The most exciting thing about The Martian is how confident it is about NOT being exciting. Despite kicking off the story with a literally otherworldly sandstorm, screenwriter Drew Goddard and director Ridley Scott spend the majority of the film’s 2 hour and 22 minute runtime focusing on several very smart individuals trying to solve a problem. And yet, The Martian is consistently engaging throughout, one of the most entertaining films of the year. It’s been making a killing at the box office, and should be the popular choice for “Best Picture” come Oscar season.

Part of the film’s entertainment value comes from the characters. Matt Damon, in particular, is excellent here as astronaut Mark Watney, exuding an every-man charm that makes him likable even to audiences with no scientific predilections. He’s simultaneously self-deprecating and extremely confident, and his excitement at the prospect of technically colonizing Mars, or being a space pirate due to the definition of maritime law, is endearing. The script gives him moments of vulnerability, when the odds of survival are significantly against his favor, but his immediate inclination to tackle problems head-on means that he never comes off as a victim. The audience WANTS to see him survive, which ups the stakes for the whole movie.

A similar tenacity is present in the Earth scenes. All of NASA, from the bigwigs to the engineers, are presented as competent, intelligent, and willing to work overtime to save Watney’s life. Even Jeff Daniels’s Teddy Sanders, the director of NASA in the film, is at times an antagonist but never a villain. When he gets in the way of Watney’s rescue plans, his reasoning is usually practical and always sympathetic to human life. The other characters sometimes go behind his back to continue the Watney rescue operation, but they’re not defeating a villain. They’re taking a fairly large risk that Sanders was incapable of taking.

This widespread humanity and desire to tackle obstacles with human ingenuity makes The Martian one of the most optimistic blockbuster films in quite some time. As stated before, there is no real “bad guy” in this film. Instead, the film’s conflict pits some of the greatest human minds against the cruelty and randomness of nature. In a pop culture environment in which the indomitable power of nature is a frequent fixation, such a perspective is refreshing. NASA must be over the moon (figuratively) about a film which supports its mission goals at its very core.

Ridley Scott’s direction is also heavily responsible for The Martian’s success. Despite being stylistically invisible, the pacing of the scenes and the sequencing of events is superb. Scott never lingers on a plotline or obstacle long enough for it to become boring, and even conflicts that seem dull on paper (like, say, Watney creating a Martian potato farm) are displayed here with an energy and verve, thanks to Scott’s seemingly-effortless direction. Editor Pietro Scalia also deserves credit for cutting together these sequences with such energy, as does Drew Goddard for writing dialogue that is full of character even when providing necessary exposition.

And so, The Martian is something of an anomaly. It’s a film with relatively small stakes, about intelligent characters solving problems using their scientific know-how. And yet, the incredible talent both in front of and behind the camera have crafted a crackerjack piece of entertainment which is somehow extremely accessible to mass audiences while never talking down to them. It’s one of the best films of the year, and absolutely worth your time.