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The Martian
10-01-2015, 01:18 PM
Just got back. Fantastic movie. Some changes from the book to suit the screen. Some worked better than the book version of the scene, some less so. There's one half-scene in the middle of the movie that was truly horribly done, I think you'll know it when you see it, and there's a few changes to the ending that didn't entirely work... on the other hand, there's a brilliant moment in the ending there that'll get a giggle out of fans of the book. I think this version of Mars was less determined to kill Mark, actually.
Highly recommended.
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Is it worth seeing in 3D? (That's how most of the theaters here are screening the movie.)
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As always, if you can find a 2D version, I'd recommend that instead. (I despise the 3D gimmick). That said, I don't think there's much in this movie that the 3D conversion would hurt, and some of the shots of the Martian landscape would be beautiful. It'd be worth putting up with the glasses.
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There's one place in town showing the movie in 2D, but at awkward times for me to go see it. I'll see what I can do...
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Rob Kelk
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them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
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Quote:Matrix Dragon wrote:
As always, if you can find a 2D version, I'd recommend that instead. (I despise the 3D gimmick). That said, I don't think there's much in this movie that the 3D conversion would hurt, and some of the shots of the Martian landscape would be beautiful. It'd be worth putting up with the glasses.
I prefer watching movies in 2D as well, but sometimes, the movie really suffers. I went to see "Jupiter Rising" in 2D instead of 3D, and it was so dark, you couldn't see anything going on in the action scenes.
Ebony the Black Dragon
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And let's not forget the current bane of movies: Everything is blue and orange. I blame lazy post-production and the ease of digital color adjustment.
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Quote:Foxboy wrote:
And let's not forget the current bane of movies: Everything is blue and orange. I blame lazy post-production and the ease of digital color adjustment.
Which is, I think, why the 3D movies look terrible in 2D sometimes. They do all the digital color adjustment as part of the 3D treatment, so when you look at it in 2D, all the blues and oranges are exacerbated. Everything in "Jupiter Rising" was very dark (blue), except for the explosions (orange and red).
Ebony the Black Dragon
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Well, a lot of this movie is orange and red. Side effect of being set on Mars 
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Saw it, loved it, easily the best movie I've seen all year.
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery
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Quote from Howard Tayler's review:
Quote:“The movie is
never as good as the book.”
Actually... not never.
The Martian just cleared
that bar.
...
I’m now declaring that The Martian
(movie) is the best hard science fiction movie I have ever seen. It is not a
perfect film, but it is an outstanding film that speaks the way only a film
can, and uses the medium in ways that the very best films do.
-----
Big Brother is watching you. And damn, you are so bloody BORING.
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It's his number one movie for the year, and I've come to respect his opinion as an amateur film critic.
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Just got back from seeing it, and thought it was excellent. I do have one question for someone who has already read the book. Was the plotline with the Chinese rocket in the novel, or was it added to the movie to make it more likely the Chinese will allow it to play in their theaters?
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The Chinese rocket subplot was in the novel.
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In fact, the novel had a few lines regarding that subplot that I think would have worked well in the movie (The scene where Teddy and the chinese engineer that designed the probe originally intended for the rocket had a brief conversation). It would have been a good followup to the scene where Teddy and Mitch talked about the Rich Parnell plan.
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Actually, that reminds me. I really liked Teddy in this movie. Yes, some of his actions may have seemed dickish, but his reasons were always there and well-justified, and he knew when to step up and make the call. That, and he had some quality snark. "If we're the council of Elrond, I would like my codename to be Glorfindel." Pencil pusher and bean counter, but still one of us
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I think I spotted only 1 plothole in the entire movie. They never explained how Mat lost communications with NASA, which means that when he explains how there's no way anyone can give him permission to hijack the Ares 4 MAV he's just plain wrong about that.
He could just hook up the Pathfinder (which he's dragging with him across the long trek to the Schiaparelli Crater) and use that to send the message back and forth. And if the Pathfinder had in fact been broken, why is he taking it with him? It's just more dead weight.
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I don't think it's a plothole. He said no one had given him official permission, just said 'you'll need to go to Ares 4'.
And while he's driving there, he did mention the space pirate thing to NASA, which led to Victor having his 'strange minds think alike' moment. And then they tell Mark about the modifications he'll have to make to the MAV before he arrives. I just think no one was willing to take the Space Pirate moment away from him... although Teddy would have to have been tempted to get some revenge for the pair of boobs moment.
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The end credits to this movie had me dancing to Disco. In public. In the theater (to be fair, in order to avoid being prosecuted for making people spork their eyeballs out, I waited until no one was seated behind me).
Although I did kind of miss the "I thought you liked Mexican!" scene. But I imagine that whole subplot was a bit much to put into a Hollwood movie. Not to mention it was already 2:20 long(!).
I agree with Howard Tayler, though: quite possibly the best SF book-to-movie ever. I can't recall a better one in my life, so far. And the best hard-SF film I can recall since 2001. Honestly, for hard-SF, I think The Martian may actually beat 2001, due to the lack of Cosmic Space Babies.
And... I'm not sure, but was there a subtle nod to the hydrazine thermodynamics error in the book? I noticed that his hydrazine decomposer was still running much, much later in the movie than (I recall) in the book.
It's been a good couple weeks for movies. Iron Giant last weekend, The Martian this past weekend. Life is good.
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Quote:Hazard wrote:
I think I spotted only 1 plothole in the entire movie. They never explained how Mat lost communications with NASA, which means that when he explains how there's no way anyone can give him permission to hijack the Ares 4 MAV he's just plain wrong about that.
He could just hook up the Pathfinder (which he's dragging with him across the long trek to the Schiaparelli Crater) and use that to send the message back and forth. And if the Pathfinder had in fact been broken, why is he taking it with him? It's just more dead weight.
I thought that was weird as well. I assume he meant that he requires explicit face to face permission and can't get that permission by text messaging via Pathfinder.
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A friend declared that Mitch Henderson was killed in a terrible golfing accident just after the film ended. Because Sean Bean is not allowed to finish a movie with his character alive.
Ebony the Black Dragon
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Unless he has a blackpowder weapon.
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Quote:Ebony wrote:
A friend declared that Mitch Henderson was killed in a terrible golfing accident just after the film ended. Because Sean Bean is not allowed to finish a movie with his character alive.
It was his career that suffered the horrible death this time.
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Well, that was a lot of fun. It captures that space is tough and NASA is even tougher. I really hope that this increases funding for space exploration in the future.
But did they have to subject us to disco at the end too? I would have appreciated "Sister Disco" by The Who at that point.
I've come to appreciate Howard Tayler as a movie reviewer too -- enough to pick up the times that I'll disagree with him. Particularly, he enjoys action movies a lot ore than I do. However, I agree with him 100% this time. ??????????????
My only real complaint: not enough characters.
-- ∇×V
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Quote:vorticity wrote:My only real complaint: not enough characters.
If Bob was there, I think I would have been kicked out of the cinema for laughing too much.
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Has it really been 7 years since C&A ended? I think it must be time to reread them.
[url=http://www.galactanet.com/comic/real.html Wrote:C&A Real Life page[/url]I also like writing, but unlike me, Jenn is a published author. I guess a few things have changed over the years.
I'm still disappointed that when I heard Andy Weir on NPR, they didn't ask if his book was so successful due to his relationship with Satan.
-- ∇×V
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