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Matt Damon plays Mark Watney, the botanist on a mission to Mars cut short by an extreme storm and a desperate attempt to escape the Red Planet. During the departure, Damon is injured, presumed dead, and left behind as the rest of his crew journeys towards earth. What follows is a tale of survival in the most hostile of circumstances.

The movie focuses not only on Damon’s survival, but also on NASA’s plan to rescue him. A variety of characters pop up in this effort and standouts include Jeff Daniels as NASA director, a man who must think politically but who is no villain; Chiwetel Ejiofor, the Mars mission leader; and Kristen Wiig who nails both moments of comedy and drama as a public relations spokesperson. Unfortunately, however, Donald Glover’s brief turn as genius deus ex machina plot-fixer felt broad and out of place.

When on Mars, we see Damon’s struggles, but we mostly see his strength. There’s no phoniness to this script. This astronaut and scientist is extremely competent and a lesser movie would take that away from him. A lesser movie would make him go insane, forget his training, and make rookie mistakes. Instead we see a man using his skills, maintaining his hope, and solving problems to save his life.

The shots of Mars are believable and breathtaking. There were scenes of space suspense, that while extremely well done, left me wanting to revisit Christopher Nolan’s “Interstellar” which managed to marry tension and musical score more effectively. But the real star is of course Matt Damon, who deserves an oscar for his subtle performance that had the kind of intelligence and humor that brought to mind Robert Downey Jr.’s midcareer ascension at Marvel Studios.

The Martian, a space survival movie with a surprising amount of humor, is a sheer joy. Plenty of engaging action and character touches make this a must-see and a worthy addition to director Ridley Scott’s greatest hits.

Reviewed by: Chad Toney on September 30, 2015