{"id":2953,"date":"2014-10-27T17:42:43","date_gmt":"2014-10-27T17:42:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/factualfiction.com\/marsartists\/?p=2953"},"modified":"2014-11-15T19:25:24","modified_gmt":"2014-11-15T19:25:24","slug":"critical-notes-on-the-martian-script-unhelpful-nonsense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/factualfiction.com\/marsartists\/2014\/10\/27\/critical-notes-on-the-martian-script-unhelpful-nonsense\/","title":{"rendered":"Critical Notes on ‘The Martian’ Script: Unhelpful Nonsense"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"91c4ZDFCn1L._SL1500_\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Negatives from\u00a0the script (available online as a PDF):<\/strong><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
    \n
  • appearance of Mars compared to a “blast furnace”<\/li>\n
  • protagonist’s first word is “Fuck” [unimaginative use, no\u00a0problem with\u00a0word]<\/li>\n
  • multi-paragraph undramatic expositive dialogue<\/li>\n
  • dumbed down unintelligent boring\u00a0main character<\/li>\n
  • cheesy dated dialogue “our bad”, “shitstorm”, “I’m going to have to
    \nscience the\u00a0shit out of it” heh heh<\/li>\n
  • crucifix sole combustible at base<\/li>\n
  • overriding obvious question: why doesn’t he fix the damn antennae???!<\/li>\n
  • 30 day mission rather than standard 500 day Mars Direct (which would allow enough foodstuffs for one person to live many years of emergency survival on Mars…not to mention a spare antennae)<\/li>\n
  • astronauts\u00a0from military backgrounds\/pilots<\/li>\n
  • inability to\u00a0launch during\u00a0sandstorm due to “wind”<\/li>\n
  • crew must\u00a0lean in to “force the doors closed against the wind”<\/li>\n
  • “We’ve never had a manned ship controlled remotely before.”<\/li>\n
  • Mark holds up his middle finger. “<\/em>Fuck you Mars.”<\/i>\u00a0[emphasis original]<\/li>\n
  • \n
    Drug glorification “I’m dipping this potato in Vicodin and there’s nothing
    \nanyone\u00a0can do about it.” [This criticism seems to receive the most attention…a person close to me nearly died from alcoholism recently, as a result I have a new hatred of addictive substances\u00a0which would have surprised my past self. I enjoyed alcohol but this tragedy\u00a0was by far the most terrifying thing I have ever witnessed. My hope is we as a free society come to abhor drugs of\u00a0all kinds, and disdain their use as we have\u00a0cigarettes.]<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
    Constant corny uptight hierarchical conflicts:<\/strong><\/div>\n
    <\/div>\n
      \n
    • “We’ll do our best.” “Mark dies if you don’t.”
      \n“We discussed this.” “You discussed this.”<\/li>\n
    • “I’m sorry commander you need to verbally–” “Launch!”<\/li>\n
    • Even afflicts CNSA: “Are you kidding?” “Have you ever known me to kid, sir?”<\/li>\n
    • “Bullshit it should be Commander Lewis’ call.” “We need to make this decision. It’s a matter of life and death.” “She’s the mission commander. Life and death decisions are her damn job.”…”You goddamn coward.”<\/li>\n
    • “We’re talking about mutiny which is not a word I use lightly.”<\/li>\n
    • “Easy, cowboy. You and I are military. There’s a good chance we’d be court martialed\u00a0when we get home.”<\/li>\n
    • “When this is over I’ll expect your resignation.” “I understand.”<\/li>\n
    • “You’re sending him to space under a tarp?” “Yes. Can I go on?” “I’m not sure I want you to, but okay.”<\/li>\n
    • “…I feel obliged to mention that setting off an explosive device on a spacecraft is a terrible, terrible idea.” “Copy that. Can you do it?” [thinks, then] “Ja.”<\/li>\n
    • “Oh wait a minute. Yep. I’m looking at my shoulder patch and it turns out I’m commander. So shut up.”<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      Sole Positive:<\/strong><\/p>\n

        \n
      • blue sunrise<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        Negatives from\u00a0the script (available online as a PDF): appearance of Mars compared to a “blast furnace” protagonist’s first word is “Fuck” [unimaginative use, no\u00a0problem with\u00a0word] multi-paragraph undramatic expositive dialogue dumbed down unintelligent boring\u00a0main character cheesy dated dialogue “our bad”, “shitstorm”, “I’m going to have to science the\u00a0shit out of it” heh heh crucifix sole combustible […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-feature-films","category-film-crits"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/factualfiction.com\/marsartists\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/factualfiction.com\/marsartists\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/factualfiction.com\/marsartists\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/factualfiction.com\/marsartists\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/factualfiction.com\/marsartists\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2953"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/factualfiction.com\/marsartists\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2953\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3142,"href":"https:\/\/factualfiction.com\/marsartists\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2953\/revisions\/3142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/factualfiction.com\/marsartists\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/factualfiction.com\/marsartists\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/factualfiction.com\/marsartists\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}