'The Martian' Early Buzz: Ridley Scott And Matt Damon Fly High

Ridley Scott's last foray into outer space wasn't so well received, and it's got his fans feeling ambivalent about his next planned outing on the spaceship Prometheus. But in between, Scott returned to space for The Martian, a much more grounded sort of sci-fi adventure.

The early trailers have looked very promising, as has that cast – but then, you could've said the same thing about any of his last few misses. Now that The Martian has finally made its world premiere at TIFF, the first reactions to the movie itself are rolling in. Get The Martian early buzz after the jump.

Matt Damon leads Scott's adaptation of the novel by Andy Weir, about an astronaut whose crew leaves him for dead on Mars after a dust storm hits. In fact, he's still very much alive — but the odds of him staying that way are stacked against him. Help is potentially years away, and he's only equipped with enough food and shelter to last him a few weeks.

Reactions from The Martian seem to range, roughly, from "really liked it" to "truly loved it." There are a few recurring themes here. Damon's lead performance is getting a lot of praise, as is the film's overall pro-science bent. And there seems to be more humor than you might expect from an outer-space survival epic directed by Scott. On the whole, it sounds like a solid win for Scott after a string of less beloved releases.

Of course, now that we've heard all this great buzz it's a slight disappointment to realize the rest of us still have weeks to wait until we can see the movie. So in the meantime, here are a couple of clips to tide you over. One shows the Ares 3 crew (including Jessica ChastainMichael PeñaSebastian StanKate Mara, and Aksel Hennie) at the moment that changed Mark Watley's life; the other shows NASA (including Jeff DanielsDonald GloverKristen Wiig, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Sean Bean) strategizing from down on Earth.

The Martian lands in theaters October 2, 2015.