The Martian

    "I'm Mark Watney and I'm still alive...obviously"

The red sands of Mars have settled following a forceful storm, the sky is a healthy red, the Sun bearing down on the rocky mesa's of the Martian landscape. One certain mound of sand is disturbed by the twitching movements of a man laying prone, waking from unconsciousness. His orange-and-white space-suit is both punctured and sealed by a small piece of debris shallowly embedded in his stomach. The debris, leftover from a destroyed long-range communications satellite, is not the only problem the astronaut Mark Watney (Matt Damon) now has to face as he scans the nearby arid landscape. Close by is the habitat Mark and his team have occupied on the planet for the eighteen days preceding the storm and the remains of the launch pad of the team's only rocket back home, which has long since departed with Mark's colleagues believing him dead. Alone on Mars with no communications and limited food, Watney resolves to sustain himself, to communicate, to survive, or as he puts it to "science the shit outta this."

The Martian, Ridley Scott's latest, distances itself from the last decade of epics from the prolific director (Robin Hood, Prometheus, Exodus: Gods and Kings and Kingdom of Heaven) and also, perhaps especially so, from the recent survival dramas of Everest, All Is Lost, Interstellar and the powerhouse Gravity, most notably through the solid writing from Drew Goddard (Cabin in the Woods, World War Z, Cloverfield, Daredevil). Goddard's writing of the characters in the Martian is a blend of Aaron Sorkin's jargon-fuelled relentlessness and Joss Whedon's comical perfection and wit, which has a wonderful effect on the film's tone. Unlike Gravity's direct minimalism, Everest's biopic cliches and Interstellar's cold, Doctor-Who-eyness, The Martian thankfully manages to keep a keen sense of humour to balance out the drama and despair. And this is sold by an ensemble cast of both dramatic actors and practiced comedians including Damon and Jessica Chastain of Interstellar, Benedict Wong of Prometheus, and Kate Mara, Michael Pena, Sebastian Stan, Jeff Daniels, Donald Glover, Kirsten Wiig and Sean Bean (who delivers a silly and charming Lord of the Rings gag).

                        "Every human being has a basic instinct: to help each other out."

Visually, The Martian is pretty, even with it's occasionally questionable computer effects and over-use of Go-Pro footage. The production design is obviously (and smartly) adapted from Prometheus and at times the score the soaring French horns of that score threaten to burst onto the soundscape here. The obligatory Chinese pandering scenes of The Martian are perhaps even more contrived than those in Trans4mers, and even the Chinese Space Agency exterior is the same as the Chinese corporate headquarters in Age of Extinction. But in summation, The Martian is a sci-fi survival story that is slightly more fun than it is tense, but with a strong ensemble, capable lead, balanced writing and solid production. It all comes together to make NASA's perfectl, pretty and impeccably fashioned geek army and the film's two-and-a-half-hour run-time downright fun.

Hercules

This latest obsession with Hercules isn't the first time its happened in movie history. In the 90s there were two TV series with one spinoff series and an animated movie, so two movies in one year is nothing. I think I saw the better of those two movies.

I thought that this was going to be a very different movie. From the trailer I had expected a movie about the Twelve Labours of Hercules (which I know every one of), but we are instead introduced to the man behind the myth. Hercules (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson) is a mercenary whose only ambition is to get enough gold to retire to the Black Sea and live in peace. He is offered a job by Lord Cotys (John Hurt) to help stop a civil war.

Instead of just presenting a demigod Hercules, this movie looks at how the legend is born. Hercules' nephew Iolaus (Reece Ritchie) heightens the abilities of the hero and exaggerates the labours he completed for King Eurystheus (Joseph Fiennes).

Dwayne Johnson is a sensible choice for Hercules. His muscular physique makes it believable that he is the strongest man ever (obviously), but he is also able to perfectly convey the torment that haunts him after he has murdered his wife and children (or so the legend goes).

Though this movie is incredibly tense at times, there are some moments of great comic relief. These come from quite a few characters. Iolaus can be quite funny, but Ian McShane's Amphiaraus steals the show with the premonitions of his own death. Ingrid Bolsø Berdal, Aksel Hennie and Rufus Sewell round out Hercules rag tag group of mercenaries.

Verdict: Normally anything made by Brett Ratner would make my skin crawl, but there isn't anything for him to ruin here. It is all that it sets out to be; a swords and sandals adventure that certainly has the right level of scope.