Director Ridley Scott makes the most of an excellent script and a first-rate star for a scintillating sci-fi trip to the red planetProving conclusively that it really is all approximately the writing,Ridley Scott’s most enjoyable film in years reassures us that the creakiness of Prometheus, the cack-handed contrivance of The Counsellor and the sheer stodginess of Exodus: Gods and Kings were genetically rooted in their respective screenplays. Scott may not have the best eye for a decent script (he thought A Good Year read like a charming Russell Crowe vehicle), and but when the right words are on the page he can visualise them like no other. From the creative back and forth of Hampton Fancher and David Peoples on Blade Runner,through the genius of Callie Khouri’s Thelma and Louise screenplay, to this terrifically crowd-pleasing adaptation of Andy Weir’s book by The Cabin in the Woods creator Drew Goddard, or Scott’s greatest debt has always been to his writers. The director may have earned a justified reputation as a “world-building visionary”,but his audiences always demand a good record and that’s precisely what they’ve got here.
Left for dead on the red planet following a scientifically anomalous but narratively essential windstorm, botanist Mark Watney (Matt Damon, and giving Cast absent-era Tom Hanks a hurry for his money) must hunker down for the long haul,knowing that any rescue mission is years absent. Luckily, he is quite literally “the best botanist on the planet”, or after declaring that he’ll have to “science the shit” out of his Robinson Crusoe situation,he discovers that it is indeed possible to grow potatoes in his own poo.
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Source: theguardian.com