Bring Him Home !

So I watched Everest today.

It's a film about mountaineers on our highest mountain (except for K2) who successfully manage to reach the summit but ... drama ensues as the mountain is battered by a massive storm.

Nah. Kidding.

I watched The Martian today.

My advice ? If you have the slightest interest in science, if you like a good story, a bit of drama and of course, humour, this one has it all. It helps that the book is one of the best books I've read over the past few years. The science is top notch, the drama comes in through accidents that are totally plausible* and there are a lot of feels in here.

*(Interstellar was a great film but most of its drama was caused by people being diabolically stupid and, while the visual science was groundbreaking, the actual science was appalling.)

Here, a lot of the drama comes in through unintended mishaps, things going far too well (BOOM!) and real life physics having some fun.

Oh - go watch the book after you've read the film. (uhoh - mixed words. Getting mentally tired and probably need time off). The two have roughly the same story but they very definitely get the best out of both forms of media.

Film - great visuals in the scenery, plus it brings out the emotes of the characters. It paces the drama really well, the film feels just long enough and goes by fairly quickly. Ridley Scott does well here. I have mixed feelings about Ridley Scott, he's made some great films (Alien) and some turkeys (Prometheus). This matches his great direction with an incredible story.

Book - has more great stuff. The film is already 2 hours 20 minutes, which is getting on the long side. The film skips over a couple of detail parts in the book, which probably would have made it a 3 hour film. I don't think people really want those (despite what Peter Jackson and Chris Nolan think). The book can go into the deeper thoughts of the characters and explains things much better than the film. That's not to say that the film will lose you in the science, it's just fleshed out more in the book. A couple of minor plot points were missed off the film too.

I'm quite looking forward to reading the book again. I must finish Arthur C Clarke's Rendezvous With Rama so I'm not doing a book abandon. I know someone who I think would quite like to hear what I think of the Rama book ...

Yeah - I really enjoyed The Martian, although I am a bit of a space nut. Combing stuff that makes a space nut happy with engineering, survival stuff and great science makes me a very happy filmgoer. I'll definitely be getting this one when it comes out on bluray. AT FULL PRICE !!!!

And there's not many films I get at full price now, I have so much of a queue of films to watch that I can afford to wait until they go in the 2 for £25 or even better 5 for £30.

I'll go see it again in the movies too. Did I mention that it was getting me in the feels at certain points ? That seems to be happening more and more in films.

Other stuff ? I'm going to cancel the Warcrafty stuff. I bought 3 months of game time which will be enough for me to see all the stuff you can do with a single character. After that, it can get pretty grindy. That is, doing the same thing over and over again ad nauseum. Plus I've seen the signs of addiction coming in where you end up playing a game because you feel some sort of obligation to, instead of having fun with it.

I've been on another game instead ...

I'm getting close to where I can get that view, it's just under halfway into the game. In my previous playthroughs, I tended to reload saves way too often. Get seen when you're trying to sneak ? Reload. I'm keeping that to just when the hacking minigame has a bad result or if the chat sequences decide to go contrary.

I play through with the nonlethal style, knocking out bad guys instead of putting holes in them. You have to be sneaky for that to work. Why ? Partly cos it feels better, guard dudes have families ! But mostly because it gives you a very minor experience boost that may get you ever so slightly more powerful by the end of the game. And it's a tough game too ...

As I found when trying to bring a rocket launcher to a gunfight. Didn't work. I was shocked ! But - if you're fighting someone who has a big gatling gun for an arm, it helps to have rapid fire on your side. Not a rocket launcher which is far too easy to miss with and takes ages to reload.

Time to leg it - I'll be remembering watching The Martian while wondering if anyone is going to give me the excuse to watch it in the cinemas again ? Hopefully this time without the kiddies (who should have been in school) who didn't have the patience to sit through 15 minutes of film, let alone 2 hours +. No parents in sight and they seemed on the borderline of the 12A cert ...

That's one thing about watching movies at home, it costs about as much with bluray/dvd, you make your own food (and can therefore trust it more) and you have a pause button in the case of too many fizzy drinks.

PS Go watch The Martian.