The Martian‘s New Trailer Arrives Amid Great Reviews

You had to like the odds that The Martian would be a very good film. Based on a very good book by Andy Weir, scripted by a screenwriter with major sci-fi chops in Drew Goodard (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Cabin in the Woods), directed by the man who made two of the greatest sci-fi films of all time in Ridley Scott (Alien, Blade Runner), and starring Matt Damon as marooned astronaut Mark Watney, it would have been surprising if the film was anything but excellent. Word is the film is excellent. From The Hollywood Reporter's Todd McCarthy to NPR's Linda Holmes (who's a major fan of the book and wrote that the film lived up to her very high expectations), The Martian is a movie you'll want to put on your must-see list this fall (it opens on October 2). Here's a new clip, to whet your appetite.

The gist of the plot is simple and elegant: astronaut Mart Watney is stranded on Mars and thought dead by NASA and his fellow astronauts. Of course he's not dead, but he will be, very soon, unless he can figure out how to eat, drink and breathe on a planet that supports none of these things. The book looked at his plight in very realistic terms—Weir's research into how a man might survive on Mars was serious and deep. The film follows suit, giving us the ever likable and intelligent Damon as Watney "science-ing the sh*t" out of his Mars base (prepared with only enough food and water for a month) in order to stay alive, and, get word back to Earth that he's still breathing and he'd like to come home. This new trailer, released today, offers yet another glimpse into what looks to be one of fall's big hits. Count us among the many, many people who think being marooned for two hours in the company of a Ridley Scott-directed Matt Damon is a fine fate indeed.

Featured image: Matt Damon plays astronaut Mark Watney, stranded on Mars and trying to figure out how to survive. Courtesy 20th Century Fox.