The Martian (based on software engineer and author Andy Weir’s debut novel), starring Matt Damon as a witty botanist left on Mars, isn’t your typical survivor film. The main character, Mark Watney, is left behind by his fellow team members during a sand storm on Mars because they assumed that he had died when hit by debris. Upon waking up, Watney realizes he’s alone on the desolate planet and must survive on his ability to be creative.

As soon as Watney started to make a video log, I was worried that he would start talking about how terrible his situation is and how he’s going to slowly starve, or how he’s scared for his life, but the commentary was the exact opposite. Though his situation is obviously dire, the script is humorous and surprisingly lighthearted throughout the movie.

Nowadays when we watch sci-fi movies, we expect violence, tension, and farfetched scientific innovations. However, The Martian provides a movie that delves into the thrills of believable scientific exploration and provides the audience with an interesting but pleasant film.

For example, Watney creates a greenhouse where he successfully grows potatoes using his own, ahem, “excretion,” as manure. He uses other terms for this process.

Though the movie was great, it was extremely long at two hours and twenty-two minutes. The average length of movies are around 90 to 100 minutes long, and I can barely sit still for that.

The major ding on the movie’s standing, is that not only is it a long movie, it’s an extremely predictable long movie. I was about half an hour into it and I could already tell what was going to happen. I sat through the majority of the movie just waiting for the ending to happen.

I mean, you know that they’re not going to leave him there to die. He has to be saved somehow. You can just feel it coming, and it does. An hour and fifty-two minutes later, anyhow.

Overall, it was a good movie, but it wasn’t so fantastic that I would want to watch it again.