This review will only discuss content shown in the trailers. It was pretty widely agreed upon that the trailers showed too much. All images are taken from the trailer. If you’re someone who would prefer to take a more blind approach to the film, read this after.
Project Hail Mary is a novel originally written by Andy Weir.
Project Hail Mary tells the story of Ryland Grace as he makes a last ditch effort – or Hail Mary – to save Earth from the mysterious Astrophage, a microorganism that is eating the sun.
He travels to a far away star that is unaffected by the Astrophage to try and find a way to help Earth. But it’s a one-way-trip. We jump between the current time, where Grace wakes up on the ship with no memory of why he’s there or who he is, and the past, where we discover what led up to this point.
Once he reaches his destination, he finds he’s not the only one to have come up with this idea.
Enter Rocky.
Rocky is an alien. Now you have two guys in space who can hardly communicate, can’t be in each other’s atmosphere, and need to save their worlds. Here’s your premise.
One thing that the novel is known for is having very real, hard science as the backbone to the science fiction. Andy Weir takes great care to set up interesting science that is well explained at a level that anyone can understand and also has dramatic interest.
// Science Fiction
This leads me to my only negative of the film. Let’s get it out of the way.
The science is admittedly a bit light in the movie. There’s no way they could fit a whole novel’s worth of science into a film’s runtime. That’s completely fair, and I wouldn’t expect them to. But I do think they cranked the science knob just a bit too far into the “low” position.
There are certain revelations – both triumphs and emergencies – that don’t carry quite the weight they ought to because we haven’t had the journey of scientific discovery working up to them.
This is most evident in the start of the film, and then some scenes later on which I won’t discuss in detail.
The movie wastes absolutely no time getting the ball rolling. We’re given a crash course on Astrophage and the potential risks to earth, then sent on our way. One thing that really stood out to me in the book was the discovery that something was happening to the sun, learning what that was, and really feeling the gravity of the situation set in.
Having more detail on what is happening – aside from just being interesting – makes the twists and turns more exciting because you understand so much more.
That’s not to say they ignore it completely – there is still lots of fun and well-explained science and experimentation in the film. This is just my if-I-had-a-magic-wand adjustment I would make.
I won’t go on at length about the things they did or didn’t include from the book. I’m curious, if you have or have not read it, how did you feel about this? Let me know.
Once the show gets on the road, however, it settles into a perfect rhythm and groove.
// Interstellar BFFs
Despite the grand scale, they’ve made the focal point of the movie the relationship between Grace and Rocky. I was absolutely in love with these two. They’ll have you laughing out loud constantly. I could watch them hang out and bicker like an old married couple for hours.
They also succeed in delivering some very heavy emotional beats that land with all the gravity you would hope. This is even more impressive when you consider one of the two is literally a rock.
They do a lot with a little in regard to Rocky thanks to the writing and storytelling being rock solid. The film in general does a lot with a little. That’s a strange thing to say about a movie that takes place in space, and has some incredible set pieces, but allow me to explain.
Extended periods of the movie just see Grace and Rocky sitting in a dark tunnel talking, or exchanging items, or sitting in a lab. But it’s always engaging. It demonstrates a true mastery of not just filmmaking, but visual storytelling.
They use a minimal set in very interesting ways to keep things fresh. Composition and different perspectives keep things from getting stale. Clever, fun, engaging writing keeps you locked in. Despite the quick intro, Project Hail Mary is not afraid to really slow things down when it’s focusing on the main characters.
// Out-Of-This-World Visuals
These slower, personal moments are offset by the grandeur of space.
Project Hail Mary took a unique approach to its filmmaking, electing to alternate between the standard 2.39:1 aspect ratio for scenes on Earth, and an expanded 1.85:1 for scenes in space. If you’re lucky enough to live somewhere with a theatre that supports it, you could even see the version where the space scenes are 1.43:1.
The film utilizes many clever mechanics for cutting between these two portions of the movie. Things like cutting from space back to a classroom where the camera is rotating with a solar system in the background, or cutting from a shot of the ship in space to a similar establishing shot of a ship (the water kind) on Earth.
The ship interior was entirely constructed in real life and looks beautiful on screen. Phil Lord and Christopher Miller were eager to highlight that they didn’t use any green screens.
They do a great job through set design and colour work to make the ship feel like a comfortable place. There’s a warmth and messiness to it. This stood out to me in contrast of the many cold, steel, sleek spacecraft we so often see.
Buttons and nobs click and handles thunk; the whole ship provides a wonderfully tactile experience.
It’s a visual treat watching the Hail Mary glide through an endless sea of stars, especially on the larger IMAX screen. It seriously never gets old. There are a handful of shots that are simply jaw-dropping compositions bursting with galactic light and colour.
The visual design of Rocky’s ship – as well as his various alien paraphernalia – is very original. It was clearly designed to not just look cool, but practically reflect what his species would build.
I could go on at length describing the beauty of some of these shots, but I’ll leave it at this: you’ll probably want to catch this on in theatres if possible. IMAX if you can.
// Cast and Crew
Ryan Gosling does a good job leading the film. There’s no shock that he can pull off the funny, charming, kind-of-awkward-but-in-a-hot-way role. This is his bread and butter. But the chops were on full display as he nailed the more emotional side of Grace’s character very well.
For my money, Rocky steals the show. Voiced and puppeteered by James Ortiz, the little guy has so much personality. From dancing to fist bumps to line delivery.
To no surprise, Sandra Hüller does an amazing job as Stratt. She pulls off the cold and calculating leader who would see Earth saved, but adds a layer of humanity that I think goes beyond even the book version. She gave an incredible performance.
(Hey psst. If you like Sandra Hüller in this movie you should go watch Anatomy of a Fall. Then come back and read our thematic analysis.)
// Conclusion
Project Hail Mary is a wonderfully fun and heartfelt adaptation that explores friendship when the stakes couldn’t be higher. Although they left a little more of Andy Weir’s signature science on the cutting room floor than I’d like, you’ll be too absorbed by the interstellar vistas to worry much about that.
Project Hail Mary asks what it means to be brave. Are heroes that different from you and I? Or do we all have it in us, and we just need someone to be brave for?
