Let’s first put a stop sign in front of the Traffic comparisons.

Now, I’ll admit I had high hopes for this film. And why shouldn’t I? Benicio del Toro is an icon, forever etched in our cinematic minds as Javier Rodriguez and Fred Fenster. But the part of Alejandro is meant for the machismo of Jason Statham, not the genius of Benicio. Now that being said, the fabled del Toro took this poorly written role to a possible Oscar nomination, an Olympic feat.

The film takes a visionary FBI agent, Emily Blunt, and drops her into the chaos and corruption along the U.S. border with Mexico. She is scouted by the smirky Josh Brolin, her professional opposite, who uses her integrity and morality against her and for his gain.

I thought the cast acted well but I didn’t love their roles and it was slightly disappointing to find out the entire picture was centered around revenge. While certainly thrilling and entertaining, I should have tempered my expectations a small bit. Note to self.

Sicario gets stopped at the border of mediocre and decent, smuggling in only 3.2 napkins out of 5.

There is an absence of a true antagonist in The Martian, well, besides Mars and the red planet oddly doesn’t seem to pose that big a threat. Even perennial bad guy, Sean Bean, is for the greater good. What!?!

So what happens in this film apart from the obvious? A daily video diary with some gentle jabs at disco fill some space but the science, on Earth (astrodynamics) and Mars (farming potatoes), is spectacular and essential for the film’s carry. This, in turn, leads to Benedict Wong and Donald Glover completely out acting their more A-list pals like Kristen Wiig and Jeff Daniels.

The Martian is a high quality picture. However, the last five minutes were really unnecessary and limiting Matt Damon to one F-word (assuring the PG13 rating, see the Philomena controversy) while stranded on Mars was more unrealistic than being stranded on Mars.

Do these nitpicky flaws, plus the lack of conflict, cancel out the Castaway-like “alone acting” brilliantly displayed by Damon? Not really but it does bring the film down to earth and out of the rarefied air of the Film Clas elite. The Martian parachutes in with 4.1 napkins out of 5.