The Martian - November 2015 - Starring Matt Damon

[Borgholio]

This...looks actually fairly entertaining. Kinda reminds me of Mission to Mars, or Robinson Crusoe on Mars.

[Terralthra]

I've read the book, and it was excellent. If the movie executes the book well, it will be quite good.

[Mr Bean]

Per associates, watch the first one minute and forty five seconds of the trailer and stop, watch no farther.

[Zaune]

I still wish that guy would finish Cheshire Crossing...

Anyway, this one just went to the top of my "Films worth bothering to see in the cinema" list.

[Raesene]

Didn't expect it to come out so soon - but that's a must see, the book is fantastic

[The Romulan Republic]

I've read the book, and it was excellent. If the movie executes the book well, it will be quite good.

Hopefully people will keep in mind that a film, by its nature, is never just like a book and that being different does not necessarily mean being bad.

Anyway, I haven't read the book, but this sounds interesting.

[Terralthra]

Part of what made the book so good was that the author did his homework. The suspension of disbelief required was absolutely minimal. Much like the movie of Apollo 13, they can leave out some of the details, but if they leave out the engineering and science challenges involved, it would make it a very different thing indeed. Not that that would necessarily be bad, just that it would not have the same appeal for me. I can already see some of the better examples from snippets in the trailer, so I'm not yet concerned.

[B5B7]

I also have read the novel, and agree it is very good. If the movie keeps close to the book, and from the trailer it appears it likely does, then this will be an excellent movie.

[Venator]

Ditto on the "read the book, book was epic, trailer looks faithful" comments above - said trailer is somewhat book-spoilery after 1:40ish, again as said.

My only fear is the idea of Matt Damon in a space suit again. Considering Interstellar...

[Broomstick]

Matt Damon is not one of my favorites, but I really hope the whole cast knocks this one out of the ballpark.

I really loved the novel - finding genuine hard SF is difficult these days.

I hope I can love the movie, too.

[J Ryan]

Having read the book and being very interested in the film, I have one question.

Very minor spoiler, which is revealed in the whole trailer anyway
Spoiler

It's stated that Mark can't contact Earth which is fair enough when they aren't looking for him, but once they know he's there, couldn't they just use any of the big dishes on hand to essentially swamp Mars with radio waves that his radio can pick up? And couldn't our big dishes like the SETI ones pick up Mark's radio?

[Venator]

Having read the book and being very interested in the film, I have one question.

Very minor spoiler, which is revealed in the whole trailer anyway
Spoiler

It's stated that Mark can't contact Earth which is fair enough when they aren't looking for him, but once they know he's there, couldn't they just use any of the big dishes on hand to essentially swamp Mars with radio waves that his radio can pick up? And couldn't our big dishes like the SETI ones pick up Mark's radio?

Spoiler

From memory, he basically had virtually no radio capability at the hab; all its comms could do reliably were relay to the quadruple-redundant systems on the MAV - a hundred feet away.

[J Ryan]

Having read the book and being very interested in the film, I have one question.

Very minor spoiler, which is revealed in the whole trailer anyway
Spoiler

It's stated that Mark can't contact Earth which is fair enough when they aren't looking for him, but once they know he's there, couldn't they just use any of the big dishes on hand to essentially swamp Mars with radio waves that his radio can pick up? And couldn't our big dishes like the SETI ones pick up Mark's radio?

Spoiler

From memory, he basically had virtually no radio capability at the hab; all its comms could do reliably were relay to the quadruple-redundant systems on the MAV - a hundred feet away.

Spoiler

He still had the suits and the rovers radios. Although only short range I would have though with the power the large dishes on earth have NASA would be able to talk to him though talking back would be an issue.

[Zaune]

Spoiler

He still had the suits and the rovers radios. Although only short range I would have though with the power the large dishes on earth have NASA would be able to talk to him though talking back would be an issue.

Spoiler

Yeah... no. The power level required to broadcast a VHF radio signal strong enough to be received on a standard in-cab or wearable radio set at a distance measured in light-minutes is beyond anything we have the technology for; at an optimistic estimate you'd need an antenna the size of the Chrysler Building and enough electrical power to light up the state of Illinois. Establishing comms at that distance is a job for line-of-sight microwave transmitters.

[Venator]

Thank you Zaune. For some reason I can remember the passage on ULF radio and undersea communications from Sphere perfectly, but couldn't recall shit about real-world space transmissions.

[Prannon]

That trailer looks awesome... and what they say is right. It's horrible in the sense that it spoils far too much in the second half. It's mind boggling how stupid it is in terms of story reveal. :/

[Borgholio]

It's mind boggling how stupid it is in terms of story reveal. :/

This is an issue with many modern trailers it seems. Think about the trailer for Terminator Genesys...

[Alyrium Denryle]

Ditto on the "read the book, book was epic, trailer looks faithful" comments above - said trailer is somewhat book-spoilery after 1:40ish, again as said.

My only fear is the idea of Matt Damon in a space suit again. Considering Interstellar...

Having just watched Interstellar (live-blogged commentary on my facebook page), the problem with that movie was not the acting. The acting was awesome, including Matt Damon. Hell, even always-clothed Matthew McConaughey was good.

The problem was the writing and enough of the story to make me cringe.

[Venator]

Sorry, I should have clarified - Damon's acting was great; if he came off as disjointed it only added to the impression of a broken man at the end of his rope. The downside is that that excellent characterization leaves a lasting negative stigma of an any astronaut played by him .

[edaw1982]

Well as soon as he was all "Science the shit out of this", well...I just hope they capture Whatney's character down. The geekish references, the being forced to watch Golden Girls, or whatever the hell shows he was forced to watch.

[salm]

The problem was the writing and enough of the story to make me cringe.

Oh, thank god, I´m not the only one who found Interstallar was mind numbinigly stupid.

[Venator]

Rarely has xkcd been more on-point:

[Deathstalker]

Enjoyed the book, hope the movie can break the Mars movie curse.

[Argosh]

Mythbusters's Adam Savage is a fan, he did a nearly hour-long interview with Andy Weir (author of the book) a few days ago.

[K. A. Pital]

The problem was the writing and enough of the story to make me cringe.

Oh, thank god, I´m not the only one who found Interstallar was mind numbinigly stupid.

Interstellar was dancing on Kubrick's grave. I found it both stupid and disrespectful, in that it made a film about global questions into "America can into space again!"