And the Jurassic World trailer deluge continues with Ridley Scott's The Martian. Following yesterday's "meet the crew" viral video, we now have an official theatrical trailer. Based on the popular bestseller by Andy Weir, the star-studded film concerns a lone astronaut (Matt Damon) who ends up stranded on Mars and must navigate his own survival as his NASA cohorts (played by the likes of Jessica Chastain, Kate Mara, Michael Peña, Jeff Daniels, Kristen Wiig, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Mackenzie Davis, Sean Bean, Donald Glover and Naomi Scott,) scramble to rescue him. What's interesting is how this plot seems to combine the plots of both Mission to Mars (astronauts venture to Mars in order to rescue one of their own) and Red Planet (Val Kilmer must use science and problem solving to theoretically save himself when his Mars mission goes awry). As for the trailer, it is a remarkably successful bit of initial advertising. It makes the sale without breaking a sweat, to the point where I hope this is the only trailer we get.
Even though it is 3 minutes long, it lays out the premise without feeling overly spoiler-ish, instead taking the time to establish the stakes and introduce the various movie stars who will be participating. It highlights the film's special effects to be sure, but also openly acknowledges a certain aloofness and humor that I'm told is a major part of the original source material. This isn't an uber-grim and uber-somber sci-fi epic that weepily scolds us for losing out optimism and sense of discovery, but rather (on the basis of this trailer) an exciting "can-do" adventure about problem solving of the highest order.
Catchphrases can be a key part of marketing, so don't be surprised if the phrase "science the shit of out this" attempts to enter the cultural lexicon in a manner similar to "Why so serious?" and "We're cancelling the apocalypse." The trailer also earns points for a terrific tagline, "Help is just 140 million miles away," which establishes the grim stakes in an almost morbidly humorous fashion. Ridley Scott hasn't exactly been on a winning streak of late, but this certainly looks better and more enjoyable than his last few films. 20th Century Fox has cut together a pretty perfect trailer in that it absolutely makes the sale. It establishes the stakes, offers a sympathetic lead character, shows off an all-star cast, tosses out a potential catchphrase, and ends on a grimly humorous tagline.
Come what may, I want to see The Martain a lot more than I did an hour ago. That counts as a win in my book, and I just wanted to take a moment to acknowledge as much. The Martian opens November 25th, amusingly enough against Walt Disney/Pixar's The Good Dinosaur. It is adapted by Drew Goddard (Cabin in the Woods), so it has that going for it too. As always, we'll see.
