Wonder Woman 1984

Spoiler-free!

This film is divisive, so I'll go ahead and open with my opinion that I don't think it's nearly as good as Wonder Woman, but I also didn't find it atrociously bad, either. I will try and translate my mild disappointment into some strong opinions for your entertainment. 

Diana (Gal Gadot) has spent the last 70-ish years alone and fighting crime. It's a walk in the park for her now. Or a spin around the mall. But then she unknowingly touches a magical wish-granting stone while wishing that her lost love Steve (Chris Pine) was back with her again, and—boom, he's back! But the stone is dangerous, especially in the wrong hands such as Max (Pedro Pascal), and maybe Diana's new work friend Barbara (Kristen Wiig). Things must be put right. So off we go!

Don't tell anyone, but I don't think my opinion is the only opinion people are allowed to have. 

Frankly, this movie had zero chance of being good in the same way the first one was. It's impossible to recreate that specific magic, because of the fundamental changes in Diana's character. She can't be naïve anymore, or out-of-touch with her comparative strength to humans and the ways she can help or influence them. She's now familiar with loss and loneliness, too. None of these things are bad or good in themselves; what matters is how the film treats them. And I think that's the fundamental problem with this movie. It understands that Diana has changed, but doesn't change to suit her. It tries to be more of the same, but instead everything feels out of joint and loose. Like ideas were being thrown at a wall to see what stuck, but nothing stuck—so they just filmed all the ideas laying on the floor.

There are still moments that have impact. Even though the message was spelled out, I was swept up by the opening sequence. And one thing that didn't and shouldn't change about Diana is the sense of wonder she conveys. (Obviously.) It didn't come across as strongly, but was still there, and I enjoyed the moments of wonder even if they were cheesy, like flying through fireworks in the invisible jet or smiling at the world just because it's beautiful. Plot-wise things had a solid foundation. I liked the concept and the bad guys, and I liked the idea of Steve being back. But it ultimately wasn't as satisfying as it should have been, and that's because of the movie's fundamental problem again.

It's not that the movie's actively bad... it just lacks anything to make it good.

This time, it's Steve who's the fish-out-of-water, having appeared in 1984 straight from WWI. So they try to reverse that "seeing the world for the first time" bit that was so cute about Wonder Woman—but it doesn't work the same. Steve is already too worldly and open to the future, while Diana is more jaded, but still aloof from the world herself, so she can't show it to him in a personal way. So why try to recreate what the last movie did? Skipping over that bit and getting to something new may have yielded better results, developing their characters further together, instead of retreading old ground in reversed positions. 

Retreading old ground is the most common misstep a sequel can take. The point of a sequel should be to further the story with more story, but filmmakers get distracted by the idea of doing more and forget that more of the same should be avoided wherever possible. Maybe Patty Jenkins had too much of a confidence boost from Wonder Woman's success. Maybe the studio encouraged this direction. Maybe all anyone could see were dollar signs. But the result is that the movie isn't refined, and that creates an avalanche of noticeable issues. Plot holes, pacing problems, underdeveloped characters, bland tone. The script isn't sharpened. There aren't any side characters. And no 80's era music. No surprises in the plot in the form of twists and turns. And it's long and indulgent—which would be fine if it weren't indulging in lazy simplicity. 

Kristen Wiig and Pedro Pascal feel like the best parts of the movie because at least they're new.

It's like Wonder Woman was a nice, yummy, chocolate cake, so Wonder Woman 1984 mistakenly thought that in order to be yummy, it needed to be a chocolate cake, too. But there was only enough chocolate for one cake, so it used carob instead. And now the cake tastes bad. Gal Gadot and Chris Pine are still there, as are the positive themes of love, wonder, and heroism, so a flavor change surrounding those things isn't such a big deal. If Wonder Woman 1984 had been a vanilla cake, or a strawberry cake, it would still have been a cake, just with a unique flavor instead of a cheapened imitation of the last success.

The Martian

Mild Spoilers.

Six astronauts are sent to Mars for the Ares 3 mission -- Melissa Lewis (Jessica Chastain), Alex Vogel (Aksel Hennie) Chris Beck (Sebastian Stan), Rick Martinez (Michael Peña), Beth Johanssen (Kate Mara) and Mark Watney (Matt Damon). Their mission on Mars was supposed to last 31 sols (Mars days), but on the 18th sol, a huge storm blows in, forcing them to abort their mission. During their escape, they lose one of their men; the lowest ranking, the botanist, Mark Watney.

In any other space movie, this would just be the first casualty of probably many (with six people, you have plenty to spare) but this cheeky lighthearted botanist doesn't get the memo: he wakes up on Mars, alone, with an antennae stuck in his gut, and decides that he's going to live. On Mars. With limited food. In a Hab meant to last 31 days. For 4 years. Until the next Ares mission will come, and he can hitch a ride home. How? Science.

The coolest interplanetary scientist on the planet.

Okay, I just have to say one thing before I can fully concentrate on this movie: The book was better. And once you finish reading this review you'll know that I say that only to emphasize how remarkably, incredibly amazing the book is, not to say that this movie is in any way lacking. Because it's not. Anyway, with books, you can't include an awesome soundtrack!

This story's greatness comes mainly from its stranded hero, Mark Watney. In spite of his nearly hopeless situation, he stays optimistic, and works determinedly to solve the daunting problems in his way with a cheerful attitude. This creates a lot more humor than one would really expect out of a space survival movie, and Matt Damon is the ideal person to play this endearing every-man and unconventional hero. The ability to become a person who can crack a joke while losing a staring contest with death isn't really definable by what one would normally call "talent" -- it's a quality that you either have, or you don't. Well, Matt has it.

He's the same from beginning to end, never going through a "heroic journey" or any character change at all. It's unusual. I love it.

Damon fills the personality of the lonely Martian comic perfectly, and then puts his talented efforts into portraying the serious and intense drama realistically. Charm isn't something that Damon's characters ever really lack, so it's no surprise Watney has that, but the level of vulnerability we see in him is less expected. If you don't absolutely adore this character after the first 30 minutes, you have a heart of stone. Rooting for a hero with complete abandon has never been so effortless and inviting.
 
He may be the lone man on Mars, but he is certainly not alone in the movie. The rest of the crew mentioned above all have their part and do their share. Particularly outstanding is Chastain as the ship's commander. She gives a deep and elegant performance. I also just really love Michael Peña. He always keeps thing up-beat and interesting. I wished to see more of Stan's doctor Beck, but when you're the strong and silent type, that just how it goes. Hennie's German scientist keeps up with the bigger names easily, and Mara hits the mark for the geeky and kinda weird cute girl.

You're awesome, you're awesome... you're ALL awesome!! Sadly Michael Peña is absent in this photo. Michael, you're awesome.

On Earth we have another cast, and another story line, as NASA does their part to bring Watney home alive as well. There, we have Jeff Daniels as the head of NASA, Chiwetel Ejiofor as the head of the Mars missions, Sean Bean as the Ares flight director, Kristen Wiig as NASA's media relations, plus Donald Glover, and Mackenzie Davis. These guys almost split their screen time with Damon, and while none of them come close to having the captivating charm of his Watney, they all do a great and commendable job. Standouts here are Ejiofor, who comes across effortlessly, and controls the screen while he's on it, and Glover who's just... unexpected.

And you, sir, are a steely-eyed missile man.

Fact: space movies are better with a soundtrack from the 70's. This movie uses that knowledge to full advantage, by including several musical working-montages, that are, to be perfectly blunt, epic. This really is the one thing the movie could do that the book couldn't, and it was beautiful, and sometimes very funny, and beautiful. In fact this whole story is a balance of beautiful and funny. The comedy comes too often and is way too unique and funny to be classified as just comic relief, and in the hands of Ridley Scott, the look of the film is consistently breathtakingly gorgeous, and beautifully foreboding. It gets every bit as edge-of-your-seat intense and despairingly emotional as you'd expect from such a hardcore survival adventure, but remembers to give us plenty of relief too -- via wit and fun and grandeur and many glorious moments of triumph against the odds.

Starman, waiting in the sky....

Adaption-wise, there was a lot that was word-for-word the same, and there were some changes; some that I expected and some that I didn't. But, the reason why I love this story so wholeheartedly is not because of the events that take place, and in the end, even the few bigger changes made no real difference because the heart of the film stayed exactly the same. This story focuses on sincerely connecting with its audience, giving us a straightforward story full of simple truths and raw honesty, instead of coolly trying to impress us with cheap, contrived, and empty parlor tricks.

I was wowed by the visual feats and impressed by the practiced, involving film-making. I had tons of fun listening to the musical montages and Watney make sarcastic quips with all that Matt Damon charm. And the fact that most of the film is scientifically viable is endlessly impressive. Those things all make a good, enjoyable movie, but this achieved greater heights than that. I don't abandon my cynicism and reserve while watching movies lightly, but here I willingly fell head over heels, because I found something that was worthy of investing my cares in. A genuine, everyday, unlikely fictional hero set in a story that is designed to sincerely engage and inspire us through him.

The all natural, organic, Martian-grown potato farmer.

The Martian resonates because of a striking harmony of simple, but powerful details. Mark Watney is a good guy, put into a near-impossible situation. Totally alone, he scrapes and fights with an uncrushable spirit. He may feel it, but he's not truly alone; on Earth, complete strangers pitch in valuable time and resources to his desperate cause. And Watney's crew all happily risk their lives for him. The fact that this story is technically science fiction, set on Mars, using real science theoretically in order to create a realistic backdrop, is just that; a really, really, really neat and fantastic backdrop. The core of the story itself as real as it gets; affirming the inexhaustible value and wonder of human life.

On Mars. To the tune of David Bowie. And ABBA. With science!

Anticipating The Martian

Okay, so I'll admit: the first time I saw the trailer for The Martian, I wasn't too impressed. It looked to me to be another Gravity which I consider to be one of the most annoying, contrived, grossly overrated movies of all time. I am not exaggerating. Read my review if you doubt me.

Fortunately, The Martian had just enough publicity going on around it to not let me forget about it, and eventually I discovered that it was based on a book. (Written by Andy Weir.) That changed my first judgment because I seriously doubted that anyone could write a book as bad as Gravity, and then even if they did no one would want to make it a movie. I found recommendations for the novel, saying that it was good, that it was gripping, and that it was realistic. I believe it was the last bit that sealed the deal for me. I bought the book at my first opportunity, and immediately... held on to it for two and a half weeks. I had just started another book, and I can't read two books at once. I hurried through the other book way faster than I would have otherwise, and very often glanced longingly at the striking orange cover of The Martian as it sat on the corner of my desk.

It surprised me how much I had flip-flopped. One day I wasn't even interested enough in the movie to think that I might want to see it in theaters, the next I was too anxious to know how the story went to even wait for the movie's release. But it really is simple: I decided that I wanted to be interested, and then I was. I gave my capacity for anticipation full range, and it ran wild. After buying the book I avoided spoilers from the movie like the plague, so I could enjoy the novel's twists as much as possible. And after I finally finished the 10-hour-read, The Romance of the Forest, I gave myself a few days off to cleanse my reading-palate (it's a thing) and then got started. I should have waited longer, because I finished in four days (it was 8 1/2 hours of reading time) and now I'm dying to see this movie that is releasing a week from today. I might not last that long.

I wanted to take all -- or at least most -- of the eleven days I gave myself to read so I could take my time and savor it, but as it goes with gripping books, I really just couldn't put it down. I when I had to I just spent all my time thinking about it, and gushing to my (annoyingly only-mildly-interested) family.

I won't go into spoilery details, but the book was downright incredible. I've never read anything like it. First of all it had more profanity in it than all the other books I've ever read combined (though that's really not a hard feat) but I was able to forgive that easily. Probably because of how realistic it was. Oh my goodness, it was so realistic. Math, physics, electronics, etc, etc, were all thoroughly explained. I admit I didn't understand some of it, but it all made sense, if you know what I mean. Besides that, it was extremely well-written with a very unique style, great humor and a great sense of action and excitement. And it was full of many, many, fantastic characters, which I didn't expect with it being about one man alone on Mars. I loved every second of the 8 hours and 30 mins it took me to get to the end.

And now it's movie time. I remembered from the trailer that Matt Damon was in the lead as Mark Watney, and also that Jessica Chastain and Michael Pena were in the cast. It was easy enough to guess who they were playing (and they absolutely perfect fyi). But I just looked at the whole cast list and who everyone is playing, and with each name I got more and more excited: "Chiwetel Ejiofor? Perfect. Jeff Daniels? Alright! Kate Mara? Right, totally! Kristen Wiig? Ohhh, yes! Wait a minute, Sean Bean???? YES! He's exactly Sean Bean! And what? Sebastian Stan? Did that say Sebastian Stan?!?!? OH MY GOSH THIS CAST IS AMAZING!"

And, also, you know.... Ridley Scott is directing.

I adored this book. It is currently my favorite book, though once my excitement over it settles it'll likely land at number two. And today marks the beginning of my week-long wait to see it in movie format. I'll try not to get my hopes up too high. I'm sure they'll have to at least leave some things out, after all. But if I'm honest with myself, my hopes and expectations have already gathered up all my excitement into a huge rocket and blasted off toward the skies. Mars, here I come.

The Martian opens on Oct. 2nd, and currently sits at a very promising 93% on Rotten Tomatoes!

Have you read The Martian? Are you planning on seeing the movie? How excited for it are you, and what are you expecting? Let me know in the comments!