The movie was screened at 40th Toronto International Film Festival. where it received rave reviews and many have put Damon and the movie in the Oscar race already.
Film festivals like at Venice and Toronto are the places where movies that aim to land award nominations are presented to critics, public and buyers alike. This is in vague terms called as 'the awards season.' Vague because, actual award season begins with the Golden Globes and ends with the Oscars.
Fall and winter in the West are seasons for being cooped up in a cozy place with good movies and some munchies at hand. A cinema theatre could just be that place if not your home. A lot of options for the weekend watch might prove confusing. Therefore, here is a series of review compilations of the movies screened at the Venice and Toronto Film Festivals.
Take a look what critics have to say and then decide on your own.
Let's start with Ridley Scott's The Martian. The Martian is a story based on Andy Weir's novel of the same name. Matt Damon plays astronaut Mark Watney. Watney is stranded on Mars waiting for NASA to receive his message and for a rescue team to get him out.
The film also stars Jessica Chastain, Kate Mara, Michale Pena, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Kirsten Wiig, Donald Glover, and Jeff Daniels.
The movie was screened at 40th Toronto International Film Festival. where it received rave reviews and many have put Damon and the movie in the Oscar race already. Take a look.
Variety
Ridley Scott has rewritten the rules of sci-fi multiple times over his half-century career, but this time, the dystopian maestro sees hope in our stars.
"At its most basic, The Martian serves as an epic homage to the nerd — a deferential widescreen celebration of human intelligence in a genre that so often hinges on speed, braun or sheer midi-chlorian levels (thanks for nothing, George Lucas). And while Watney may be stranded by himself on Mars, he’s anything but alone, with the best minds on Earth working overtime to bring him home — if only he can figure out how to communicate with the good folks at Houston’s Johnson Space Center." Read more
The Guardian
The Martian review - Ridley Scott's playful sci-fi runs out of fuel before reaching home
"The Martian, Scott’s adaptation of the best-selling book by Andy Weir, is a knockabout space adventure. A wide-eyed tribute to human ingenuity that packs enough snark to pull itself out of the black hole of earnestness, even if its fuel runs out partway through." Read more
Indiewire
Ridley Scott's 'The Martian' is the Anti-'Interstellar'
"Though it takes the form of a flashy, effects-driven science fiction epic, director Ridley Scott's "The Martian" has relatively humble origins. Andy Weir's self-published 2011 novel envisioned the plight of an American astronaut stranded on Mars in the not-so-distant future, using his command of physics and botany to survive for months, while his Earthbound colleagues cobbled together a rescue plan. Weir compensated for a lack of commanding prose with hard science that, in retrospect, makes Christopher Nolan's "Interstellar" look like pure fantasy. Scott's movie follows suit, in many ways unfolding — for better or worse — as a kind of anti-"Interstellar": Rather than mirroring Nolan's attempt to combine awe-inspiring cinema with tangible theories of other worlds, "The Martian" is rooted in this one (and its not-so-distant neighbour)." Read more
The Hollywood Reporter
"Ridley Scott goes back to the future, a familiar destination for him, and returns in fine shape in The Martian. Although technically science fiction by virtue of its being largely set on a neighboring planet, this smartly made adaptation of Andy Weir’s best-selling novel is more realistic in its attention to detail than many films set in the present, giving the story the feel of an adventure that could happen the day after tomorrow. Constantly absorbing rather than outright exciting, this major autumn Fox release should generate muscular business worldwide." Read more
Vulture
Why The Martian Is Ridley Scott’s Big Comeback
"The Martian isn’t liable to become an iconic sci-fi film in the vein of Scott’s early classics Alien and Blade Runner, but it’s a rock-solid, damn fine crowd-pleaser, and that’s more than enough. Here are four reasons why the movie works so well." Read more
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