I read the book after it came out. When I heard that Matt Damon was playing Mark Watney I cringed just a bit. I don't mind Damon, but I didn't think he was nerdy enough to pull it off. I was wrong, he did great.

I took my wife who was a bit skeptical after hearing my description of the movie. She was thinking it was going to be like Gravity, a film neither of us really enjoyed. I told her it wouldn't be like Gravity (secretly hoping it wouldn't be like Gravity) and was right again. She thought it was a great movie.

I liked the way they blew their two F-word budget early on and had to resort to other ways of using it. Made me laugh each time.

Some nitpicks: They didn't even use the best line from the book. Some of the zero G work wasn't quite believable like turning corners mid flight. I don't think they explained very well that the ARES resupply was critical or they all die. The book made a pretty big deal about the contingency plan if they didn't get the resupply which was pretty grim.