The Martian

**Spoiler Alert**

Director: Ridley Scott/Starring: Matt Damon, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Jessica Chastain, Jeff Daniels, Michael Pena, Sean Bean, Kate Mara, Mackenzie Davis, Kristen Wiig, Benedict Wong and Donald Glover

At last; after suffering through so many mediocre Ridley Scott movies, the director finally scores big with his latest film: The Martian. Scott, always one to confuse dazzling special effects for gripping storytelling, finds a happy medium here; making his new film his most complete cinematic effort this century. Science fiction films have experienced a resurgence in recent years with renewed storytelling vigor. Films like Interstellar and Gravity are more recent examples. Scott's film continues that trend with a smart, spellbinding drama that is both powerful and visually captivating.

Based on the novel by the same name, The Martian tells the story of an astronaut named Mark Watney (Matt Damon); a botanist who is part of an expedition exploring the surface of Mars. The NASA team, led by military-affiliated Melissa Lewis (Jessica Chastain; as wonderful as always), finds itself caught in a violent sandstorm that threatens to not only topple their capsule, but to endanger their lives as well. In the struggle to return to the capsule, Watney is blown backward when a satellite dish strikes him; leaving his whereabouts unknown in the howling tempest. Unable to perform a rescue, the team is forced to leave Watney behind as they narrowly escape in their capsule, which transports them to the safe environs of their mother ship, the Hermes.

Back at NASA, Director Teddy Sanders (a terrific Jeff Daniels), Mission Director Vincent Kapoor (an excellent Chiwetel Ejiofor) and Director of PR Annie Montrose (an exceptional Kristen Wiig) break the news of Watney's passing to the world, which causes a global outpouring of grief. Meanwhile, the Hermes crew heads for Earth with heavy hearts.

But the next Martian day, as camera tracks slowly over the red, deserty landscape, we see Watney partially buried in sand; his suit life supports systems still functional. When he awakes, he finds a small, metal rod; formerly part of the antenna, sticking out of his side. In pain and running low on oxygen, he makes his way back to the habitat. Safely inside, he immediately tends to his injury, which involves procedures that are mildly graphic.

Shortly thereafter, Watney begins a videolog of his efforts to stay alive, which also serve as a kind of narration for the movie and a way to make the science and technical aspects accessible to the audience.

What follows after demonstrates Watney's heroic resolve as he makes a vow to stay alive. We see him take stock of the finite food supply, which he determines will keep him alive for a little over 365 sols; the unit of time by which the mission measures days. Realizing NASA has a follow-up, manned mission in four years, Watney formulates a long-term survival plan which involves finding a way to grow food in unsuitable Martian soil and a water source in which to feed it. How he manages to accomplish both is a testament to Watney's mind-boggling ingenuity.

Back on Earth, NASA mission personnel discover that Watney may in fact be alive after watching time-lapse satellite photos of the habitat, which shows the rover Watney has been driving parked in different locations. The possibility that Watney might be alive sets off a firestorm within NASA, which presents Sanders, Kapoor and Montrose with the problem as how to present such a development to the world. When satellite photos also record Watney's peripatetic wanderings in the rover, they begin devising a way to communicate with him, which is mainly abetted by another clever move on Watney's part, which involves a serendipitous moment in the film I won't reveal here.

How Watney communicates with Earth--NASA specifically, is another inspired sequence, which involves the help of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, who designed most of the mission hardware. The JPL leader, Bruce Ng (Benedict Wong), becomes a key character in the film and an indispensable part of the effort to help Watney.

Aware of Watney's limited supply of food and life support, Sanders, Kapoor and Ng devise a way to resupply him before the next scheduled manned mission. Pushing ahead with a launch that circumvents testing procedures, the rocket fails but help arrives from an unlikely collaborator: the Chinese. Recognizing Watney's dire situation, the Chinese offer NASA a rocket of their own.

Not long after, the Hermes crew is finally apprised of the Watney's situation, which Sanders and Kapoor hoped to avoid. When the Hermes crew suggests a rescue, Sanders rejects the idea; citing the problem of adding an extra 580 sols to their mission. But the Hermes crew decides to forge ahead anyway, aware that their actions will be considered mutinous.

The rescue attempt in the gripping third act entails formidable maneuvering by both Watney and the Hermes crew, as well as the interplay between NASA and the JPL.

Like Interstellar, The Martian offers us a story both visionary and intelligent. Of course it helps to have an imaginative book and a brilliant adaptation from which to draw inspiration. Screenwriter Drew Goddard, who penned Cabin in the Woods and adapted World War Z, is the perfect choice to interpret Andy Weir's book. His dialogue scintillates and he sustains a refreshing level of intelligence; never dumbing the story down for a minute.

So many performances, particularly Matt Damon's, make the story seem so real and heartfelt. I especially enjoyed watching and listening to Jeff Daniels, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Kristen Wiig's verbal sparring.

I had mixed feelings about the disco soundtrack and the use of David Bowie's Starman but both give the film more human color and manage not to be too intrusive.

Polish cinematographer Dariusz Wolski gives us a very realistic-looking Martian landscape; both mysterious and beautiful. I'm guessing the Jordan desert stood in for Mars; the rocky crags can also be seen in Lawrence of Arabia .

NASA may want to thank Ridley Scott for the film. It may single-handedly rekindle interest in a Mars mission.

Aside from the great story, the stunning visuals and the superlative acting, one of the film's major strengths is its ability to stimulate one's interest in science. Botany, physics, astronomy, biology, as well as mathematics and engineering, are made exciting and sexy.

In spite of Watney's troubles, the idea of setting foot on Mars is irresistible. When he sits in the desert, contemplating the alien surroundings, it's hard not to think about how this will become reality in a decade or two.

Scott's film is some kind of marvel and easily one of the year's best. It is an exhilarating adventure and a paean to human tenacity and ingenuity. It is also one of the few films I've seen this year I would consider seeing a second time in a theater. I just may do that.

The Lazarus Effect

**Spoiler Alert**

Director: David Gelb/Starring: Mark Duplass, Olivia Wilde, Sarah Bolger, Evan Peters and Donald Glover

It's hard to square the film The Lazarus Effect; a yawner of a horror flick which strains itself (but not too much) to be scary, with director David Gelb's terrific, 2011 documentary, Jiro Dreams of Sushi. What could the two films possibly have in common? Not much, save for Gelb's direction. While the documentary is a fascinating look at a sushi chef who pursues perfection, The Lazarus Effect is a story about a group of young scientists who resurrect a doggie and a great looking chick, with what should be horrifying results. No, they don't try to resurrect sushi but I wish they had.

Gelb's feature film debut is a bit of a clunker but it didn't start off that way.
Mark Duplass and the lovely Olivia Wilde play corporate-funded, university scientists (who are also engaged) Frank and Zoe; who have developed something known as the Lazarus Serum. When said serum is injected into the brain of a deceased recipient and stimulated with electricity, the subject is miraculously brought back from the dead.

When the film begins, Frank and Zoe, along with their student assistants, Clay (Evan Peters) and Niko (Donald Glover) and a student documentarian Eva (Sarah Bolger), have recently tested the serum on a dog. As the dead pooch rests on a table, the serum is injected into his brain while voltage is applied. At first the experiment seems a failure until the dog violently spasms into life. Though the group toasts one another for their dramatic success, the audience is left wondering how and who would fund such an insane project. Though Frank explains in Eva's documentary how the serum has practical applications--something about helping EMTs' do their jobs--the idea that a group of scientists would abandon their original project to pursue something so wacky and without corporate or academic oversight seems more than just a little preposterous. But Duplass and Wilde do their level best to give the story credibility and they do pretty well, considering.

But of course all horror films about the hubris of science and scientists playing God will inevitably become cautionary tales and this movie is no exception.

The dog soon shows abnormal behavior, like appetite loss and sudden, violent, rage-filled outbursts which unnerve the group. But other than a scene where the dog stands menacingly over Zoe while she sleeps, he doesn't do much else to terrify the crew other than wrecking the lab kitchen. I think an intervention by dog whisperer Cesar Millan might have been in order but I don't think he handles doggie un-dead.

The project suffers a major setback when the company that supplies the groups research grant is bought out by a rival. Operatives of the new company invade the lab, seizing all data relating to the project. Desperate to retain ownership of the Lazarus serum and all rights pertaining to its creation, the group breaks into the lab to recreate the experiment on film. While another dog rests on the table (how and where the scientists appropriate dead dogs is never explained), the experiment proceeds but in applying voltage, Zoe is accidentally electrocuted. While futile efforts are made to resuscitate her, a desperate Frank decides to use the serum on his fiancee, much to the horror of his assistants and Eva. When the experiment works, Zoe, like the dog, begins to show signs of not being quite right. She anticipates what people say and her fingers begin to show signs of something resembling necrosis. She also stares creepily at one of the assistants.

And sure enough, some sort of power failure keeps the group imprisoned in the lab (a lab wouldn't have fail-safe escapes in case of fire or other disasters?), which means Zoe, who has now become the chick version of the undead, begins attacking the group.

Earlier in the film, we learned Zoe is tormented by nightmares about a traumatic childhood incident involving her inability to free neighbors from their burning apartment. After her resurrection, the nightmares attain verisimilitude as the filmmaker Eva finds herself projected into in the burning hallway of Zoe's childhood memory. We also learn that Zoe's soul may not have made the transition to the afterlife, which is supposed to explain her wraith-like condition. But how can the dog's predicament, which is identical to Zoe's, be explained? Does he suffer from some sort of doggie guilt from an incident in his past? A time he mauled a mailman's leg perhaps?

Ultimately, as the audience may have guessed from the trailer, Zoe goes on a rampage that doesn't spare anyone (save the dog). A frail attempt at a plot twist comes at the end but by then, I was too bored and un-scared to care much about the outcome.

Of course science and scientists are scapegoated (yet again) in a movie while religious notions about the afterlife and tunnels of bright light are given credence. In Hollywood movies, scientists are never to be trusted while anyone espousing any religious, quasi-rational view about the here-after is to be perceived as level-headed. That may never change. But, it shouldn't take the intellect of research scientists to know resurrecting one from death is a knuckle-headed idea. It's disturbing to consider that someday someone may actually fund such a project.

I think Duplass and Wilde are talented actors who deserve a better movie. In time, they will no doubt find more inspired scripts and director David Gelb will surely find better material to showcase his talents.

I'm sorry to say The Lazarus Effect has nary a scare in its short running time.

But hold on, what happened to the dog? Was that ever explained?

Wait a minute, I see him...there he is...he's in my yard! No...go away...nice doggie...please...I'm sorry I said that stuff about the mailman...No, not my throat...please, let me live to see the sequel...AAAAAAAAAARRRRRGGGGGGGGGGG!