OK, just came from seeing the Martian.
I read the book. Now I saw the movie. It was an entertaining move, but I'm being kind when I say it was
loosely based on the book.
Spoiler alert:
They did get the character of Watney somewhat correct. But other than that the movie was about human relations and emotions about 95% and the rest 5% was about the grandness, respect for science and the human condition that the book so strongly focuses on.
They had added a lot of dialogue that was just to support the emotional/relational story, such as a long "speech" by Watney to his parents (no such thing is alluded to in the book) etc.
Now for the science, OMG, I know in the book there are some pretty improbable stuff (the biggest being how the suits and hab blocks radiation) but in the movie the list just goes on and on:
- Seeing the hab made med laugh out loud. This place is for a 31 SOL mission, right? So they're going to have closets for their clothes? Shelves and cupboards in the kitchen? A box each with crap in it? Metal forks for eating? Their own personal/private shoulder bags made out of leather or fabric lying around this huge hab with zillions of large screen TVs? Honestly watching the movie you'd think they had sent up hundreds of tons of stuff...
- The Martian "weather": Storms look like tornadoes, after the airlock has breached and he seals it with duct tape (not resin!) whenever Mars is "windy" it flaps - in and out! (The pressure in the hab is 1 atmosphere, on the outside it's 0,6% of the pressure of 1 atmosphere (0.087 psi) - sure make it flap inwards.
- The Martian geology. Hint the surface of Mars looks like this:
not like this:
- Astronauts exiting a space ship in deep space without tethering
Etc. etc. (the list could go on).
I read Andy Weir's AMA on reddit. He went on about how great the movie was. Sure, it's great for his fame and especially for his bank account. Plus is probably cool to see someone else do something creative based on something you've written. But the movie, again, has little to do with the book he wrote.
https://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/3m34oc/i_am_andy_weir_author_of_the_martian_ama/
And then I see this tweet by Elon (supposing he's seen the movie):
C'mon Elon, the movie is not "mostly accurate". Elon if anyone knows this very much. He could have said "fun, entertaining, interesting, exciting" and it would be true. But "mostly accurate" now that's a blatant lie. So why does Elon Musk lie to promote this film? Well of course he wants as much attention and hype created around going to Mars as possible, he wants to win support for his Endeavour and he wants the public to get excited about space in general, and going to Mars in particular.
I'd give the movie 6/10. A strong "meh".