I have always been a huge fan of everything sci-fi and “The Martian” definitely lived up to my expectations. “The Martian” is based off of the book by Andy Weir and centers around the struggle of astronaut Mark Watney (Matt Damon) surviving on Mars. Watney, working for NASA, is sent to Mars to complete a space mission with his crew. Within the first few minutes of the movie, the space station gets an emergency storm warning and the crew makes an immediate evacuation off of Mars– ultimately leaving Watney behind. This is how Watney’s battle starts, fighting against Mar’s seemingly realistic and unforgiving climate.

Watney is then announced dead to the media, unknown to NASA and Watney’s crew that he is alive. When he wakes up with a stomach injury and has to perform surgery on himself, I found myself looking away. It was a hard scene to watch with the copious amounts of blood and I would advise weak stomachs to turn away as well. Even so, it looked really impressive on screen and had me cringing yet still enthralled.

Comic relief is used at multiple points within the movie from Watney attempting—and succeeding—to grow crops on Mars using his “botanist powers,” to him listening to nothing but his commander’s disco music. What makes “The Martian” such a great movie is how it kept me on my toes, filling me with so much anticipation that I did not know what to expect next. “The Martian” has the recognizable “Hollywood ending” with Watney and his crew eventually making it safely back to earth, which was pretty predictable. However, the journey of how Watney and his crew got to that point was truly riveting. As a person who has a quite selective list of favorite movies, I can easily say that “The Martian” is high up there.