Criticism | Lost on Mars – Ridley Scott hits the mark on a clever and stimulating film

Back to the genre that devotes it, Ridley Scott hits the nail on the head this time!

Filmmaker Ridley Scott’s career quickly solidified through the sci-fi genre, when he followed two absolute classics: Alien – The Eighth Passenger (1979) and Blade Runner – The Hunter of Android (1982). Since then, he is considered one of the masters of the style, and this is not surprising, because the two titles served as the basis for the component in question.

However, if we delve deeper into the director’s career, we will see that after this magnificent phase, Scott only had gaps in greatness. The case of Thelma & Louise (1991) or the good times of Os Vigaristas (2003) and O Gângster (2007). And it took the director about 30 years to get back to working with sci-fi, when he made Prometheus (2012) visually interesting, which had slight criticisms and didn’t even come close to the level of the initial work already mentioned. .

Recently we had two big hits that took place in space and were successful, the Petard Gravidade (2013) and the ambitious Interstellar (2014). Perhaps those copies got Ridley thinking about his choices and deciding to film Lost on Mars, a feature film that surprisingly saves the good form of late brother Tonny Scott and puts Matt Damon on the rise.

The film, which is based on the eponymous book by Andy Weir – a writer who spent three years developing the product – and deals with an accident to astronaut Mark Watney (Damon) on Mars, when, due of a dust storm, his crew is forced to leave him behind. With little oxygen and supplies, Mark uses science and creativity to save time and be saved. Which is almost a new version of Castaway (2000), only spent on another planet.

The premise seems and is quite straightforward, as during the tape we will be following the astronaut’s combat and achievements in his new and lonely life on Mars. The difference is in the way the plot and narrative are set up and constructed. Even running at 141 minutes, The Martian (in the original) engages from start to finish, precisely because of Pietro Scalia’s parallel assembly – mixing the efforts of NASA with the efforts of Mark – and Scott’s firm command, still secure in camera angles.

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While little is known about the protagonist’s personal life, the way the character is showcased and Matt Damon’s charisma makes the identification process instantaneous. Mark’s many carefree efforts set us up to support the guy. And while the offline storytelling may seem like a lot of explanatory, its absurd style makes the viewer understand the mental imbalance and what the pretensions of his crazy experiments are.

The feature film has three hearts well divided and explained, and has one of the most stellar casts the director has ever had in hand – and that’s nothing. Names like Jessica Chastain, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Kate Mara, Sean Bean, Jeff Daniels, Kristen Wiig, Michael Peña, Donald Glover, Sebastian Stan, Mackenzie Davis, among others, feature the designer’s cast, and many of them don’t. than small but important luxury appearances, precisely because they add weight.

From an aesthetic point of view, the film is also very interesting because it not only makes the planet, but ships, satellites and space stations appear believable to the audience. Always elegant, Dariusz Wolski’s photography is careful not to overdo it in saturated tones outside the Earth. Showing himself to be narratively important when using bluish lenses, he puts forward the NASA researchers, with a certain coldness in the face of the matter at hand. Scott is also adept at using 3D in aerial scenes, when it gives depth of field, giving greater amplitude to the sprawling vastness.

So it’s great to see that Ridley Scott once again did such a balanced job as this Lost on Mars. A film that is narratively effective (because it keeps the viewer always on), thematically interesting (dealing with such a delicate genre in such a simplistic way), and still leaves room for a bit of a discussion of the benefits of science and science. importance of discovery in the midst of modern life.

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