The Martian- Movie vs. Novel

I started reading the martian by Andy Weir after watching the movie and have been incapable of putting the book down. The Martian is a very long and detailed novel but it is so intriguing the length goes unnoticed. I preferred the novel over the movie because it had more detail and scientific justification. There were some major differences from the novel to the movie but it still managed to capture the essence of the story. In the novel, communication is lost between Mark Watney, the fellow stranded on Mars, and NASA, the organization who sent him there and is planning his safe return. The communication loss causes a major problem in the novel because Mark is travelling across the red planet is unaware of an approaching sandstorm. This is a perfect example of dramatic irony because only NASA knows about the storm, this extra twist added more excitement to the journey. The sandstorm made the trip across Mars even more dangerous, creating more anticipation. Another major difference from the film was the ending: in the film commander Lewis saves Mark. In novel it is Dr Beck who retrieves Mark still strapped to the MAV and though Mark suggests an iron man escape he did not attempt as seen in the movie. The film version of the ending created more drama with Mark floating in space and the added redemption of commander Lewis. Besides the retrieval of Mark Watney the ending is also different in that the book ends with him on the Hermes and the movie ends with him back on earth. Overall the movie kept true to the essence of the novel and none of the changes took away from the story or disappointed the audience.