The Martian - In Your Face, Neil Armstrong

[Darks63]

Saw it on Sunday overall I liked it except for the part near the end where everyone around the whole world was waiting for him to be rescued. Not only was it really hammy but it feels like i have seen that scene in another film.

 

[Pinworm45]

it's not that women can't go to space, it's simply that the biological differences mean there are greater risks

Men are statistically more prone to violence, which might be a significant issue on a long-term mission.

Yeah, male astronauts and scientists just can not stop beating women.

Come on anon. I understand you're probably a space enthusiast, but try and come back down to earth.

Oh, and while I'm here, this movie is the most predictable, boring, bland piece of generic boring I've ever seen. It's the definition of 'let's all just phone it in so we can get paid'. There was nothing technically bad with it (well, poor cinematography and an absolutely ABYSSAL soundtrack - so bad that the soundtrack being terrible is a prominent plot point.)

But hey, at least this time Ridley Scott kept the space weed to a minimum. So you know, he's improving. Maybe one day he'll be a real director again. But I'd rather he just retired and stopped destroying franchises I care about.

 

[KissingSunlight]

First thing, do not call The Martian hard science fiction. There is more hard science about space in this thread than in the movie. Seriously, I can do without reading posts online about whether or not menstruation would be a problem in outer space. I kind of agree that pregnancies would be difficult away from Earth. However, just imagine how cute the babies would look in a space suit.

This movie should be called "The Blogger From Outer Space". Matt Damon's character video blog, text, and even pose for a selfie. Next challenge for selfie-lovers, do "The Fonz". This movie borders on being too silly for it's own good. However, it has enough acting talent on screen to sell the seriousness of the situation. Fortunately, I was looking for a fun movie that I could check my brain at the door for a couple of hours. The Martian fits that bill.

This movie is about as hard science as Star Wars. Seriously, the actors walk across the surface of Mars like it's a desert on Earth. How can anyone think this movie is close to scientifically accurate? It actually has the line, "They want me to fly a convertible into space."

The one message I hope people do take out of the movie is the importance of critical thinking and problem solving. I see too many people seems to prefer to let other people do their thinking for them and give up when nobody hands them the solution to their problems.

 

[CosmicCommander]

...and the only people likely to see it as a problem are the sorts who also get upset because NASA was portrayed as employing some of those dirty coloured people.

Moreso that the film had a blatant agenda and was pushing it very hard, along with the bad soundtrack, characters, bland cinematography, and awful dialogue.

The film offended me mostly because it is trying hard to pontificate whilst being a very generic, phoned-in, lowest common denominator piece of schlock. A film which is actually good can push any agenda it wants, and I won't complain.

 

[WolfThomas]

Actually, that's one of the few parts of his weird ranting that has some basis in reality. It comes down to simple biology - women have periods and can get pregnant, and those add all kinds of hygiene and medical complications into the mix. Reliance on drugs to control menstruation is a problem (what if their shelf life isn't long enough, or they get lost or damaged, what about the extra weight required to carry them, the possible interactions with other medical interventions, the effects on physiology, and so on), and anything other than eliminating them completely adds more complication to the already pretty tricky hygiene arrangements and yet more weight needed for supplies. And while you might hope the chance of anyone getting pregnant would be very low, expecting people not to be people on multi-year expeditions would be somewhat optimistic. And no matter how you try to prevent it, the consequences are so huge that even a tiny risk could be unacceptable. Of course, that issue could be prevented just as easily by an all-female expedition, so it's more an argument in favour of single gender rather than men specifically.

An inter-uterine device for contraception solves literally all of those problems. They last for a 5years. They completely stop menstruation. No need for tampons or boxes of the pill. They have almost no systematic side effects as they are a device pumping tiny amount of hormone in the uterus rather than hormones having to go orally to blood to uterus.

So no pregnant astronauts. No other problems. Same for complaints against women in military roles, science has literally solved these problems.