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.
The book makes it make a lot more sense. He actually reasons through what he is doing, and why. The line "I'm going g to science the shit out of it" is practically the mantra, and demonstrated again and again.
The film basically takes this and strips out all the 'boring science' stuff. What's left, while still a good film, is a shadow of the source material.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.