Matt Damon still looking for a ride home in new 'Martian' trailer

Posted Wednesday, August 19, 2015 at 4:52 PM Central

by John Couture

A couple months ago when the first trailer for The Martian debuted, I was blown away by the cast and interesting story that I wasn't familiar with. Given that it was a successful best-selling book, it's a pretty good reflection of the problem with having kids, they suck up all of your free time.

Of course I mean that in the best possible way, I wouldn't trade my kids for anything, but it continues to surprise me when films like this sneak up on me. The second trailer debuted today and while it's very similar to the first one in both tone and scope, it's pretty clear that Matt Damon is the star front and center.

Some have called The Martian his Cast Away and I can see that to a point, but I think it's pretty apparent that he won't be pulling solo duty in this film as much as Tom Hanks did in Cast Away. I envision that there will be many scenes sliced between Matt Damon on Mars and NASA on Earth and his crew back at their space base.

Fox recently screened the first hour of the film for a select number of critics and while the chatter has been light, most assuredly as Fox's request, the little that has trickled out has been extremely positive. There seems to be a bevy of heavy hitters this year for the Oscars, which only means that it should prove to be a great end to 2015.

The Martian gets stranded in theaters on October 2.