The atmosphere on Mars is much less dense than earth, which means that sound dies almost immediately. I wonder if Harry Gregson-Williams thought of this when he composed the soundtrack.
Let’s face it – when you think about the music in The Martian, you remember the endless disco classics – each one fitting in better than the other. Kudos for this, but now on to the instrumental part.
I like how HGW uses a kind of minimalist approach to each theme in this soundtrack. The entire opening theme “Mars” is basically built up of two-note combinations that create a sense of eeriness, but also a calm that I suppose exists on Mars.
Some of the themes are a bit over the top stereotype themes. Like “Sprouting Potatos” which is a bit too cute for my taste. OK – i understand that the potato is one of few living things on that planet and Mark has some kind of emotional moment, but tone down the cello one notch… Same goes with “Hexadecimals”. Just because it is some sort of really scientific notation doesn’t mean the score has to be really Nintendo-sounding…
The strongest stand-alone theme in the soundtrack i “Crossing Mars”. It builds upon the original Mars-theme from the first track. Playing the major (instead of minor) two-note theme on a horn which is later joined by strings is a real “Chevaliers de Sangreal-moment” for me. This is the only track added to my soundtrack playlist on Spotify from this album.
Stand-alone rating: 3/5 – Solid score.
Complementing the movie: 4/5.
Total: 8/10
The Soundtrack 