Ancient Logic

I was late to The Martian party, having only read it earlier this year. I enjoyed it then and had a good feeling about the movie directed by Ridley Scott, starring Matt Damon. Something about the trailers suggested the film-makers got the essential point of Andy Weir's novel and wouldn't go out of their way to ruin it. There is a distinct pleasure in having favorable first impressions backed up by the actual product. I very much enjoyed The Martian which marks the third hard sci-fi space thriller in as many years that I thought really worked. With $55 million taken in over the weekend, it also looks like the kind of financial success that could bring in another round of such projects. As a big fan of space exploration I tend to think that as a very good thing. So where does this movie lie in the big scheme of things? The challenge is that while The Martian fulfills the promise of the book and certainly ranks high in science fiction movies, it's not a great movi...