Ridley Scott explained how studios didn’t realize ‘The Martian’ was a comedy.

  • hperrin
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    4 hours ago

    This is my favorite book and favorite movie. So I really must wonder, did they read the script? Mark literally makes dirty ASCII art that is broadcast across the earth.

  • Rob Bos
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    8 hours ago

    The book was a comedy as well. Tons of great dry jokes. The two are not mutually exclusive.

    • Jerkface (any/all)
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      3 hours ago

      There’s a chasm between being funny and being a comedy. Comedy is a genre, and I’d argue doesn’t strictly even need to be very funny, if at all.

  • Sumocat@lemmy.world
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    8 hours ago

    It’s a farce: “a light dramatic composition marked by broadly satirical comedy and improbable plot”. It’s played straight. The stakes are serious. It should be a tragedy. But then there’s a literal turning point when they turn around to rescue Watney, and it’s ridiculous.

  • ByteOnBikes@slrpnk.net
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    8 hours ago

    Maybe it was behind-the-scenes commentary? I recall that one of the goals from the author was that they keep the “positive” outlook. Like, there are plenty of stories of people losing their minds after being stranded.

    This would be different.

  • ryan213
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    6 hours ago

    Will have to re-watch. I don’t remember much because I’m old.

    • Fredselfish@lemmy.world
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      3 hours ago

      Screw watching the movie. Read the book or better listen to the audiobook its freaking awesome! I own both but end up listening to the audio version rather then reread the book.

  • Jo Miran@lemmy.ml
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    8 hours ago

    The book is hard sci-fi and excellent.

    The movie is dumb shit and screwy. The only way this change of tone and content is justified is by realizing that they switched genres and turned it into a movie.

      • Jo Miran@lemmy.ml
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        7 hours ago

        Yes but it never breaks the science in the name of comedy. Using the other astronauts’ poop to fertilize went against the book just so he could make an extra joke. The Ironman scene was also ridiculous and unnecessary.

        The movie didn’t need to dumb down for a few extra gags.

          • Jo Miran@lemmy.ml
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            4 hours ago

            It is a very big change because of the reason he only uses his own poop and not the poop of the other astronauts. They broke away from the hard science in order to insert a joke.

            • nieminen@lemmy.world
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              30 minutes ago

              I have to agree with both of your points. The poop thing and the iron man thing were my only two real issues with the movie though.

              Obviously a ton of the book’s content is removed to make it fit in a single movie, but I think they did a great job, especially when compared to other adaptations.

              • Jo Miran@lemmy.ml
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                23 minutes ago

                I like the movie, and I am agreeing with Ridley Scott. It was clearly a comedy. The book had humor in it, but it was science first. I saw it as a thought experiment on what it would take for someone to survive in Mars. The movie’s tone was more of adventure comedy, and there is nothing wrong with that.

                Donald Glover was fantastic.