Damon colonizes Mars in ‘Martian’

4.5/5 on the Martian scale.

4.5/5 on the Martian scale
Matt Damon, Mmmmm Mmmmm. The man isn’t too shabby of an actor. Personally I don’t think of him for his acting, though. My thoughts of Matt Damon go to him without a shirt on, which you do see in “The Martian.” A couple times, you even see his fully naked butt.

“The Martian” started off pretty well. Damon plays the character of Mark Watney, an astronaut on Mars conducting soil experiments. Watney and his fellow five crew members get stuck in a storm and are forced to evacuate the mission. Watney is struck by scrap metal and thrown into the storm, while his crew is forced to leave and presume he has died.

The interesting part comes when Watney wakes up, half-buried under sand, with a piece of metal stabbed into him. He ends up getting to the base and being able to doctor himself up. Though this scene is a bit nauseating, Damon does has his shirt off.

Damon as Mark Watney showing how well his potato garden is doing. A garden he engineered using his own feces, Mars soil, a contraption he created to make H2O, and the center of his bunker.

Watney realizes he’s been left on the planet alone, has meager supplies, and no way to contact anyone. The astronaut uses his skills as a botanist to expand his food supply. He also figures out different ways to help his situation in order to get him off the planet.
After about a month, NASA has realized they wrongly pronounced Watney dead. The NASA team has to work hard in order to figure out how to contact him and get him home.

The best part of the movie is the fact the Watney is able to keep his humor throughout his struggles. For a man stranded alone on a planet 34 million miles from Earth, he is very resourceful and funny. I found myself laughing a lot. Some of his best lines include when he talks about how he colonized Mars, and is technically a space pirate and asks to be called “Captain Blond Beard.”

It’s important to know that the movie takes places in “Sols,” or Martian days. One year on Mars is 687 Earth days, or 669 Sols.

This is a huge drama film, but thankfully the writers knew how to add some comic relief. I give this movie 4.5 out of 5 stars. There is also a novel, written before the movie, which I’m sure is better (all books are.) I definitely recommend this one!

Advocate Staff