Trailer here:



So I recently read the book this film will be based on. I'm definitely pretty keen to see the movie having read the book. The basic premise is that a botanist/Mechanical Engineer is stranded on a manned mission to Mars after he is mistakenly left for dead. He has to survive using his wits and knowledge to get through things where pretty much every day is going to kill him. He has supplies designed to last 6 people 31 days. If he can figure out how survive several years on Mars and re-establish contact with NASA, there is a chance he can be rescued on the next manned mission to the planet in a couple of years time.

Now obviously, that's the briefest synopsis to this excellent read and forthcoming film I can give. If I'm honest, it doesn't do it justice. The book is pretty short however and I was disappointed that the author decided to make the cut off for the end when he did. (SPOILER)The book ends when the crew who accidentally left him behind go back and perform a daring rescue that included building a bomb to blow a forward airlock open to ensure they could get to him instead of sailing past. Sure the main character is safe but it's some 200+ days from when the crew eventually get back to Earth, it's also fraught with lots of danger as the ship is operating far beyond what was intended and is starting to wear down)

If you're a fan of science fiction where the science seems to legitimately hold up for most things then you'll like this. The book also at many points had me literally laughing out loud in my room like a mad man. (It's not a long read thankfully, I ploughed through in just 2 days reading on my Kindle). So I'm hoping that the film will do the books more comical moments justice and not try to make it too dark. The topic of the film is already dark enough, it doesn't need darkening down.

It'll also be interesting to see how the translation from Book to Screen is done. The book takes form of the protagonist Mark Watney's journal written at the end of each day's activity or when something goes wrong/happens, there's huge jumps in the calendar at some points (I.E: Sol - a Martian Day equal to 24:40; 359 to 400 or the like) where it is presented that Mark never wrote anything because he was too busy . It also crops in to narrative sections which explains the various things going on which lead to key events presented as if it was a documentary piecing the journal together. The final part of the book is presented as live interaction at the time between the various members of the crew on the Ares 3 mission and NASA and their supporting bodies. These 3 very distinct and different styles seem to work OK in the books but I'm not sure how that'll flow with the film adaptation.

So discuss: Anyone else keen to see the film? Anyone else read the book?