The Martian

[harshad]

Hide that he's alive still.

Read and find out or in your case watch and find out.

 

[Tarrou]

Honestly thought the general consenus here would be it's quite a badly written book. A cracking story but with crap dialog and no depth to the characters. I guess it's just me then, fair enough.

 

[Rooney in Paris]

Honestly thought the general consenus here would be it's quite a badly written book. A cracking story but with crap dialog and no depth to the characters. I guess it's just me then, fair enough.

No, I mostly agree that it's not exceptionally well written, and I think I said in another thread it definitely has a very cinematic feel about it, as if the author was planning on it being adapted for the screen. And most of the characters aren't particularly deep, but I think the main one is fine from that point of view, without being an in-depth analysis of his psyche, I felt I knew him by the end of the book. The other characters are very cliché (the abrasive PR woman, the hero captain, the geeky nerds on planet Earth, etc.) who are just there to serve a purpose.

I just don't think it's fair to criticize 1) that the planet isn't described (I don't think it's totally true, I think it's described to the extent it needed to be and would be given the narrative approach) and 2) that you don't see any change in Watney's emotions, as there's quite a few instances where he does lose his shit, or where he shares the feeling of being alone so far from home. However, he doesn't really mope or let it get to him in the long run, but that's really how the character is portrayed: resilient and fun.

 

[Raptori]

No, I mostly agree that it's not exceptionally well written, and I think I said in another thread it definitely has a very cinematic feel about it, as if the author was planning on it being adapted for the screen. And most of the characters aren't particularly deep, but I think the main one is fine from that point of view, without being an in-depth analysis of his psyche, I felt I knew him by the end of the book. The other characters are very cliché (the abrasive PR woman, the hero captain, the geeky nerds on planet Earth, etc.) who are just there to serve a purpose.

I just don't think it's fair to criticize 1) that the planet isn't described (I don't think it's totally true, I think it's described to the extent it needed to be and would be given the narrative approach) and 2) that you don't see any change in Watney's emotions, as there's quite a few instances where he does lose his shit, or where he shares the feeling of being alone so far from home. However, he doesn't really mope or let it get to him in the long run, but that's really how the character is portrayed: resilient and fun.

That's how I saw it too.

 

[Tarrou]

No, I mostly agree that it's not exceptionally well written, and I think I said in another thread it definitely has a very cinematic feel about it, as if the author was planning on it being adapted for the screen. And most of the characters aren't particularly deep, but I think the main one is fine from that point of view, without being an in-depth analysis of his psyche, I felt I knew him by the end of the book. The other characters are very cliché (the abrasive PR woman, the hero captain, the geeky nerds on planet Earth, etc.) who are just there to serve a purpose.

I just don't think it's fair to criticize 1) that the planet isn't described (I don't think it's totally true, I think it's described to the extent it needed to be and would be given the narrative approach) and 2) that you don't see any change in Watney's emotions, as there's quite a few instances where he does lose his shit, or where he shares the feeling of being alone so far from home. However, he doesn't really mope or let it get to him in the long run, but that's really how the character is portrayed: resilient and fun.

Yeah OK, fair point. I just never once felt like I was actually there or that the desperation was real - so it felt like something was lacking. I felt disconnected from the situation and thought maybe a bit more 'scene setting' might have helped, and not neccessarily descriptions of Mars specifically but anything that might add more depth to it, like exploring his own character more or who he misses back home.

 

[Raptori]

Yeah OK, fair point. I just never once felt like I was actually there or that the desperation was real - so it felt like something was lacking. I felt disconnected from the situation and thought maybe a bit more 'scene setting' might have helped, and not neccessarily descriptions of Mars specifically but anything that might add more depth to it, like exploring his own character more or who he misses back home.

I think that's always going to be the case with a diary-style book like that (all the Watney bits were diary-style, right?). There's always a bit of a separation between the action, since the character then just tells you what happened after the fact, so it loses the immediacy.

 

[harshad]

No, I mostly agree that it's not exceptionally well written, and I think I said in another thread it definitely has a very cinematic feel about it, as if the author was planning on it being adapted for the screen. And most of the characters aren't particularly deep, but I think the main one is fine from that point of view, without being an in-depth analysis of his psyche, I felt I knew him by the end of the book. The other characters are very cliché (the abrasive PR woman, the hero captain, the geeky nerds on planet Earth, etc.) who are just there to serve a purpose.

I just don't think it's fair to criticize 1) that the planet isn't described (I don't think it's totally true, I think it's described to the extent it needed to be and would be given the narrative approach) and 2) that you don't see any change in Watney's emotions, as there's quite a few instances where he does lose his shit, or where he shares the feeling of being alone so far from home. However, he doesn't really mope or let it get to him in the long run, but that's really how the character is portrayed: resilient and fun.

This

 

[Donaldo]

Finished the book last night...quite enjoyable. I do get that there could've been more insight into the psychological impact of being stranded on Mars. I think the motion picture will help greatly in this, as perhaps the author wasn't skilled enough in that particular department.

 

[Big Andy]

Has anyone seen this yet?

 

[Berbaclass]

Just watched it and loved it. I thought it was really funny and overall a successful adaptation.

Damon nailed Watney IMO

 

[Big Andy]

Watched this last night, I usually watch Interstellar and then The Martian (two of my all time favourite films) around Christmas time when I’m off work, kind of a little tradition for me. Anyway, my missus doesn’t do space/sci-fi films at all, but even she outdid herself when she watched it with me last night, she enjoyed it, and then asked “was that a true story?”

 

[RedNome]

Watched this last night, I usually watch Interstellar and then The Martian (two of my all time favourite films) around Christmas time when I’m off work, kind of a little tradition for me. Anyway, my missus doesn’t do space/sci-fi films at all, but even she outdid herself when she watched it with me last night, she enjoyed it, and then asked “was that a true story?”

Bless.

 

[Mickeza]

Watched this last night, I usually watch Interstellar and then The Martian (two of my all time favourite films) around Christmas time when I’m off work, kind of a little tradition for me. Anyway, my missus doesn’t do space/sci-fi films at all, but even she outdid herself when she watched it with me last night, she enjoyed it, and then asked “was that a true story?”

That’s fantastic

 

[Cheimoon]

Watched this last night, I usually watch Interstellar and then The Martian (two of my all time favourite films) around Christmas time when I’m off work, kind of a little tradition for me. Anyway, my missus doesn’t do space/sci-fi films at all, but even she outdid herself when she watched it with me last night, she enjoyed it, and then asked “was that a true story?”

True theory. That's kinda the same, right?

 

[Organic Potatoes]

Watched this last night, I usually watch Interstellar and then The Martian (two of my all time favourite films) around Christmas time when I’m off work, kind of a little tradition for me. Anyway, my missus doesn’t do space/sci-fi films at all, but even she outdid herself when she watched it with me last night, she enjoyed it, and then asked “was that a true story?”

To be fair, a generous portion of the populace think we’ve found evidence of life on Mars because we found organic compounds there.

 

[Wing Attack Plan R]

Watched this last night, I usually watch Interstellar and then The Martian (two of my all time favourite films) around Christmas time when I’m off work, kind of a little tradition for me. Anyway, my missus doesn’t do space/sci-fi films at all, but even she outdid herself when she watched it with me last night, she enjoyed it, and then asked “was that a true story?”

Tell her it will be.

 

[That'sHernandez]

To be fair, a generous portion of the populace think we’ve found evidence of life on Mars because we found organic compounds there.

We’ve not not found evidence of life on Mars, the experiments conducted so far remain inconclusive

 

[Ish]

Watched this last night, I usually watch Interstellar and then The Martian (two of my all time favourite films) around Christmas time when I’m off work, kind of a little tradition for me. Anyway, my missus doesn’t do space/sci-fi films at all, but even she outdid herself when she watched it with me last night, she enjoyed it, and then asked “was that a true story?”