We saw The Martian yesterday. I think this is the second movie I've seen in a first-run theater this year. The first was Mad Max.
I got to see this one with my wife! That makes everything better. It was great fun: Matt Damon does a good Mark Watney. We saw it in 3d, for scheduling sake. This was our first 3d movie: I thought it was a distracting gimmick, my wife liked it.
I had a headache afterwards, almost assuredly caused by wearing 3d glasses over my glasses; the pupilary distance had to be messed up.
The bad science that annoyed me the most? Don't EVA without latching on! Do that and you're dead.
What annoyed her the most? He doesn't use square foot gardening, and grows in a field. That's just silly.
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Ha, sound like you had the same weekend and me and Joshua Fox who also thought the 3d was overrated.
ReplyDeleteWe likewise discussed the EVA without latching on (why oh why!)
But as a vegetable gardener it bothered me that he put uncomposted human faeces on a root vegetable crop! 2 years of composting and then only on fruit trees is how I was told to do it!
I thought the science wasn't too bad, considering. Moments like the no-tether in space annoyed me, but I was able to get past it to enjoy the movie.
ReplyDeleteI am listening to the audio book right this second.
ReplyDeleteBecky Annison Yeah ... that's the normal situation, thanks to the bacteria. But, its life or death ... might as well risk diarrhea.
ReplyDeleteJoshua Fox Yeah, absolutely. This movie is very much a fan of science, and that's great to see. The no-tether UAV made me physically uncomfortable, just like a car without a seatbelt would.
ReplyDeleteTim Franzke Enjoy it!
ReplyDeleteI feel like the movie is a fan of the "I fucking love science" school of science. "I am going to science the shit out of this" and so forth. It's great, they're trying hard and not doing too badly, but they do have a puppy-dog like attitude to science.
ReplyDeleteJoshua Fox Sure. Its Action Science, just like Atomic Robo.
ReplyDeleteWe saw it last night too. We were wondering, since the poo was dehydrated and stored outside where the temps drop well below freezing, if that wouldn't have killed the bacteria.
ReplyDeleteThey take some liberties, of course, for visual media. You can't garden on screen without the deeply resonant plowing of a furrow.
ReplyDeleteThere were a few head scratchers but I really enjoyed it!
Misha B Addressed in the book: He mixes it with his fresh poo, such that the old poo is useful for complex proteins, and the new poo has the necessary bacteria.
ReplyDeleteAnd, he can avoid most problems from night soil by microwaving the potatoes.
My husband points out he didn’t "science" so much as "engineer" (but he's an engineer himself and a touch biased)
ReplyDeleteDoes this mean he was a botanical engineer? I hope so, that sounds cool.
ReplyDeleteJoshua Fox In the book, they follow standard protocol and everyone has two jobs. Watney is both botanist and mechanical engineer. So, yeah, he's a botanical engineer.
ReplyDeleteYay!
ReplyDeleteWilliam Nichols
ReplyDeleteSmelling like microwaved poo explains why he used up his ketchup so fast.
Daniel Solis Yeah, though it was surprising that a badass botanist would still be so upset by the smell of poo.
ReplyDeleteSeriously, you don't put poo on plants. Well-rotted manure maybe, but that doesn't smell like human poo at all. I doubt a botanist would have any particular experience of poo smells beyond what any human has.
ReplyDelete