Ridley me this

Today I watched:

The Martian (2015)

Thor: The Dark World (2013)

The Martian

I listened to the audiobook of The Martian while getting ready to move to Minnesota this summer just before the movie hit theaters and I found it to be a very enjoyable "read." It is written in a voice that seems common to many of the newer science fiction books I've read lately of having a narator with a sense of sarcasm who struggles with their foibles through their narration and seems to engage with the reader in a language they would find from internet postings. Other books I've read that felt this way, writing in a younger voice that fit with The Martian are Ready Player One, World War Z, and Redshirts, as well as Chuck Palahniuk books to an extent (although his narators have less of a ton of laughing with the reader than they trying to act clever). I loved listening to the book and felt at home watching the movie in the theater. I feel as though the movie is a great companion to the book and it fits right into the narative Andy Weir wrote while expanding on the ending which I felt the book left off too soon.

This viewing, my first with the blu-ray version, was very enjoyable. It's just as beautiful in HD and it feels like stepping into the book again. My little issues with the blu-ray are that it doesn't seem to be compatable with my blu-ray player on my laptop (every so often certain blu-ray discs decide they're too good for the computer) and the extras could have a little more. I really wish there was a commentary and some of the extras are dramatizations pretending they're historical films of the events in the movie. I turned off one extra when Sean Bean gave a testimonial in character and I felt bad for the actor having to do that.

I like that Ridley Scott seems to enjoy some of the same writers as me. Three of my favorite books are Ubik by Philip K. Dick, The Road by Cormac McCarthy, and The Martian. Scott directed the Martian, collaborated with McCarthy on The Counselor (as weird as it was, it's an interesting movie and it's great to see the chances both of them took on the project) and one of Scott's first films Blade Runner is based on a story by Dick. I wasn't really a fan of Scott just a few years ago but some of his movies culminating in The Martian have really turned me around from my hesitations I had with Alien and Blade Runner. I think I can chalk up those hesitations to bad vhs qualities and their overall 1980's stamp in time.

Thor: The Dark World

Continuing with my trip through the MCU+ I got to see this film tonight. Thor is a character I never really got into when I was younger. Recently I read the first comic from the '60's of the Thor character and it's pretty terrible. Even though I was never very well versed aside from hearing in the '90's the Thor character was taken over by a character with mental illness who was from Earth but thought he was the real Thor from Asgard, I have really enjoyed the Thor character in the MCU. I understand the writer from the first Thor movie and some of the early drafts (at least) of The Dark World was the one who infused the unique humor that is in these films passed away during production of this film. Luckily it seems he was able to create the tone well enough that hopefully it can be continued in future appeaences by Thor in the MCU. These Thor movies look amazing and are worth more attention than they get.