Spaced out

Ervell E Menezes

Ridley Scott has been one of my favourite directors with his picture postcard frames in films like “Blade Runner,” “Black Hawk Down” and “Thelma & Louise,”. However, in his latest “The Martian,” after a longish break, he seems to be a pale shadow of his former colourful self.

A human mission to the red planet has gone awry and astronaut Mark Watney (Matt Damon) is presumed dead. Actually he is buried in the sand, but alive and gets back to the National Aeronautics Space Administration (NASA) who keeps the information under wraps for fear of adverse publicity.

So, a major portion of the film is about how Watney spends his time on this desolate planet. First, he has to repair the hole in the stomach sustained from his space suit. It is self-surgery and putting stents or clips all by himself. Then, being a botanist he grows a garden for food to survive his long, long stay (over 900 days) there. He also grows a beard (blonde, at that) and thanks to some good one-liners by scriptwriter Drew Goddard keeps the viewer amused in the overall drab picture of the man on Mars. The structures he builds there and the technical mumbo-jumbo provide little connect with the viewer.

This is after he communicates with Nasa, which has a plethora of internationals, its chief Teddy Sanders (Jeff Daniel), two women Melissa Lewis (Jessica Chastian) and Annie Montrose (Kristen Wiig), Chinaman Benedict Wong (who plays himself), a Latino Rick Martinez (Michael Pena) and an Indian Vincent Kapoor (Chiwetel Egiofor). Based on “The Martian” by Andy Weir, the movie plods on relentlessly, all of 141 minutes till it grinds out of breath or raw stock or both.

Matt Damon is completely wasted in this bland entertainer (a misnomer) and Jessica Chastian and Kristen Wigg are there to provide feminine relief, but scarcely succeed. Michael Pena as a Latino provides a good cameo but “The Martian” flatters only to deceive.

A Mars choco-bar would be a better option!