Seconding!

Everyone should go see The Martian if you haven't. by JulyFlame on 2015-10-17 10:41:00 UTC Reply

Yes, I realize this is another movie thread (but) I really do stress this one, especially while it's still out!

Basically, what it comes down to is this: If you are here on the board, and you want to write a spin-off, or you already write a spin-off, you absolutely owe it to yourself to watch The Martian as soon as possible.

Besides the excellent writing, wonderful acting (the clever references), it also embraces one thing that the PPC very much should be about:

Being Smart, Resourceful, and Clever, and using that to solve problems, rather than trying to strongarm through things. At no point does anyone wave a magic wand in the movie to make things just suddenly happen in the protagonist's favor, or things just happen to fall into place.

It's all about being smarter than what's going on.

(And yes I do want to discuss this movie as well, so uh, please label spoilers if you are going to hop in on that bit so we don't spoil people who've not seen the movie but want to.)

-July, rocking, very literally, on the Atlantic

Seconding! by Neshomeh on 2015-10-19 04:11:00 UTC Reply

Spoilers, maybe?

Apollo 13 is still my favorite space movie, but this is very good and worth seeing.

If anything, I think Martian suffers from having too many really interesting characters. At the end, I felt like we didn't get enough time with any of them, and the pacing seemed off. I also thought the decisions made by NASA got increasingly risky and thus harder to believe.

The beginning is most excellent, though. Pretty much everything up though establishing contact and communications with NASA.

Also, the references. ^_^ In our theater, there was a fun progression of me, Phobos, and maybe a couple other people laughing when Project Elrond and Glorfindel were first mentioned, then a bunch of other people joining in when the movie explained that it was a LotR joke. In this way, we identify the TRUE nerds in the crowd. {; D

~Neshomeh

Yeeees. by JulyFlame on 2015-10-19 11:31:00 UTC Reply

(Also, check your email!)

Spoilers kinda as well.

It did really great with having interesting characters, but alas, screen time.

As for the decisions they made, they did get increasingly risky, yes, but I felt like they were making a reasonable progression- they had to weigh their options and calculated risks and the likelihood of failure against leaving him to die there. It's a very, very hard choice, but sometimes people do make those choices. The one that they felt they absolutely couldn't actually say yes to- which would've been slingshotting the crew back to Mars in the off chance of picking him up- they instead gave them the option of deciding whether to do it or not.

The whole Project Elrond thing was amazing and I about died inside because it was Sean Bean's character calling dibs on being Glorfindel, I'm pretty sure.

Okay, whoops, I'm wrong on that last part. by JulyFlame on 2015-10-19 11:44:00 UTC Reply

Brain fart occurred.

Hm. by Desdendelle on 2015-10-17 22:12:00 UTC Reply

I have read the book and wasn't particularly impressed. It... wasn't very interesting, I think? It might be the writing (or the translation), but I just couldn't really connect to it.

To be fair... by JulyFlame on 2015-10-18 12:48:00 UTC Reply

Artell wasn't entirely impressed by the book himself, but said the movie would be amazing just because of who was directing it and the main actors.

The actors definitely killed it, and if nothing else there are a couple references throughout that make it even greater.
It could be the translation. by domirossi on 2015-10-17 23:41:00 UTC Reply

I first read the book in English, then read the first few chapters of the French translation, and unless the translator was particularly stupid*, it definitely seemed like it was hard to translate the book's writing style in another language.

*(Well, there was quite a bit of that too. I mean, Mark Watney really didn't strike me as the kind of person who would use passé simple.)

!!! by Rats on 2015-10-17 22:08:00 UTC Reply

I was on the fence about seeing it but I've seen too many positive reviews now to justify not spending the money to see it in theaters. :D thanks for the recommendation!
I already read the book, and I'm seeing the movie... by domirossi on 2015-10-17 13:01:00 UTC Reply

... As soon as it's released in theaters here. I want to see what it looks like in 3D, and for once, the French translation doesn't bother me much.