I don't know if this is a popular opinion but I feel as though Matt Damon is one of the best actors alive today. I find him very versatile and even though mostly he plays the "good guy" i think he is capable of playing really any role. He doesn't do many comedies and mostly focuses on action films (likely because of the near guaranteed payday) but he is great in drama films as well. I suppose the Martian would be a sci-fi / action / drama.
[source](http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/culture/attachement/jpg/site1/20151126/a41f726749f617c08fc911.jpg)Like most films, I managed to watch this one years after it had come and gone in the cinemas. This was, once again, because of the fact that I lived in an area that rarely featured western movies and when they did come, they were overdubbed in Thai, which I can understand but I feel it takes away from any movie when the emotions captured in the actor's voices are eliminated from the equation. Therefore, I saw this one around 2017 or so.
[source](https://www.sciencenews.org/sites/default/files/main/articles/100115_reviews_martian.jpg)The movie is about a scientific team that goes to Mars and has to quickly leave their base because of a storm that is threatening to destroy their only method of leaving the planet. Upon their departure they have no choice but to abandon Mark Watney (Damon) because he is knocked out and his bio-readings go offline and he is believed to be dead.
Watney is a botanist and he is faced with the unforgiving conditions that obviously exist on a dead planet such as lack of food, water, and breathable atmosphere. The plans that he carries out in order to provide himself with enough food and water are quite interesting and according to some seriously nerdy fact-checking websites, are scientifically accurate also (so you might actually learn something too!)
[source](http://www.cinerituel.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/The-Martian-Cinerituel.jpg)One of the main reasons that I enjoyed this film is because I have a little bit of experience acting in both plays and on screen. I feel as though the most difficult type of acting that a person can be subjected to is to have to perform scenes with no one else. Obviously, since Damon is stranded on Mars, a vast majority of this film is spent with him interacting with no one at all - and he nails it.
I would be willing to bet that most people have already seen this film seeing as how it pulled in over $600 million at the box office, but if you are one of those people that somehow managed to not watch it, you really should do so. It is a sci-fi movie, and that doesn't appeal to everyone but it is considerably more realistic than say Star Trek so it should be entertaining to a much wider audience. Personally, I loved this film and think it is one of Damon's best performances.