At the end of World War II, the U.S. army rescued him from the front line with great pains, and spent decades training to become a murder weapon worth 30 million U.S. dollars. However, at the beginning of the 21st century, he broke away from the organization due to a failed mission and lost his memory. He was hunted down by the CIA, and he subverted two special operations teams alone. In order to avoid being chased by the agents, he had to go to the depths of the universe, but could not bear the loneliness in space, so he posted false news to trick rescuers into another accident and disappeared into the universe. Unexpectedly, he appeared on Mars, and once again encountered a disaster and stayed alone. The previous few experiences finally made him learn to live alone and usher in rescue.
"The Martian" is bound to be compared with "Gravity" and "Interstellar". They are all similar space themes. They are both annual sci-fi masterpieces, and they are all one-man performances. The author’s most intuitive impression is that the length of the movie is only one and a half hours at the center of the earth, the interstellar is longer than two and a half hours, and Mars is somewhere in between. But after watching the movie, the author personally thinks that the time on Mars is best compressed to two hours. The reason why the gravity time is short is that the film removes all the pre-disaster foreshadowing, and goes straight to the topic. It only presents the process of individual survival from the beginning of the disaster to the protagonist's return to earth, which is as simple as possible. On the other hand, Interstellar Crossing is the opposite. It is as complicated as possible, with a long foreshadowing, and the plot is constantly twisted. At the same time, the film spends a lot of pen and ink to tell what happens on the ground after the protagonist leaves the earth. "Martian Rescue" is similar to Interstellar, with the preliminary preparation, the main process, and the follow-up ending. Even the middle ground part of the movie is heavier than the Mars plot.
On the whole, the time in the center of the earth is short, the rhythm is fast, and it ends immediately without letting people breathe. The interstellar procrastination and rapid alternation, the ground part is slightly lengthy and the space plot is generally faster, so the entire survival process can also be exciting. As for Mars, the whole film is procrastinating. Apart from feeling a thriving aura, the author has no sense of the crisis of survival in the wilderness.
Alfonso Cuarón is particularly good at creating a repressive atmosphere. "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" can be regarded as a masterpiece of the director's atmosphere. Gravity, a seemingly endless movie to survive in a confined space, is very suitable for him. . Most of the time, there are only one or two characters in the center of the earth. The quiet and empty environment and the occasional earth background make people feel depressed. The director even arranged a little frightening element for the film to strengthen the psychological suggestion function of the film to the audience. Feelings of fear and restlessness. Therefore, "Gravity" is a highly refined space horror survival movie with no extra plot.
As for interstellar director Nolan, it goes without saying that although he is not a master, he is still an excellent film craftsman, especially good at using complex narrative skills. His two best-watched movies, "Fragments of Memories" and "Inception" left a brain-burning impression, precisely because the director created obstacles to the audience in the narrative. On the other hand, StarCraft didn't use Nolan's good methods at all. It was just that the plot was very long, there were many twists and turns, and the implantation of a large number of scientific concepts. "Gravity" has not yet dared to enshrine the gods, "Interstellar" is going to make a fat man with a swollen face.
And Ridley Scott, he has not made many science fiction films, Alien is a great B-level science fiction thriller, Blade Runner is also a classic original science fiction, Prometheus is far from satisfactory. Martian Rescue, I think the core of this film is not to show the hero's will to survive at all, but to fully demonstrate how powerful the American crisis public relations and emergency response mechanism are, to show and sarcasm the image of bureaucracy and the so-called American democracy. From this point of view, the film can be regarded as the director's typical personal style.
Mars Rescue may want to create a space version of Robinson Crusoe and the rest of his life on a deserted island, so that the protagonist will leave Mars alone to wait for rescue. It’s just that no one can think that this young man is so powerful that he can apply his knowledge of planting from the CCTV-7 agricultural channel, use his own feces to grow his own potatoes, eat them in and pull them out, plant them and dig them out, and go round and round. The reciprocating cycle is truly a model production unit for environmental protection and green agriculture. No wonder the Tianchao Space Administration was willing to expose its hidden strength to help the United States rescue. It turned out to be the young farmer who had long been attracted to this farmer and was determined to hire him to succeed the dying Bachelor Yuan Longping.
Speaking of the celestial dynasty, this film is exactly the same as "Gravity". The space power of the celestial dynasty has played a great role in saving American astronauts twice. It's just that the center of the earth has made a reasonable illusion of the Tianchao space station based on limited information, and it is very concealed to criticize the Tianchao for being opaque, while the film is a slanderous gesture of slandering grapes. As soon as the Tianchao Space Agency came out, it was wondering whether to lend a helping hand at the risk of exposing its secret power. Isn't this publicly accusing the Tianchao of opaque information? In fact, everyone knows that the U.S. National Space Administration and the Chinese Space Administration will never be able to cooperate officially. Both countries must take care of their confidential data for fear of being stolen by the other side. So how does this film make such an impossible thing possible? That is, the United States agreed to Chinese astronauts to participate in the Ares Project. It can be seen from the fact that there are Chinese in the crew of Ares 5 at the end of the film and the leadership of the China Space Agency at the launch center. The United States is equivalent to giving us the data and related technologies of the Mars operation.
On the other hand, this film has a great similarity with "Interstellar". Although both claim to have added real scientific concepts and theories, and the scientific elements in the film are as reasonable as possible, the film ultimately successfully rescued the protagonist. At the level of controversial spiritual science. Love is the root cause of the star-piercing protagonist's return to the earth. It doesn't make sense at all, but Nolan prevaricates in the end. The blind optimism of the Martian male protagonist who doesn't know where to fight is too unconvincing. He can persist until the rescue is so simple.
Procrastination and nonsense is the best description of "The Martian". The whole film is lengthy, but the pen and ink is spent on the rescuers on the ground. For the rescued hero, he should have described his psychological activities and spiritual changes in large quantities. In the end, it was not shown in the film. What we can see is probably that the actor has formulated strict self-help measures if nothing has happened, and planted small potatoes happily. Even if he encounters another hardship in the middle, we can hardly feel his psychological fluctuations. It has to be said that if the actor is not for the clever stupid, then it is really a failure of the film's character creation.
(Shige produced, original article, no reprint without authorization)
Text:
Shige November 29, 2015 Chou Shi
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