If you have to watch one (HBO) Max movie in September 2024, stream this one
If you’re looking to have a Harry Potter marathon on Max, now would be the time. All eight of the Harry Potter movies are back on Max in September, and they’re joined by horror classics The Exorcist and The Shining. Some of our other favorites this month include The Big Chill, Inherent Vice, and Disobedience. Any of those films would be good choices to stream, but our pick for the one Max movie that you have to watch in September is The Martian.
Don’t let the name fool you, this isn’t that kind of science fiction movie. There aren’t any little gray aliens living on Mars; there’s just a single human astronaut who may be hopelessly stranded and doomed to die long before any rescue operation can be launched. But it’s far from a hopeless story, and even the behind-the-scenes tale of The Martian is inspiring. Novelist Andy Weir self-published the book on his own website before it was discovered by a larger audience. The Martian became a bestselling novel, which in turn led director Ridley Scott to assemble a stellar cast to bring it to life on the big screen.
The 10th anniversary of this film won’t occur for another 13 months. But there’s no reason wait around that long, so we’re sharing the reasons why you should watch The Martian this month on Max.
Matt Damon has one of his best roles
Because of the demands of the story, Matt Damon’s character, Dr. Mark Watney, spends most of the movie alone on Mars with no one to talk to or interact with except the camera. Yet, Damon is so engaging in his role that it’s easy to forget that he isn’t actually speaking to the viewer. He’s just trying to keep himself sane while also making recordings that he hopes will reach Earth.
It’s a story conceit that wouldn’t work nearly as well without Damon’s everyman quality. We sympathize with Mark every step of the way, and the movie makes the audience care about his fate.
The supporting cast is out of this world
You’ll have to forgive the pun, but this movie’s cast is ridiculously out of this world. Besides Mark’s story, there are two other prominent plotlines playing out in the film. One revolves around Jessica Chastain’s Commander Melissa Lewis and the rest of her crew, as played by Sebastian Stan, Michael Pe?a, Aksel Hennie, and Kate Mara. They’re the ones who accidentally left Mark behind on Mars because they thought he was dead. They don’t discover the truth until they’re already on their way back to Earth.
Speaking of our world, the story on Earth is held down by NASA’s Teddy Sanders (Jeff Daniels), with Sean Bean, Mackenzie Davis, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Benedict Wong, and Donald Glover backing him up. Not every member of the cast has a large role in the story, but most of them at least get a moment to shine. All told, that’s an incredible lineup of performers for any film, and the cast is one of the big reasons why The Martian is so entertaining.
It’s a return to form for director Ridley Scott
Ridley Scott is one of the all-time great directors, but he isn’t without a few lesser films in his career. In the years leading up to The Martian, Scott had a string of unremarkable, forgettable, or even awful movies including Robin Hood, Prometheus, The Counselor, and Exodus: Gods and Kings.
The Martian served as a reminder of what Scott can do when he’s at the top of his craft. He does a brilliant job of creating tension on Mars when things look bleak for Mark, as well as a sense of claustrophobic introspection for Mark’s crew on the spaceship as they try to figure out how to proceed. There are even some thrilling moments at the beginning, middle, and end that make it seem like Mark is in real jeopardy. Now that’s the mark of a skilled director.
The Martian is scientifically accurate … to a point
Andy Weir went out of his way to make his book as scientifically accurate as possible, and that effort carried over to screenwriter Drew Goddard’s script for The Martian. Most of the things depicted in the movie and the book are based on real science, and the only real sci-fi aspect of the movie is the idea that NASA’s space shuttles are capable of making it to Mars and back.
Having said that, the story does take a few creative liberties with the conditions on Mars to add more drama to Mark’s ordeal. But who’s going to complain about that when it only makes the film more entertaining?
The story is very compelling
The real magic trick of The Martian is the way that it juggles the three storylines on Earth, Mars, and in space without letting the audience lose interest in any of them. In fact, there may be more drama on Earth than anywhere else because opinions are very divided about what to do for Mark, if anything at all. Meanwhile, the crew on the space shuttle have to deal with their own feelings about Mark’s fate, and what they’re willing to do to change it.
This movie is 2 hours and 22 minutes long, but the story flies by fast enough that you’ll barely notice the time at all. The Martian is a top-notch film from start to finish, and easily the best movie added to Max this month.
Watch The Martian on Max.
