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The Martian (1 Viewer)

The General said:
Reading the book. Minor spoiler perhaps so stop reading if you don't want info:

It's enjoyable so far but I'm beginning to skim over all the explanations of the processes he's going through to create water, soil, etc. Does this continue for the entire book?
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It dies down to a much more reasonable level.

 
El Floppo said:
BigSteelThrill said:
El Floppo said:
Jamesbrownkid said:
El Floppo said:
Jamesbrownkid said:
Can't miss for sci-fi? cmon Prometheus was garbage. I agree he has some decent movies so I guess I should have said he hasn't made a great film since Legend IMO. Legend - Aliens and Blade Runner are his greats.
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prometheus was seriously flawed, sure. but still a fun watch- for me, and a lot of others. calling it garbage? hyperbole/trollish.

but you're right- BlackHawk Down, Gladiator and American Gangster were cataclysimacally bad- terrible director.
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Hated all those movies but I enjoyed Exodus
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I find that interesting.

I haven't seenExodus- looks like I should.
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Was his worst offering., jbk is trolling.
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ok- I buy that, given the previuos comments.

but then again, you thought this was a terrific movie, so not sure where to put your comment either. ;)
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See it for yourself soon and update this thread. I am confident you will agree with me.

 
I finished reading the book last night. There's an interview with the author at the end and is he is a real life science nerd. He even did his own calculations for the flight paths from earth to Mars. :shock: :eek: :nerd: :tebow:

 
Tom Servo said:
He even did his own calculations for the flight paths from earth to Mars. :shock: :eek: :nerd: :tebow:
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You are actually underselling the nerdiness factor here. He wrote his own software to calculate the flight paths from earth to mars.

 
RUSF18 said:
The General said:
Reading the book. Minor spoiler perhaps so stop reading if you don't want info:

It's enjoyable so far but I'm beginning to skim over all the explanations of the processes he's going through to create water, soil, etc. Does this continue for the entire book?
Click to expand...
It dies down to a much more reasonable level.
Click to expand...
I'm pretty far through the book and am enjoying it. Can see how this would be a great movie.

 
Just finished the book this afternoon. A great, easy read. Very well paced. Good ending that didn't go on too long.

Looking forward to seeing the movie.

 
Saw the movie last week. It was very good. 95% better than Gravity. A lot of the humor was rather lame but who knows how you would react being alone on Mars. The ending was crap, yes literally. Thought he would have talked more about going on the next trip. 3D quality was excellent.

 
Mad Cow said:
In talking about the council of Elrond and the one guy said he wanted to be called Glorfindel, I was halfway hoping Bean would ask to be called Boromir.
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I wanted him to say "You know, I was AT that meeting" ;)

Overall solid movie. The crew was a little non descript. Liked the Purnell scenes, they worked better than in the book.

But the book is so much better.

 
Saw it last night and loved it. Sure, it was a little hokey at times.. But I think Damon did a fantastic Job. The folks back at Mission control felt pretty dopey/cartoonish at times, but overall very very good.

The hiccups in the plan (keeping it vague to avoid spoilers), were relatively easily anticipated... But not annoyingly so. It didn't feel like they intentionally kept throwing logs on the path. There wasn't that dreaded "why are you morons doing THAT" feel that drives me up the wall in some films.

8.5 to 9.0 out of 10 IMO. GF and I both really enjoyed it and I would pay $12 to go see it again in the theater. One of the better films I've seen in a while.

 
I am currently reading "Saturn Run" by John Sandford and Ctein. It's about a race to get to Saturn when an alien starship is detected in that area. Set 50 years in the future. Reminds me of The Martian in that it's really sciency in an enjoyable way, and there's humor. The characters are not quite as good as the protagonist in The Martian, but they are good. The action isn't quite as constant, but it's good as well. Overall though I think the story is a bit more interesting and fully-developed. Anyway, just thought I'd mention it as a good read for those who enjoyed The Martian novel.

 
Kristin Wiig has a bizarre delivery that doesn't work in serious roles. She needs to stick to comedy, just felt so out of place in this movie.

 
facook said:
I am currently reading "Saturn Run" by John Sandford and Ctein. It's about a race to get to Saturn when an alien starship is detected in that area. Set 50 years in the future. Reminds me of The Martian in that it's really sciency in an enjoyable way, and there's humor. The characters are not quite as good as the protagonist in The Martian, but they are good. The action isn't quite as constant, but it's good as well. Overall though I think the story is a bit more interesting and fully-developed. Anyway, just thought I'd mention it as a good read for those who enjoyed The Martian novel.
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Had to look that up to verify, but that is the same John Sanford who has written the "Prey" suspense/police procedure series featuring Lukas Davenport and a separate series featuring Virgil Flowers. Can't imagine Sandford writing a sci-fi book, but am definitely going to check it out.

I saw The Martian too, last Tuesday. An entertaining film. Not a candidate for Oscar best picture, but a lot of fun to see and worth the price of admission.

 
squistion said:
facook said:
I am currently reading "Saturn Run" by John Sandford and Ctein. It's about a race to get to Saturn when an alien starship is detected in that area. Set 50 years in the future. Reminds me of The Martian in that it's really sciency in an enjoyable way, and there's humor. The characters are not quite as good as the protagonist in The Martian, but they are good. The action isn't quite as constant, but it's good as well. Overall though I think the story is a bit more interesting and fully-developed. Anyway, just thought I'd mention it as a good read for those who enjoyed The Martian novel.
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Had to look that up to verify, but that is the same John Sanford who has written the "Prey" suspense/police procedure series featuring Lukas Davenport and a separate series featuring Virgil Flowers. Can't imagine Sandford writing a sci-fi book, but am definitely going to check it out.I saw The Martian too, last Tuesday. An entertaining film. Not a candidate for Oscar best picture, but a lot of fun to see and worth the price of admission.
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Exactly. I loved his crime stuff but was skeptical about him doing sci-if but 2/3 through it really works.

 
Sounds like this is more enjoyable on the small screen, given the recent run of praise.

Fun, but was definitely not worth the $20 per ticket for 3d.

 
Decent enough movie. It was no Moon......but then again, Moon had a much better actor and wasn't quite triangulated by media focus groups to appeal to a wide demographic.

 
Just saw The Martian.  One big thing I have a problem with.  NASA supposedly decided it was a good idea to put a MAV for Ares IV on Mars before the mission even launched so it would save money/payload because they wouldn't have to butden the Hermes with it. That makes sense to me. Except for the part where it's at the landing site, standing upright, ready to go.

The major catastrophe that sends the Ares III team running off planet is a storm that comes up and is going to be powerful enough to blow the MAV over. They have to leave or risk getting stuck.  How would NASA think it was a good idea to leave another one of these, unattended, on the planet?  What would've happened if Ares IV had gotten to Mars only to find their MAV had blown over long ago? If it was something they could just fix with the crane on the rover, they wouldn't have needed to abort Ares III. Obviously the HAB wasn't in danger from the storm, just the MAV, so that had to be why they had to leave rather than just weather the storm and then set the MAV back upright after. Or they could just leave it on its side until ready to go so it didn't risk getting damaged. And obviously they can't forecast Mars weather worth a damn, so they had no reason to think it would be safe for the next 4-5 years.

The plan only makes sense if the storm the Ares III crew was hit by was the most poepwerful storm ever on Mars, more powerful than they thought it could ever be. But if that were true, why have an abort protocol in case such a storm occurred? Having the Ares IV MAV on the planet did not make sense. And, unfortunately, that was the linchpin for the entire rescue mission plan.

 
FWIW, the storm was the most 'unrealistic' part of the book/movie.  There's not enough air pressure on Mars to generate a storm anywhere near that size.

 
To be honest my biggest issue with The Martian was him being able to seal the HAB back up making it airtight and habitable with a tarp and duct tape.

 
bcdjr1 said:
Just saw The Martian.  One big thing I have a problem with.  NASA supposedly decided it was a good idea to put a MAV for Ares IV on Mars before the mission even launched so it would save money/payload because they wouldn't have to butden the Hermes with it. That makes sense to me. Except for the part where it's at the landing site, standing upright, ready to go.

The major catastrophe that sends the Ares III team running off planet is a storm that comes up and is going to be powerful enough to blow the MAV over. They have to leave or risk getting stuck.  How would NASA think it was a good idea to leave another one of these, unattended, on the planet?  What would've happened if Ares IV had gotten to Mars only to find their MAV had blown over long ago? If it was something they could just fix with the crane on the rover, they wouldn't have needed to abort Ares III. Obviously the HAB wasn't in danger from the storm, just the MAV, so that had to be why they had to leave rather than just weather the storm and then set the MAV back upright after. Or they could just leave it on its side until ready to go so it didn't risk getting damaged. And obviously they can't forecast Mars weather worth a damn, so they had no reason to think it would be safe for the next 4-5 years.

The plan only makes sense if the storm the Ares III crew was hit by was the most poepwerful storm ever on Mars, more powerful than they thought it could ever be. But if that were true, why have an abort protocol in case such a storm occurred? Having the Ares IV MAV on the planet did not make sense. And, unfortunately, that was the linchpin for the entire rescue mission plan.
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Thinking about this, you are sort of right. They might launch the MAV early, especially if they get the right alignment of the planets. It would just be much safer if they just would leave it in orbit until it was needed. If that was the case and it was in orbit, they could have landed it whenever and wherever. So they would be able to land it nearby the HAB (close, but far enough away that it wouldn't cause a danger) so he wouldn't have to travel all over the planet to get there.

 
bcdjr1 said:
Just saw The Martian.  One big thing I have a problem with.  NASA supposedly decided it was a good idea to put a MAV for Ares IV on Mars before the mission even launched so it would save money/payload because they wouldn't have to butden the Hermes with it. That makes sense to me. Except for the part where it's at the landing site, standing upright, ready to go.

The major catastrophe that sends the Ares III team running off planet is a storm that comes up and is going to be powerful enough to blow the MAV over. They have to leave or risk getting stuck.  How would NASA think it was a good idea to leave another one of these, unattended, on the planet?  What would've happened if Ares IV had gotten to Mars only to find their MAV had blown over long ago? If it was something they could just fix with the crane on the rover, they wouldn't have needed to abort Ares III. Obviously the HAB wasn't in danger from the storm, just the MAV, so that had to be why they had to leave rather than just weather the storm and then set the MAV back upright after. Or they could just leave it on its side until ready to go so it didn't risk getting damaged. And obviously they can't forecast Mars weather worth a damn, so they had no reason to think it would be safe for the next 4-5 years.

The plan only makes sense if the storm the Ares III crew was hit by was the most poepwerful storm ever on Mars, more powerful than they thought it could ever be. But if that were true, why have an abort protocol in case such a storm occurred? Having the Ares IV MAV on the planet did not make sense. And, unfortunately, that was the linchpin for the entire rescue mission plan.
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It's fiction. HTH. 

 
Statcruncher said:
To be honest my biggest issue with The Martian was him being able to seal the HAB back up making it airtight and habitable with a tarp and duct tape.
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Well, he did use three ratchet straps.

 
RUSF18 said:
It's fiction. HTH. 
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It doesn't. By that reasoning I'd say why not just have him close his eyes and wish himself home? That'd be fiction, too, but I think you'd agree that it makes for a better story when it stays consistent with its established reality.

 
bcdjr1 said:
Just saw The Martian.  One big thing I have a problem with.  NASA supposedly decided it was a good idea to put a MAV for Ares IV on Mars before the mission even launched so it would save money/payload because they wouldn't have to butden the Hermes with it. That makes sense to me. Except for the part where it's at the landing site, standing upright, ready to go.

The major catastrophe that sends the Ares III team running off planet is a storm that comes up and is going to be powerful enough to blow the MAV over. They have to leave or risk getting stuck.  How would NASA think it was a good idea to leave another one of these, unattended, on the planet?  What would've happened if Ares IV had gotten to Mars only to find their MAV had blown over long ago? If it was something they could just fix with the crane on the rover, they wouldn't have needed to abort Ares III. Obviously the HAB wasn't in danger from the storm, just the MAV, so that had to be why they had to leave rather than just weather the storm and then set the MAV back upright after. Or they could just leave it on its side until ready to go so it didn't risk getting damaged. And obviously they can't forecast Mars weather worth a damn, so they had no reason to think it would be safe for the next 4-5 years.

The plan only makes sense if the storm the Ares III crew was hit by was the most poepwerful storm ever on Mars, more powerful than they thought it could ever be. But if that were true, why have an abort protocol in case such a storm occurred? Having the Ares IV MAV on the planet did not make sense. And, unfortunately, that was the linchpin for the entire rescue mission plan.
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Well, they have enough satellites around Mars that they were able to get pictures of him every 17 minutes or something. So it's not like they run the risk of Ares showing up at Mars and being surprised to find the MAV tipped over. It would still make sense if the storm was sufficiently low probability that (chance of storm) x (cost to abort mission) < (cost saving to leave MAV on planet early)

 
bcdjr1 said:
Just saw The Martian.  One big thing I have a problem with.  NASA supposedly decided it was a good idea to put a MAV for Ares IV on Mars before the mission even launched so it would save money/payload because they wouldn't have to butden the Hermes with it. That makes sense to me. Except for the part where it's at the landing site, standing upright, ready to go.

The major catastrophe that sends the Ares III team running off planet is a storm that comes up and is going to be powerful enough to blow the MAV over. They have to leave or risk getting stuck.  How would NASA think it was a good idea to leave another one of these, unattended, on the planet?  What would've happened if Ares IV had gotten to Mars only to find their MAV had blown over long ago? If it was something they could just fix with the crane on the rover, they wouldn't have needed to abort Ares III. Obviously the HAB wasn't in danger from the storm, just the MAV, so that had to be why they had to leave rather than just weather the storm and then set the MAV back upright after. Or they could just leave it on its side until ready to go so it didn't risk getting damaged. And obviously they can't forecast Mars weather worth a damn, so they had no reason to think it would be safe for the next 4-5 years.

The plan only makes sense if the storm the Ares III crew was hit by was the most poepwerful storm ever on Mars, more powerful than they thought it could ever be. But if that were true, why have an abort protocol in case such a storm occurred? Having the Ares IV MAV on the planet did not make sense. And, unfortunately, that was the linchpin for the entire rescue mission plan.
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I read the book only, but IIRC the "storm" was much stronger than anything planned for or anticipated. As such, pre-landing Ares IV would not have posed that great of a risk.

 
msommer said:
Thunderlips said:
On 11/1/2015 at 10:30 AM, Thunderlips said:

Decent enough movie. It was no Moon......but then again, Moon had a much better actor and wasn't quite triangulated by media focus groups to appeal to a wide demographic.
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Moon was definitely superior. No doubt about that.
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Hmmm, never even hear of this but I'm gonna check it out.

Thought Martian was good, had some great moments, but overall just good.  I gave it a 7 on rotten buttcrack. 

 
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Statcruncher said:
To be honest my biggest issue with The Martian was him being able to seal the HAB back up making it airtight and habitable with a tarp and duct tape.
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You mean the tape that was designed for the US military by Johnson & Johnson to be waterproof? The military even started using it on planes and vehicles for instant repair in the field.

  • In March 2003, three people died of suffocation after following Homeland Security’s suggestion of creating a “safe” room from chemical warfare by sealing up all windows and doors with thick plastic and duck tape.
  • Duct tape was famously used to create a fix for the failing Apollo 13’s carbon dioxide filters.  Ed Smylie, who designed the scrubber modification, said later that he knew the problem was solvable when it was confirmed that duct tape was on board: “I felt like we were home free.  One thing a Southern boy will never say is, ‘I don’t think duct tape will fix it.'”
  • NASA also used Duct tape during the Apollo 17 mission to repair a damaged fender on the lunar rover, which was critical to keep lunar dust from the rover’s rooster tails from damaging the rover.
 
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FishTacoTuesday said:
Hmmm, never even hear of this but I'm gonna check it out.

Thought Martian was good, had some great moments, but overall just good.  I gave it a 7 on rotten buttcrack. 
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Moon is a fantastic movie. Definitely see it if you like isolation, minimalist Sci Fi.

 
Finally got around to seeing this. Liked it quite a bit.

Loved the little Lord of the Rings shout out when Sean Bean explains Elrond refers to the Council of Elrond, and Kristen Wiig asks him how he knows that.

 
I watched this last weekend on HBO for the second time with my wife, who hasn't seen it before. I hinted at an awesome surprise cameo midway through. But the cameo never happened, then I realized I was thinking of Interstellar. :bag:

 
I thought it was good but had two problems with it.  First, the gas would have gone bad long ago.  Second, who was mowing the lawns?

Sloppy, lazy writing imo.

 
My kids really like the movie and we've been watching bits of it on HBO. I am also re-reading the book.

My current question is I get his listening to others music and such for variety, but if he hates the Disco soooo much, why isn't he listening to anything of his own? Didn't they allow each of them a certain amount of data space for music and video?

 
Really liked this movie.  I get that a lot of the science stuff was probably at least partially BS but I enjoyed it. Damon did a great job carrying this one. Very likable.

 
Mr. Ected said:
My kids really like the movie and we've been watching bits of it on HBO. I am also re-reading the book.

My current question is I get his listening to others music and such for variety, but if he hates the Disco soooo much, why isn't he listening to anything of his own? Didn't they allow each of them a certain amount of data space for music and video?
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He didn't bring any music. The captain was the only one from what I remember who had any media. She also had the 70s TV shows.

 
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