I rewatched The Martian and totally forgot how optimistic this movie is about technology, America, and international relations 
when this movie came out in 2015 my little liberal ass loved it. i still believed in a future.
we dont even have bazinga mars nerds anymore just different flavors of “i wont eat the bugs” all clawing at each other to climb out of a pit rapidly filling with water
xi i will scrub toilets please give me a K visa 
I’ve never seen the movie (which I’ve heard is actually pretty good) but a couple months before the movie came out I did read the book, which I despised. Not really because of the lib politics and optimistic internationalism, I just hate the way Weir writes. A guy gets trapped alone on Mars, surely doomed to die, and he powers through it by going “fuck yeah, I love science.”
2001: A Space Odyssey is great because it uses the backdrop of the space race and the visual language of Science Fiction (or I guess literal language in the case of the novel) to explore some big ideas about the human condition: isolation, duty, regression, depravity, hope, the incomprehensible beauty and impossibility of existence. The Martian uses the backdrop of a man trapped in the most horrifying situation imaginable to geek out about how cool it is that potatoes could be grown in a shit-slurry. Which, in fairness, is perhaps mildly interesting but is lacking in the necessary pathos and artistic drive to really make engaging fiction.
I don’t know, clearly a lot of people love Weir’s whole shtick, but it’s very much not my thing. It’s far too safe.
Believe it or not, The Martian is a joy to read compared to Project Hail Mary. It’s basically the same story except even more juvenile and reminded me of One-Dimensional Man because of the simplistic story, the glorification of technology and the unity of international action. It was really stupid. Not even Gosling can save that story.
I read The Martian when it came out and generally liked it (can’t say I would like it now) but the movie is unwatchable. I saw it in theaters and hated how sterile it felt and how the side characters were so flat. I tried rewatching it and I fucking turned off the tv when he says “I’m gonna science the shit out of this.”