics are made to look like each other... kind of. This does work in most of the film but sometimes isn't completely believable. Though both actors give off terrific performances which confuse you on which Joe you should be routing for, that's if you should be routing for them anyway! I believe this is Bruce Willis's best role in a very long time and for JGL it's just another film to add to his list of awesome films.

The whole film has a pretty impressive cast including, Emily Blunt, Jeff Daniels and Paul Dano. But the star actor of the film was the young child Cid, played by Pierce Gagnon, who held his own against all the top notch actors and proved himself as one to watch!

The time travel element was interesting and the director Rian Johnson added some genius new ideas to sci-fi element that haven't really been done before. These great scenes are the standout moments of the film and live up to the hype that a lot of critics and cinema goers have been giving the film.

The film was not perfect though, the near future was great but not very well set up in terms of conflict between the general public. In many a scene we see a vast amount of people living on the street, for what reason we do not know. A romance was also set up that didn't really contribute that much to the films finale. There was also a mute who disappeared somewhere in the second act but that's just me being picky now.

The world did look great though, the cinematography also. Although a few dodgy CGI moments, most of the film was believable and really added to the plot.

Looper is the best sci-fi film to be released this year, it is also one of the best films of the year too! It's not perfect but extremely enjoyable, with a very good plot, great acting and some very interesting ideas. I'm giving Looper a rating of 4/5.

What did you think of Looper? Does it live up to the hype? Comment below and thanks for reading!