The Martian eschews intellectual high-ground, implicit gloom, and deep esoteric science that often stifles so many space movies, for an intelligent, compelling story. It is the easily the most entertaining space movie in years, perhaps even more so than the brilliant Gravity (2013).

For Ridley Scott, this is quite a turn from the exquisite but ultimately dull and meandering Prometheus (2012). The Martian has the advantage of being based on a book. Meaning that it is more than just an interesting idea. Someone (Andy Weir) already took the pains of figuring out a narrative arc that leads to a satisfying conclusion, which in this case, while extremely populist and overly simplistic, is still emotionally appealing and, despite everything, believable.

Matt Damon is excellent as Mark Watney, the man stuck on Mars. The rest of the cast is largely stick figures emoting exactly the lines one would expect. All good and easily swappable. To its credit, the film has no silly easily mockable politicians.

The big fail - why is the character "Venkat Kapoor" renamed to "Vincent Kapoor" and why does Chiwetel Ejiofor play that character? There is nothing in that character that say, an Irfan Khan, couldn't have played. (not that there are any characters that Irfan Khan can or doesn't play anyway)

Would an Indian actor playing an Indian character have pushed diversity too far for Hollywood taste?