Movie Review: The Martian

Yes, by all means, go see this movie.  In 3D, IMAX if you have one nearby.  Or at least a good theater.  Four out of Four stars.  There, is that enough review for you?

While there was some adaptation from the novel, the movie is faithful to the source material, as in "Peter Jackson films Lord of the Rings" faithful, perhaps a tad closer.  Several really cool sub-plots were dropped just to shoehorn things into 2:20, so there's your motivation to read the book.  Doesn't matter whether you read the book ahead of time here, see or read first, your call.

Perhaps the most jarring thing the movie brought was the 70's music soundtrack.  The protagonist's sorting through his crewmates' belongings for something – anything! – to help keep him sane mostly yielded a bunch of disco music and Happy Days videos.  Funny, either reading or watching, but it is far more jarring to be pelted with the stuff in a theater. Davie Bowie's Starman was used to good effect however.

There is an epilogue of sorts, a "where are they some years later" addition to the movie.  It's a welcome annex, and it works.  The book didn't need it, but after all the hydrazine-powered action on the big screen, this helps to decompress the audience so that they can walk out of the theater and safely drive themselves home.  Maybe the studio's lawyers suggested it, I dunno.

Look, the movie stuck closely to the book, and and that is what makes it great.  If you want a review of the book, here's my previous post.  Oh hell, here's the main point from the review:

The plot is very simple.  If you've watched the trailer for the upcoming movie, you pretty well have the whole thing right there.  Yes, it is a simple plot, simple like chess: easy to get the overview, but actually playing a tough game through to the end is the hard work and the joy of the entire exercise.  There is no character growth, except perhaps for one young flight controller.  These are adults we're dealing with here, they're already developed.  What a relief not to have to slog through pages of weepy-ass "Why am I even bothering?" prose and just get to a gripping story for once.  In short, they act the way actual engineers and scientists act.  Let me repeat: what a relief.

Yes, go read the book.  Yes, go see the movie.  Unlike some great classics, it doesn't much matter which order you do it in.  They each have something to offer that the other medium can't, and in this they complement each other.  Just... get to the theater before this one's off the big screen.

Inspiration

Last week over at xkcd, this showed up:

Bike rides do it for me.  I'll do a bunch of sprints on a hot day.  But I'm uncertain about what happens after that.

Link to a Certain Beach Cottage

And the view from up top is pretty good!  Here, take a look.

Not precisely Apalach, but that's the closest tag that applies.

WSM, Happy 90th Birthday!

It is amazing, but broadcast radio is rapidly sneaking up on its 100th year here in the U.S. Today is WSM's 90th, a milestone worth noting.

Here is a link to their main web site, here is a link to their 90th birthday page, and here is a link to their Wikipedia page.  WSM is not just another crusty old AM station limping toward obsolescence on a tired sports talk format.  They've stayed true to their music roots, and this station is the main reason "Nashville" and "Country Music" are so closely associated.  They also seem to be doing very well as a business by presenting well-curated music shows of widespread interest, making the most of their nighttime skywave AM clear-channel capabilities, and by moving onto the internet as well.  Here's to a smooth transition to digital broadcasting in the next decade.

Enough blogging for tonight.  I'm going back to the living room to listen.

Yeah, this is about right.

As seen over at Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal:

Certainly an observation that I've experimentally confirmed.

Into the Wood(s)

I paused on Couch Trail for a few minutes, at the location where the trail turns to follow Tuxachanie Creek, and looked up to see this Turn Left arrow.  It's been there a while.  Thinking for a moment, it occurred that so have I – it'll be 20 years this month that I've been biking those woods.  The trail system has expanded and contracted over the years, but it has been kept open, and that is the main thing.  I've ridden a lot of bikes out there in that 20 years, starting with a rigid steel Trek 820 and progressing into an increasingly bizarre series of suspension designs, each working slightly better than its predecessor.  Here's the latest, coming up on three years:

It was a good day to be in the woods, cool at 60F and overcast.

Movie Review: Everest, in 3D

Yes, if the trailer appeals to you at all, go see this move.  There are no great truths put forth here, but it is a gripping tale of adventure-turned-survival, as well as several cases of non-survival, on a killer mountain.  Go see it in a decent theater, see it in 3D, it is worth it for the sheer damn spectacle of it all.

About the story, the facts are well known.  Several guide companies had been building up to larger groups of less-experienced (but still at least somewhat experienced) climbers up Everest, and well, something was bound to go wrong sooner or later.  Here, you can read the details at Wikipedia if you wish, but this movie tells the story of when things finally, inevitably did go wrong.  Naturally, there are slightly conflicting stories among the survivors – and their subsequent memoirs – about some of the details of the disaster.  I have no real depth of knowledge here, and cannot judge the movie's accuracy to any one account, but it at least seemed to get the bones of the story right, which is enough for this sort of movie.  The characters at least behaved in a believable way, nobody is made to stand out as a particularly bad guy, and the story moves forward at a reasonable pace.

What is specifically not addressed is the entire topic of the ethics of guided expeditions to Everest.  But that is not the story here, nor is it a particularly filmable subject, and this movie's makers wisely chose to sidestep the question.  Move on, nobody's plumbing the depths of those questions here.  Put on your 3D glasses and enjoy the sheer damn spectacle.  And it is spectacular.

A couple of things worth noting are the cast and the special effects, especially the 3D effects.  All were competently done without any needless histrionics.  The actors were comfortable in their roles, and a big screen in 3D produced the "you are there on the mountain with them" feeling.  Honestly, that's almost certainly the closest I'll get to actually climbing Everest, and it was a good experience.  Also I didn't have to pay $100k plus take a double-digit chance of dying for this particular ride.  (Although going through the I-10/Hwy 49 interchange is always a little dicy that time of day.)

3.25 out of 4 stars.  Even if the deeper questions were barely touched upon, perhaps wisely, it is a compelling story and an unusually spectacular film.

Looks cold, like it's north of I-10 or something.