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Space movies (possible spoilers)

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I've had a running gag with my friends over the past decade or so, that whenever Kip Thorne comes up in conversation (which is surprisingly often) I mention that I had dinner with him where we discussed singularities, worm holes, and his bet with Steven Hawking among other things.

The gag part is that it wasn't really a one on one dinner, but a dinner I attended with about eight other Cornell physics students. Nonetheless it was memorable and fascinating.

A bit off topic. I can't beat your dinner but maybe I can come close. I was with a few other grad students at Eugene Wigner's house. His brother-in-law, Paul Dirac, was visiting. It was an awesome evening. Dirac was very humble and low key. When asked about magnetic monopoles he said they seemed like a great idea but based on experimental results it looked like he was wrong.
 
I watched Interstellar for the first time last night. Mind blowing. There were so many 2001 parallels I almost lost track of them all. I was pleased that finally a major Hollywood film portrayed rockets firing in space with no added fake sound.
But what struck me the most was the intense human emotions the story portrayed; a father's love for his children, the aching loneliness of the first 12 astronauts and the enormous risks they all willingly took on, and the way one of them (Mann) cracked under the pressure.
It was quite wonderful, and mostly believable, though the idea that a human could go into a "suspended animation" kind of state by just zipping up into a body bag and lying down in a pool of water strained credulity. Of course there would be more to it than that, and they didn't think it was important to show any details, but the process just seemed so casual to me.
I do think it was a mistake to use a high profile actor like Damon for the Mann role. His recognizable face was too distracting when they revived him.
Also, McConaughey's character was a bit too much of a hot dog pilot, I felt that was overdone.
I loved the sentient robot character, and the physical design of the robot was innovative and very original.
 
It strained credulity for me when they landed on the water world near the black hole. What bothered me was that they had gravitational effects but ignored the high energy radiation effects.

I still remember a point my professor made when he asked what would happen to the Earth if our star suddenly became a black hole. Most of the class said the Earth would be sucked in by the gravity. The professor smiled and said "no." The mass and therefore the gravity would not change.
 
Back to The Martian, I used Audible to listen to the audio book instead (just as I did with Vance's Musk biography as well). The book was fascinating!

Looking forward to the movie although I do have a problem with the casting: Chiwetel Ejiofor (for sure, a great actor) for "Venkat Kapoor" - yet another case of #EMMASTONED (as in Aloha). Being of the same ethnic origin as "Venkat", I'd find it particularly hard to take Chiwetel's portrayal seriously. Ridley Scott has a bit of a problem with his "whitewashing" approach to casting.

Not that the narrator, R.C. Bray, of the audio book was any better. The stereotyped sing-songy narration of Venkat Kapoor's lines was distracting too.

Preview in the NYT:

‘The Martian’ Brings a Nerd Thriller Into the Mainstream

Not a flattering review from the BBC:

BBC - Culture - Film Review: Does The Martian get lost in space?
 
I finally got around to reading The Martian today. Though rather predictable, it was a quick read and interesting enough that I managed it in one sitting.

Speaking of casting, I too find it odd they didn't put an Indian in the role of Venkat Kapoor. While reading, I pictured Irrfan Khan, accent and mannerisms.

GG's comment got me curious and I checked the cast list on IMDB (The Martian (2015) - Full Cast Crew - IMDb). Seems they nixed all the would be Asian roles. I was checking who'd play Bruce Ng, but seems they've either renamed that character or removed him from the movie version. The Chinese subplot must be near nonexistent in the movie, since I don't see any Chinese actors listed. Also while reading I assumed Mindy Park was Korean American, but I see they've cast Mackenzie Davis in the role.
 
IGG's comment got me curious and I checked the cast list on IMDB (The Martian (2015) - Full Cast Crew - IMDb). Seems they nixed all the would be Asian roles. I was checking who'd play Bruce Ng, but seems they've either renamed that character or removed him from the movie version. The Chinese subplot must be near nonexistent in the movie, since I don't see any Chinese actors listed.
Yes that seems likely. But any time a book is adapted for film, invariably the plot has to be simplified because there simply isn't time in a film for all the book's plot points to be be shown or the film would be many hours too long.
Since the joint US-Chinese mission attempt described in the book ended in failure, it can be removed from the film without effecting the story.
I was also disappointed to learn that the film changed the ethnicity of the main NASA character. There seemed no compelling reason to do that. I hope the film does not come across as being top-heavy with Caucasian males, but I fear it will be. Hollywood....
 
The fact that they cast Matt Damon as the uber nerd scientist is all you need to know about the casting. Matt is many things, but a scientific nerd isn't one of them. I suspect that they cast him as the lead because he had played a scientist in Interstellar, and while he was miscast in that too, the film was successful. Hollywood casting agents are nothing if not lazy and repetitive.

Now The Martian DOES need a hollywood star as the lead since it is a geeky film to begin with, and if they didn't have a bankable star, they'd end up with a box office flop. I've seen Russell Crowe play a scientist really, really well (The Insider). I'm sure there are others...
 
The fact that they cast Matt Damon as the uber nerd scientist is all you need to know about the casting. Matt is many things, but a scientific nerd isn't one of them. I suspect that they cast him as the lead because he had played a scientist in Interstellar, and while he was miscast in that too, the film was successful. Hollywood casting agents are nothing if not lazy and repetitive.

Now The Martian DOES need a hollywood star as the lead since it is a geeky film to begin with, and if they didn't have a bankable star, they'd end up with a box office flop. I've seen Russell Crowe play a scientist really, really well (The Insider). I'm sure there are others...

I get what you are saying, but Matt Damon has a speedy tongue and quick wits, which make him credible for the role in my opinion.
 
The fact that they cast Matt Damon as the uber nerd scientist is all you need to know about the casting. Matt is many things, but a scientific nerd isn't one of them. I suspect that they cast him as the lead because he had played a scientist in Interstellar, and while he was miscast in that too, the film was successful. Hollywood casting agents are nothing if not lazy and repetitive.

Now The Martian DOES need a hollywood star as the lead since it is a geeky film to begin with, and if they didn't have a bankable star, they'd end up with a box office flop. I've seen Russell Crowe play a scientist really, really well (The Insider). I'm sure there are others...

IMO, if you listen to the audio book version, it will be much easier to accept Matt Damon as the lead character, I really think it will be a great match.
 
Just got back. Martian was excellent.

Just got out of the theater from seeing it and I agree! :)

Saw it last night, with the whole family. Now, my wife and daughter want to read the book!

Don`t miss it!

So my son and I went to see the Martian tonight. It was great until the fire alarms went off 20 minutes from the end. They have us free passes to go back but what a bummer not to see the whole movie.
 
I really enjoyed "The Martian" film. It had visual impact the book cannot with some really beautiful cinematography, and it wasn't nearly as dumbed down as I feared. They did leave lots of parts of the book out, and fast forwarded through other bits for time. But except for some silly exaggerated Hollywood computer display effects, wind force that couldn't exist on Mars, and making NASA/JPL buildings look more like Apple's new spaceship headquarters will be than government office space, it was very nicely done. That and the amount of physical space apparently on the Hermes was a bit much. Loved the homage to 2001: A Space Odyssey.

They did omit the first lines of the book...skipped right by 'em. I cannot imagine why. Strongest opening paragraph I've ever read. They got my 15 year old not yet geeky son to read (and really enjoy) the book that he'd probably have ignored given the topic. Would've been a great opening for the film. I guess ratings had something to do with it.
 
Speaking of casting, I too find it odd they didn't put an Indian in the role of Venkat Kapoor. While reading, I pictured Irrfan Khan, accent and mannerisms.

From the IMDB trivia page:

"Irrfan Khan was chosen to play Venkat Kapoor, but a Bollywood contract of his had an unexpected snag and he wasn't able to make the schedule needed for The Martian. This occurred about three weeks before the filming started. Not having luxury of targeting an ethnicity, they had to get the biggest name they could get on short notice. That turned out to be Chiwetel Ejiofor."
 
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:
Opportunity-nears-Solander-Point-Sol-3374-N1-crop_Ken-Kremer.jpg


not like this:
thVF4G2S6E.jpg


- 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):
twitt.PNG


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".

 
One more thing: When Irfan Khan cancelled and they had to go with Chiwetel Ejiofor instead, why on earth keep the character of "dr. Venkit Kapur" and try to make him "African-Indian-American"? He even says it as they launch with the Chinese booster, when asked if he believes in God. In the book I'm 99% sure he says: "I'm hindu, I believe in many gods". In the movie he says: "My father was hindu and my mother was baptist, so I believe in several". That's ridiculous. Why not let the guy play something believable i.e. an African-American or African character?