Of course, now that we've heard all this great buzz it's a slight disappointment to realize the rest of us still have weeks to wait until we can see the movie. THE MARTIAN is highly entertaining when it's about science-based problem-solving, less so when it's derivative of similar SF fare. What The Martian presupposes is, all astronauts are hot redheads or lovable goofballs. THE MARTIAN: Solid pro-science fun, but a movie extolling risk-taking shouldn't be this blandly up-the-middle. On the whole, it sounds like a solid win for Scott after a string of less beloved releases.
And there seems to be more humor than you might expect from an outer-space survival epic directed by Scott. Reactions from The Martian seem to range, roughly, from "really liked it" to "truly loved it." There are a few recurring themes here. Damon's lead performance is getting a lot of praise, as is the film's overall pro-science bent. Help is potentially years away, and he's only equipped with enough food and shelter to last him a few weeks. Matt Damon leads Scott's adaptation of the novel by Andy Weir, about an astronaut whose crew leaves him for dead on Mars after a dust storm hits. In fact, he's still very much alive - but the odds of him staying that way are stacked against him.
Get The Martian early buzz after the jump. Now that The Martian has finally made its world premiere at TIFF, the first reactions to the movie itself are rolling in. The early trailers have looked very promising, as has that cast – but then, you could've said the same thing about any of his last few misses. But in between, Scott returned to space for The Martian, a much more grounded sort of sci-fi adventure. Ridley Scott's last foray into outer space wasn't so well received, and it's got his fans feeling ambivalent about his next planned outing on the spaceship Prometheus.