The Film
Just five months after The Martian was first released on Blu-ray (and snubbed for all seven of its Oscar nominations), Fox is giving us The Martian: Extended Edition. Why the double-dip? In addition to a 4K version, the new Blu-ray has 10 extra minutes of movie. That's more Matt Damon, people!
In a nutshell, The Martian is about a Mars mission gone horribly wrong. During a massive dust storm, the crew of the Ares III is forced to evacuate the red planet. In all of the chaos, botanist Mark Watney (Damon) is presumed dead, so the other five crew members reluctantly leave him behind. Of course, Watney is just fine. In fact, he's better than fine. He's also insanely smart, so he manages to do things like grow food, create water, tap into additional power, and make contact with NASA.
The film isn't just about how Watney survives so far from home, but about the effort being made to get him back. Despite what you may have heard, Damon is not the entire movie. That said, his scenes are definitely some of the most memorable. After all, when he's on-screen, it's all about him. Thankfully, he's spewing all sorts of science-y tidbits, but Damon's "everyman" delivery certainly helps to lighten some of that load.
While Damon is definitely the standout of The Martian, it's hard to ignore the excellent supporting cast, which includes Jessica Chastain, Kristen Wiig, Jeff Daniels, Michael Peña, Kate Mara, Sean Bean, Sebastian Stan, Aksel Hennie, Donald Glover, and Chiwetel Ejiofor. Whew! Even with all of the people and a lengthy runtime, director Ridley Scott keeps things moving smoothly. It's a really entertaining film.
Looking for another take on this movie? Check out Joe Lozito's theatrical review of The Martian.
The Picture
The film disc includes both the Theatrical and Extended cuts of The Martian. That said, if you have the last Blu-ray release, you won't see anything different here, image-wise. Both versions have the same 2.40:1 transfer that was recently released. If you're new to this film on Blu-ray, you won't be disappointed. It's got an excellent color palette and a slew of detail throughout the entire film. Beads of sweat, blood stains, grains of Mars soil, and space suits are just a fraction of what's on display here. It's a gorgeous, demo-worthy image from beginning to end.
The Sound
Despite what you may have read online, Fox hasn't upgraded The Martian to a Dolby Atmos track. It's got the same DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 mix as its predecessor -- and it's pretty awesome. The opening storm engulfs the entire soundfield and the launch follows it up with enough force to shake the room. Of course, the rescue is equally as impressive, thanks to the sounds of Watley disassembling the MAV, the incoming Hermes, the roar and rattle of the MAV launch, and ABBA. The rest of the film is equally as intriguing, with winds whipping around, multiple explosions, and a crap-ton of disco music. Even subtle effects like the sound of staples going into Watney's abdomen, the ringing in his ears, the interior sound of the Hermes as it moves through space, and chatter inside NASA are all impressive. Dialogue is also clear throughout, even through those spacesuits. It's sort of a bummer that this film didn't get the Atmos (or DTS:X) treatment, but I'm sure most viewers won't complain about this track.
The Extras
Final Thoughts
Considering how the original film was 141 minutes, it's hard to believe that audiences would need another 10 minutes of The Martian. However, the movie is a good one. Matt Damon's performance and the action happening back on Earth work together to make that time fly by. Unless you opt for the 4K version (which we didn't review), you won't find anything new from an AV standpoint on The Martian: Extended Edition. The new extras are great, but you have to wonder why they weren't on the last release. If you bought the last version, it's hard to justify a whole new purchase. If not, this is the one to buy -- and you'll want to buy one of them, because this is just a really entertaining film with a demo-worthy AV presentation.
Product Details
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