Saw this last night in 3D IMAX.

SPOILER ALERT

A solid B.

Special effects were well done - you felt if you were on Mars.

I have become far too jaded I guess to give the film an A and I am fairly sure that my opinion ranges from worthless to minority. But I have just grown weary of the stale, same old, everything that can go wrong does go wrong.

This dude has got to find away to grow food on Mars. What an exquisite challenge that is. Watching the character go through the intellectual process to achieve this miracle was riveting in and of itself. The same for trying to establish communications with Earth as well as a host of other challenges that one naturally faces in this situation. All good enough stuff - but no - you got to have the six or seven major reversals that anyone who has watched a movie can see coming from a mile away. It just has become so tedious to me. And - IMO - the film time could have been better spent learning about the Protag - his family - his religion - or absence thereof  - etc. etc. i.e., a little more Castaway.

I will give the writer credit for this - a great job on making the impossible seem somehow possible (e.g., the steps to grow food, the communication link, etc). There were no what the fok moments for me.

Anyway - a solid B that I think could have been an A+ had they only stayed away from some standard formulas.

Agreed on all counts.

I really thought it would be boring and would be a waste of money but I was really surprised. Great job to the writer IMO. I thought they used a great amount of comedy which I liked. I love how they used the botany stuff...felt intelligent and well done. And I liked the character. I mean I was rooting for him from the beginning. The ONLY thing that I have to grouch about was predictability. But they kept throwing obstacles and I kept watching and both me and my husband liked it. The audience clapped at the end of the movie :) Love that.

SPOILER ALERT... ALWAYS

I really enjoyed this. I agree with the above review that it was a little tedious as everything went wrong, especially during the rescue mission. But, the original author of this gets major props from me for ingenuity. Things like wrapping up the spent nuclear core of an old ship to keep him warm in the rover were brilliant.

I also liked how Mark always stayed focused and didn't really have any mental breakdowns. I'm sure I would've, but that stuff always bores the hell out of me on film.

I did find the timing odd as they kept saying everything was on a 24 minute delay, but it looked as though NASA was watching the rescue in real time. Also, maybe times will change for the better like this, but I don't see them broadcasting the whole rescue mission to the world. Especially one that had such low chances of success.

It's a fine film and definitely worthy of a big screen ticket.

James

I'm glad that the film seems to have done the novel justice because that was a fantastic read.

I enjoyed this film. I don't like all the family/relationship stuff, as I find that tedious and overdone in stories these days. When things get mushy I generally zone out and consider making some coffee. The obstacles thrown came across as genuine Martian-like issues to me and very well timed. The story did everything it was supposed to. The script seemed well written. I didn't notice any overt exposition or OTN dialogue. The actors played their parts brilliantly.

I enjoyed this wayyy more than expected. That counts huge in a movie experience. A bit long but very well made.

I also liked how they balanced multiple characters fairly well. Some of the spacing was off, I'm guessing this is due to novel adaptation? Can't fit it all, I assume.

I think Damon's character needed a bit more family back on Earth for him to think about. As is, not too much for him to survive for besides himself.

Also, clearly the body doubles. I mean, come on Damon, Tom Hanks lost the weight for Cast Away, you couldn't lose a dangerous amount of weight for the part. Just not committed enough, eh Matty?

Tony.

I felt the first 2/3 of this movie could have been done as a cheap fake documentary and almost nothing would be lost.

Wasn't a fan of how this movie was structured and how it felt. Not my cup of tea.

Watched this a few days ago. Thoroughly enjoyed it. I thought Damon was brilliant and the movie on a whole worked for me. Just the right amount of humour too, so we're not constantly bogged down by scientific mumbo jumbo - which I enjoy by the way, but a film of this scale needs something else for it to work. I think that's why Interstellar failed in many ways for me.

Anyway, yeah, enjoyable film with a solid story and acting.