Sobering versus humanistic

Between "Everest," and the "The Martian," the movie-plex this fall seems to be full of films about places where the tiniest mistake can result in almost certain death. If Hollywood is trying to convince me to never leave my couch again, they're doing a pretty solid job. The two films also give us an opportunity to meditate on the human spirit, and our place in the vast universe where we live.

"The Martian" is set in an apparently not-that-distant future, where everything is exactly the same as right now, except people have set foot on Mars. When a team of astronauts are surprised by a storm on Mars, they have to pack up and leave the planet in a hurry, and they leave Matt Damon behind, thinking he's dead. He's not dead, obviously, but he is a botanist, and the rest of the film is about his resourceful attempts to stay alive long enough for someone to rescue him, which will take about four years. But he's a resourceful guy, second cousin to MacGyver, and part of the fun of "The Martian" is watching him come up with ingenious solutions to seemingly intractable problems.

This is an extremely nuts-and-bolts movie, and would be in danger of falling off the edge into nerd-singularity, if not for Damon's winning performance and Drew Goddard's excellent script. It is peppered with humor and human touches, like Damon's hatred of disco, and the extremely serious problem of lots of potatoes, not enough ketchup.

This is Damon's movie, all the way.

There are plenty of other actors who command a pretty penny involved, but their characters are extremely limited-we have a no nonsense NASA director who's burdened with making tough decisions; a PR gal who thinks he's nuts; a salty flight commander who doesn't play by the rules; a kooky scientist who lives on coffee and can't keep his desk clean or speak in normal English. Even Michael Pena, one of the biggest personalities in Hollywood right now, is pretty muted here.

All the focus is on Damon, and thank God he is able to be funny, sober, discouraged, goofy, and angry when needed. I've been thinking lately that Damon's a better bad guy than hero-he's just too good-looking to be trustworthy. But he turns in a fantastic performance here, and I'm back on his side again.

"The Martian" wears its themes right on its sleeve, and, just in case you missed it, ends by putting that theme into the mouth of a main character while he is teaching young wannabe astronauts. (The only way to be more obvious would be to print it on the movie poster). He says, and I'm paraphrasing: You're going to find yourself in a life-and-death situation, where the odds are stacked against you and your chance of surviving is one in a million. And you can mope and cry and give up, or you can get to work. You solve one problem, and then you solve the next problem, and so on, until you get home.

This is a very, very humanistic film, one that believes that all the problems in the universe can be conquered by human ingenuity, stubbornness, and, you know, science.

"Everest", on the other hand, is a movie about a disaster. A lot of people are going to die before the credits roll. The film gracefully packs a lot of information into the first hour, not just introducing the characters, but filling us in on the culture of extreme mountaineering, the way the sport has changed in recent years, and the challenges that have been introduced to an already challenging expedition.

Jason Clarke plays the lead guide, and Keira Knightley is his pregnant wife back home. John Hawkes is the mailman who is making his second attempt at Everest, carrying a flag for the summit given to him by elementary school students back home. Yasuko Numba is a 47-year-old Japanese housewife who has already summited six of the world's highest peaks. And Josh Brolin is an arrogant Texas millionaire whose wife (Robin Wright) warned him she'd divorce him if he climbed one more mountain. Guess who's still alive at the end?

In contrast to "The Martian," this is not a film about the triumph of the human spirit; this is a film about high handedness and tragedy. When Kormakur drops the hammer, it falls hard. "Everest" lifts us up just to ultimately drop us a greater distance. I left the theater feeling kicked in the gut, but knowing I had seen a very well-made movie all the same.

Jason Clarke's character is thoughtful, cautious, and careful. He's just as likable, smart and resourceful as Matt Damon's character in "The Martian." He dies anyway.

"The Martian" is about human ingenuity; "Everest" is about the frailty of human beings in contrast to the impersonal brutality of nature. We think we've conquered nature: we haven't.

We can dream about Matt Damon on Mars, but the reality is Jon Krakauer almost dying right here on Earth. Disaster movies reassure us that the human spirit will triumph over the worst that weather and earth can throw at us; it can't. This is a sobering reality.

Willie Krischke lives in Durango, Colorado and works for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship with Native American students at Fort Lewis College. To read more of his reviews, go to http://www.gonnawatchit.com