adaptations
Nov. 10th, 2015 08:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
twoeleventhis past weekend, i saw the martian and in the shadow of the moon. both are quite good, since they have excellent source material to work with. they made an interesting study in contrasts.
one similarity really stood out, though: both movies spent most of their screen time on the early parts of their stories. the martian elides nearly the entire second half of the book -- watney's rover journey to the ares 4 site -- in order to focus on the more interesting problems of how to survive alone on mars and how to say hi to earth. while the book does make a big deal about the problems with the rover, i'd say the story is essentially set at that point.
the first ¾s of in the shadow of the moon takes us up to apollo 11¹, and reasonably spends a lot of time on that mission, along with apollo 8. there's a bit of time devoted to apollo 13, but for the most part, the other missions might as well have not happened. (they're referred to by different astronauts, and there's a little bit of apollo 17, but we're clearly past the high point of the movie by then.)
1: this was and is the apollo program's main problem: after going to the moon once, going back seems dull. that that's when most of the actual science got done really doesn't matter.
the big difference: in the shadow of the moon is almost entirely interested in people. how the spaceships worked is almost unmentioned. the martian has a more human touch than a lot of hard SF (especially "gadget" stories) but is still largely about solving technical problems. see: "in the face of overwhelming odds, i'm left with only one option: i'm gonna have to science the shit out of this."
so, while the martian has slightly better SF/X, :) in the shadow of the moon did manage a bit more sense of wonder. the movie taken by the cabin camera on apollo 8 shows some wonderful scenes of three grown men playing boys peering into a candy store as they made their approach to the moon. you can almost see the noseprints they left on the windows.
both are recommended. the martian is still in theaters, and is worth seeing there, but i have no idea if the 3-d version is worth it.
one similarity really stood out, though: both movies spent most of their screen time on the early parts of their stories. the martian elides nearly the entire second half of the book -- watney's rover journey to the ares 4 site -- in order to focus on the more interesting problems of how to survive alone on mars and how to say hi to earth. while the book does make a big deal about the problems with the rover, i'd say the story is essentially set at that point.
the first ¾s of in the shadow of the moon takes us up to apollo 11¹, and reasonably spends a lot of time on that mission, along with apollo 8. there's a bit of time devoted to apollo 13, but for the most part, the other missions might as well have not happened. (they're referred to by different astronauts, and there's a little bit of apollo 17, but we're clearly past the high point of the movie by then.)
1: this was and is the apollo program's main problem: after going to the moon once, going back seems dull. that that's when most of the actual science got done really doesn't matter.
the big difference: in the shadow of the moon is almost entirely interested in people. how the spaceships worked is almost unmentioned. the martian has a more human touch than a lot of hard SF (especially "gadget" stories) but is still largely about solving technical problems. see: "in the face of overwhelming odds, i'm left with only one option: i'm gonna have to science the shit out of this."
so, while the martian has slightly better SF/X, :) in the shadow of the moon did manage a bit more sense of wonder. the movie taken by the cabin camera on apollo 8 shows some wonderful scenes of three grown men playing boys peering into a candy store as they made their approach to the moon. you can almost see the noseprints they left on the windows.
both are recommended. the martian is still in theaters, and is worth seeing there, but i have no idea if the 3-d version is worth it.