Space Opera

The Martian was a particularly dense and rough read compared to most other required reading in the course. The film was more or less a watered down melange of 19th-century sci-fi tropes. The movie was rather simplistic in terms of the plot. While it is characteristic of 19th century Sci-Fi to be simplistic in nature when it comes to story, the Martian did not engage with the high-end technology and fantastical aspects that helped the genre take off. Essentially the story is too close to current technology and lacks the futuristic elements that drive intrigue into the current story. Star-Wars contained The Force as well as futuristic androids, spaceships, and intergalactic diplomacy. The Martian contains a space-farmer and surface-level plot. Survival on a deserted planet and wait to be rescued roots the main plot in a singular location limiting the character’s interactions with others and changing the story more towards an internal struggle for the main character. In the Space Opera, many of the plot points and structure can be taken from the hero’s journey. In Homer’s Odyssey and other tales the main character embarks on a journey, moving through a fantastical and mesmerizing world. This builds towards the tangibility of the fictitious elements within the world built around it. The technology that rules The Martian is essentially just space travel. Space travel is almost a given in a space opera as it takes the role of the voyaging vessel in the hero’s journey formula. It allows the characters to journey to fantastical lands and explore the culture and technology of other worlds. The interconnectedness, as well as the vastness of space, allows for our journey to be epic. The Martian seems much less epic and interesting because it strays so far from what we expect from the Space Opera or New Frontier genre. While somewhat novel the text falls flat.

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