The Martian: 10 Reasons Why It's Better Than Interstellar

6. The Earth-Bound Supporting Cast

Once Nolan's picture blasts off, it shattered the most profound character tie (Cooper and young daughter Murph as stated earlier). What we have left upon the dying planet is a wildly underused John Lithgow, a wildly underused Michael Caine, a wildly underused Casey Affleck, a wildly underused Topher Grace and an underdeveloped elder Murph (Jessica Chastain). Perhaps the biggest cardinal sin the film makes is actually placing Affleck on earth and putting Wes Bentley in space. Bearing in mind the characters have aged dramatically, not a single person would question their looks. We could have enjoyed the always excellent Affleck as Doyle and the often average Bentley as brother Tom. Meanwhile The Martian enjoys the best of both worlds (quite literally). Some of the film's finest, sharpest moments come from our home planet as the NASA headquarters houses some brilliant characters and performances. We get Jeff Daniels' excellent NASA Chief Teddy Sanders, the delightful Mindy Park (Mackenzie Davis), a rib-tickler from Donald Glover as astrodynamicist Rich Purnell, the best work in years from Sean Bean as NASA official Mitch Henderson, joyous PR cover-up artist Annie Montrose (Kristen Wiig) and most importantly, a sublime turn from Chiwetel Ejiofor as NASA engineer Vincent Kapoor. The sequences upon the homeland never detract from the thrills and terrors of Watney's endeavour upon The Red Planet, rather support it; further it. The introductory act of Interstellar leads audiences into a false sense of security by implying the same, but little after Ranger 1 leaves the stratosphere, it becomes a distant memory.