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The Martian Film Analysis

Decent Essays

In the adaptation of novel to film, often details of the story are lost in translation, as seen in the exposition of the Martian. The beginning of the film was extremely short compared to the novel, and communicated much less. The book was able to convey more information and make the story more personable to the audience. The composition of the film exposition was extremely short and in a different order than the novel. Despite the uniqueness exposition of the film, its effectiveness was less compared to the novel. The novel included small important details that allowed the audience to be part of the story rather than read it from a 3rd person viewpoint. In the adaptation of the film, The Martian, the exposition was altered such that the …show more content…

The film adapted the beginning of the story much differently, and much quicker than the novel, thus creating a subtle transition. The film evacuated 5 members of the Ares 3 crew from Mars, and immediately cut to the assumption that Mark Watney was dead (Weir). By that point the main dilemma of the story had been stated, and the exposition was nearly over. The book had a different approach to the expression of the story. After introducing Mark Watney through the log entry, the log entry became a very powerful tool to tell the story. Using the log entry, the entire exposition was told. The log entry system created a much longer, detailed exposition than that of the film, making it more effective and intriguing. Eventually, the point of view was set back to earth and the memorial service of Watney, finishing the exposition and continuing the story (Weir). By introducing the exposition through different lengths and viewpoints, the story’s effectiveness changed drastically.
The effectiveness of a story is firstly based from the exposition, and how well the reader is intrigued by the story. The book’s strategy and execution of expressing the exposition was much more effective than the film’s. The novel included humorous dialogue from Mark Watney that was able to interest the reader throughout the story. Similar dialogue existed in the film, but not nearly as much as the book. After a hard day of work, Watney logged an entry saying, “I slept in late today. I deserved

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