Movie Reviews: The Martian

Opening weekend got away from me, but I really enjoyed seeing The Martian so soon after reading the book and wanted to talk about it.

Rating: B+
Run-time: Quite long (141 minutes)
Release date: October 2, 2015
Adaptation faithfulness: high
The verdict: If you love science-focused sci-fi and have the patience for the impressive run time, this one is absolutely worth it.

I'm doing some compare-and-contrast with the book, so brace for spoilers.

The Martian

And we're back, this time with a shorter review style that will hopefully make this work better in the long run. 

Rating: 4 stars
Length: A bit longer than average but uses space well (381 pages in trade paperback)
Publication: originally in 2011 via Andy Weir's blog, now available in trade paperback from Broadway Books
Premise: Mark Watney was thrilled to be on the Ares Three mission to Mars...until the dust storm led his team to believe that he died there and they left him behind. Now he has to survive on a planet inhospitable to life and hope that he can let anyone know that he's alive.
Warnings: lots of swearing
Recommendation: This is amazing from start to finish. Read it if you're willing to put up with some slight slowness at the beginning-- believe me, it pays off. 

Very minor spoilers for the book, but nothing that you couldn't pick up from the movie trailer or from the cover copy of some of the movie tie-in editions (no specific events spoiled). 

Bonus this time around: I'm seeing the movie this Friday and plan to do a short review of that this weekend as well. Here's hoping it lives up the book.