4 ms·

I'll admit that I gave it the pass the first time I heard about it, due to it seeming like a rehashed mish-mash of I-Robot, Her, Artificial Intelligence, and o

I'll admit that I gave it the pass the first time I heard about it, due to it seeming like a rehashed mish-mash of I-Robot, Her, Artificial Intelligence, and of course RUR/Metropolis. Given the positive comments in this thread I may give it a watch, thanks. To two birds with one stone and address a sister post, my biggest issue re: the Martian comes when you read (for a contrived comparison) the Apollo 13 transcripts. As much a life or death situation as anything that happened in The Martian, far less of my wanting to throw the "protaganist" out a window for being a nonstop firehose of bad quips and one liners. Extremely excitable is the tip of the iceberg, my distaste came from a broad mosaic of their personalities and responses being exceedingly "off", largely, without even getting into a discussion on the writing/acting itself. (as FiatMoney put it far more eloquently than I did; the demeanor of many of the "Science" individuals is just _wrong_)

JoshTriplett 11y ago
> my biggest issue re: the Martian comes when you read (for a contrived comparison) the Apollo 13 transcripts. As much a life or death situation as anything that happened in The Martian, far less of my wanting to throw the "protaganist" out a window for being a nonstop firehose of bad quips and one liners. The Apollo 13 crisis lasted a week; even then, the transcripts do contain quite a few "bad quips and one-liners". Look at page 14-16 of http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/history/mission_trans/AS13_CM.PDF http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/history/mission_trans/AS13_CM.PDF for jokes between the crew just 30 minutes into the mission.
- existencebox 11y ago
  Perhaps I read their interactions differently, but even their "I need the springy jobber" and other more informal statements seemed far more professional and what I'd expect from a career astronaut than "I'm going to do the iron man thing". My original comment was more directed at the actual crisis portions of both the movie and Apollo 13 (around the famous "Houston we have a problem" line) were drastically different. I certainly grant that a movie might not be as exciting if crisis resolution was largely reading checklists out of books and remaining exceedingly composed given the circumstance, but I'd find it a lot easier to buy into than the cacophony of yelling and cursing that took place at multiple instances during the movie. Something additional and more tangible I remembered while writing this, I found myself agog at some of the items they had on mars; the commercial grocery store grape juice bottles were some of my favorites. Edit: I'm normally not one to comment on this, but of all the things I've ever said, I had no idea disliking this movie would attract the silent downvote brigade so aggressively. I find this both interesting and entertaining.
  - mattmanser 11y ago
    I'm really sorry you didn't enjoy the Martian but they specifically introduced his character to be like that to the point the other astronauts talk about his personality. Don't forget that he was on his own with a big delay in communication. So from a science perspective, he's talking to himself so why would he be formal checklist guy, and from a movie perspective they have switched the inner monologue of the character to be an external one into a 'video diary' to make the story watchable. It's a story telling device. While there are movies deserving of ire the Martian isn't one of them and definitely not for the yelling and screaming.
  - TeMPOraL 11y ago
    I feel you haven't read the book yet. I recommend it. The movie compresses it strongly, and so character development is pretty much skipped. Mark Watney is a smartass by design, and he has some more funny quips in the original text, but generally you can see how his attitude changes after hundreds of days of being stranded alone, having to fight for his life against both Mars and the crappy disco music. Even accounting for his training, I can totally believe him going totally pissed when he finally contacts NASA, and they immediately start bossing him around according to some checklists. But that's the context that wasn't emphasized in the movie. Writing this I see now that the movie itself may not feel as "hard sci-fi" as it does if you know the book - e.g. the agricultural arc was very much rushed in the movie. In the book, the protagonists takes things more slowly, and much more thoughtfully. (And I have no frikkin' clue what's with the downvotes; upvoting to compensate.)
    - existencebox 11y ago
      You're right, I haven't read the book, the movie was my first exposure to this (unfortunately apparently?). To say it compresses it strongly better words so many of my issues with the movie than I could have put it. (in that it seemed like a series of set pieces attached together by musical interludes; echoing your lack of character development as well) To answer the question from your other post, my "holy trinity" is Primer, Moon, Pandorum. (the first two on a pedestal above the third, but the third manages to fit in being an "action" movie without going too far down that road such that I can't but love it.) If we're talking books, that's an entirely different discussion, and seems to be the one most people want to have when bringing up The Martian. I've certainly felt the same about some of my favorites. (I recall the whisper of a Foundation movie that made me want to run and hide)

JoshTriplett 11y ago

> my biggest issue re: the Martian comes when you read (for a contrived comparison) the Apollo 13 transcripts. As much a life or death situation as anything that happened in The Martian, far less of my wanting to throw the "protaganist" out a window for being a nonstop firehose of bad quips and one liners. The Apollo 13 crisis lasted a week; even then, the transcripts do contain quite a few "bad quips and one-liners". Look at page 14-16 of http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/history/mission_trans/AS13_CM.PDF http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/history/mission_trans/AS13_CM.PDF for jokes between the crew just 30 minutes into the mission.

existencebox 11y ago
Perhaps I read their interactions differently, but even their "I need the springy jobber" and other more informal statements seemed far more professional and what I'd expect from a career astronaut than "I'm going to do the iron man thing". My original comment was more directed at the actual crisis portions of both the movie and Apollo 13 (around the famous "Houston we have a problem" line) were drastically different. I certainly grant that a movie might not be as exciting if crisis resolution was largely reading checklists out of books and remaining exceedingly composed given the circumstance, but I'd find it a lot easier to buy into than the cacophony of yelling and cursing that took place at multiple instances during the movie. Something additional and more tangible I remembered while writing this, I found myself agog at some of the items they had on mars; the commercial grocery store grape juice bottles were some of my favorites. Edit: I'm normally not one to comment on this, but of all the things I've ever said, I had no idea disliking this movie would attract the silent downvote brigade so aggressively. I find this both interesting and entertaining.
- mattmanser 11y ago
  I'm really sorry you didn't enjoy the Martian but they specifically introduced his character to be like that to the point the other astronauts talk about his personality. Don't forget that he was on his own with a big delay in communication. So from a science perspective, he's talking to himself so why would he be formal checklist guy, and from a movie perspective they have switched the inner monologue of the character to be an external one into a 'video diary' to make the story watchable. It's a story telling device. While there are movies deserving of ire the Martian isn't one of them and definitely not for the yelling and screaming.
- TeMPOraL 11y ago
  I feel you haven't read the book yet. I recommend it. The movie compresses it strongly, and so character development is pretty much skipped. Mark Watney is a smartass by design, and he has some more funny quips in the original text, but generally you can see how his attitude changes after hundreds of days of being stranded alone, having to fight for his life against both Mars and the crappy disco music. Even accounting for his training, I can totally believe him going totally pissed when he finally contacts NASA, and they immediately start bossing him around according to some checklists. But that's the context that wasn't emphasized in the movie. Writing this I see now that the movie itself may not feel as "hard sci-fi" as it does if you know the book - e.g. the agricultural arc was very much rushed in the movie. In the book, the protagonists takes things more slowly, and much more thoughtfully. (And I have no frikkin' clue what's with the downvotes; upvoting to compensate.)
  - existencebox 11y ago
    You're right, I haven't read the book, the movie was my first exposure to this (unfortunately apparently?). To say it compresses it strongly better words so many of my issues with the movie than I could have put it. (in that it seemed like a series of set pieces attached together by musical interludes; echoing your lack of character development as well) To answer the question from your other post, my "holy trinity" is Primer, Moon, Pandorum. (the first two on a pedestal above the third, but the third manages to fit in being an "action" movie without going too far down that road such that I can't but love it.) If we're talking books, that's an entirely different discussion, and seems to be the one most people want to have when bringing up The Martian. I've certainly felt the same about some of my favorites. (I recall the whisper of a Foundation movie that made me want to run and hide)