the martian

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3659388

the martian was ok.  they chose to tell it largely via the martian's video blog, no doubt influenced by the similar gimmick of the mission log used by the book.  they made it work, mostly by supplementing the video log with normally-shot scenes, but it was pretty awkward.  it did do a good job of breaking up the storytelling to let matt damon get introspective and add some humour.  too much winking at the camera, but i appreciate that they gave it their best shot.

if i had to point at just one thing that i liked, it would be the technical accuracy.  most movies that get technical fall down so hard that you can tell they blew it with your high school physics knowledge, but i think you would have had to had some fairly specific knowledge to see the bugs in this one.  the standard is so low, you do not really have to do a good job with technical accuracy, so i really appreciated it here.  i did not read the book, but my understanding is that the kudos should mostly be shoved in that direction.

the martian gets three slingshots and a velocity match.  hi chewy!