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The film is presented in the original 2.35:1 widescreen ratio and in 1080p high definition and you’d be surprised if it was not a top-notch transfer for a brand new film. There are no issues with it whatsoever. For the record, I watched this on a Panasonic 50″ Plasma TV.
The sound is in DTS HD 7.1 (English version only) and while there isn’t huge use of split-surround rear speakers other than occasional atmosphere – since it’s more a drama than something laden with aural effects, the music and dialogue play out without issue (unless you hate ’70s and ’80s disco tracks).
The extras are as follows:
- Signal Acquired: Writing and direction (9:36): Director Ridley Scott and author Andy Weir talk about turning the book into the film, with Weir saying he wanted it to be just about the problem solving, and less about the deep psychological issues – and that’s where the problem was for me.
- Occupy Mars: Casting and costumes (14:13): A bit of costume discussion, but it’s more like another part of a general making-of. Really, these individual pieces could’ve been stitched together as one feature, and better edited into specific chapters.
- Gag reel (7:33): Outtakes. Lots of ’em.
- Ares III: Refocused (17:18): From here on, the majority of the extras treat the movie as if it was a real event, this one being particularly great – imagine a post-Martian made-for-TV exposé – with a deep-voice voiceover – on what went on at NASA, with all the conflicts between the staff. This is what you get. Headstrong Mitch Henderson (Sean Bean) finds his f-word exasperations getting bleeped (as they would on a US TV documentary – and it also helps the Blu-ray and DVD keep its 12-cert rating).
- Ares III: Farewell (3:35): A brief piece as ‘Mark Watney’ takes a camera around the crew for their opinions on the Ares III trip prior to leaving Earth in the first place.
- The Right Stuff (3:20): The crew in training before their trip, each being interviewed by a psychologist after each spending 10 days in off-screen isolation.
- Ares: Our Greatest Adventure (3:39): A promo piece set before the mission, with a presenter explaining in gung-ho terms what it’s all about.
- Leave Your Mark (1:03): ‘Mark Watney’ in an Ares promo.
- Bring Him Home (1:34): A promo piece about the campaign to bring Mark Watney home.
- Theatrical trailer (2:55): In the original 2.35:1 theatrical ratio. And so it could be shown on TV, Watney was “going to science the *hell* out of this”. Interesting that they twist the trailer so that the shot of someone looking at their children was made to appear to be Watney doing this and not Martinez (Michael Peña).
- Production art gallery: Designs (and number of pics in brackets) for Earth (8), Hermes (74) and Mars (114).
- Audio descriptive track: Does what it says on the tin.
The menu features clips from the film set to a very short repeated piece of the score. Chapters are plentiful with 32, and there’s also subtitles in English, Spanish, French, Portuguese and Chinese.
Again, despite the multiple language and subtitle tracks, Fox do the public down by only listing English on the box. Then again, I know people enjoy reading my reviews for the accurate information in this department.
The Martian is out now on Blu-ray, 3D Blu-ray, 4K Blu-ray and DVD, and click on the packshot for the full-size image.
|
FILM CONTENT PICTURE QUALITY SOUND QUALITY EXTRAS |
7 10 8 7 |
| OVERALL | 8 |
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 144 minutes
Studio: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Cat.no.: 6456007001
Year: 2015
Released: February 8th 2016
Chapters: 32
Picture: 1080p High Definition
Sound: DTS HD Master Audio 7.1 (English only), DTS 5.1, Dolby Digital 5.1
Languages: DTS HD Master Audio 7.1 (English), Dolby Digital 5.1: Spanish, French, Portuguese
Subtitles: English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Chinese
Format: 2.35:1 Redcode RAW (6K), H.264 (4K)
Disc Format: BD50
Director: Ridley Scott
Producers: Mark Huffam, Simon Kinberg, Michael Schaefer, Ridley Scott and Aditya Sood
Screenplay: Drew Goddard (based on the novel by Andy Weir)
Music: Harry Gregson-Williams
Cast:
Mark Watney: Matt Damon
Melissa Lewis: Jessica Chastain
Annie Montrose: Kristen Wiig
Teddy Sanders: Jeff Daniels
Rick Martinez: Michael Peña
Mitch Henderson: Sean Bean
Beth Johanssen: Kate Mara
Chris Beck: Sebastian Stan
Alex Vogel: Aksel Hennie
Vincent Kapoor: Chiwetel Ejiofor
Bruce Ng: Benedict Wong
Mindy Park: Mackenzie Davis
Rich Purnell: Donald Glover
Tim Grimes: Nick Mohammed
Zhu Tao: Chen Shu
Guo Ming: Eddy Ko
Mike Watkins: Enzo Cilenti
Brendan Hatch: Jonathan Aris
Jack: Gruffudd Glyn
Ryoko: Naomi Scott
U.S. President: Geoffrey Thomas
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.