Nate At The Movies

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS.

This review is going to be really long, so strap in. It’s been about four hours since I got out of Project Hail Mary, and I took those four hours to really let my thoughts about this film marinate—I also ate dinner and watched some March Madness. Admittedly, I’m pretty tired as I begin writing this review, so there’s a pretty high likelihood of rambling, but if you’re a longtime reader, you’ve gotten used to that. Having both read the book and anticipated the release of Project Hail Mary for two years, there was a lot riding on this movie, and thank the movie gods that this adaptation came out pitch-perfect.

I’m going to try to get all of my adaptation comparisons out of the way first, because I’d like to focus on the craft and execution of the movie primarily. I read Project Hail Mary over the last month, and it ended as easily one of the best books I’ve ever read, and I think the aspect that was mostly to thank was the discovery of speculative sci-fi. It was satisfying to learn everything about the mission alongside Grace, and every invention of the universe—from Astrophage to Rocky—felt well-vetted and plausible. I also liked how in-depth Grace’s explanations of scientific concepts were; they allowed the reader to feel smart and understand complex ideas without dumbing any of those ideas down.

While the movie didn’t have the time to get into all of the nitty gritty science like the book did (general audiences probably wouldn’t want to watch the version of this movie that explains all of that science and is also four hours long), just about everything I loved about the book was present in the film. There were no big narrative changes (which I hate), no little narrative changes that were made for seemingly no reason (which I hate more), and the best moments of the book were preserved perfectly. Lord and Miller (and Drew Goddard) penned quite an adaptation.

From a filmmaking standpoint, Project Hail Mary totally crushed. The obvious biggest jump in quality between the movie and the book was in the visuals, which were simply stunning. The space scenes in particular were gorgeous, though I did notice and appreciate the changing aspect ratios depending on the story’s location. Deep space felt so real and textured and vast, and that was due to both those aspect ratio changes and Greig Fraser’s awesome cinematography. I expected nothing short of breathtaking from the cinematographer behind the Dune movies, and Fraser came to play. Watching the Hail Mary and Blip-A fly through space was amazing, and the sequences at Adrian were the easy visual highlight of the movie. Adrian looked exactly how I imagined it would, and I couldn’t believe that Petrovascope shot. A feast for the eyes, no doubt!

I also thought Daniel Pemberton’s score was great. He’s written some of my favorite animated scores over the last few years, between the Spider-Verse movies and the Bad Guys movies, and his score here fit the story perfectly. It had such a nice blend of ethereal sounds—bells, choirs, and other things from the Interstellar score—and hopeful and wonderful sounds—like the scores of Robots or Meet the Robinsons (which I know are wild comparisons, but tell me I’m wrong). I’m listening to Pemberton’s score as I’m writing my review, and it’s accomplishing the exact goal I imagine Pemberton was given coming in: convey the vastness and treachery of space, as well as the hope and persistence of humanity (and Erid-kind, I suppose!).

Next, let’s talk about everybody’s favorite duo: Grace and Rocky! One of this movie’s earliest announcements that had me believing in it was the casting of Ryan Gosling as Ryland Grace, and once I read the book, I knew he was going to be perfect. Gosling delivered one of his best performances, in my opinion, bringing aspects of a lot of his previous films to this role. From his space experience in First Man to his comedic timing in Barbie and The Nice Guys to his emotional resonance in La La Land, Gosling was pulling from deep in his bag to authentically bring Grace to the screen. Rocky, though, may have been more impressive. Everyone knows that I’m a sucker for practical effects and especially puppets, so Rocky was a home run. James Ortiz and his “Rocky-teers” did an excellent job of making Rocky feel alive, but I was especially impressed by Ortiz’s vocal performance as Rocky. We’ll talk about the comedy in a second, but every second that Rocky was on screen—no matter what he was doing—was a treat.

Time to talk comedy! While Project Hail Mary (the book) was regularly funny and quippy, the film took the humor to another level. This story and execution could’ve been terrible and I probably would still go rewatch this in the theater to get all of these jokes again. Grace and Rocky were hilarious together, and the number of one-liners and gags that came out of their communication troubles was great. Rocky crashing on the Hail Mary and commenting on how dirty the ship was! Or Grace not having a single private moment because Rocky can hear everything! Or “Rocky hate Mark”! I’m going to be remembering funny lines from this movie all night and all day tomorrow, and I’ll be looking for my favorites in the Letterboxd reviews for this movie once I’m done writing.

Even with so much on this film’s plate already, there was somehow still time to tug at everyone’s heart strings, be it Grace and Rocky fighting for each other’s lives as they fled Adrian or Stratt singing “Sign of the Times” before the Hail Mary launched. The ending was perfect, too, and I’m so glad that Lord and Miller preserved Weir’s amazing ending from the book. After more than two hours of great adapting, I was really nervous they were going to chicken out and send Ryland back to Earth, but thank God they didn’t! I loved the ending from the book—it spoke to me even more as a teacher—so I was expectedly thrashing in my seat from excitement as I watched that same ending unfold on screen. The perfect bow for a perfect movie!

My friend Hanah first introduced me to Project Hail Mary two years ago, when she said “there’s a movie coming out in a few years directed by Lord and Miller starring Ryan Gosling about a teacher who has to save the world”. What a way to hook someone, and she sure hooked me. I had been anticipating this movie for that long, so it had a ton to live up to, and I’m happy to say that, not only was this one of the best book-to-film adaptations I’ve ever seen, but Project Hail Mary is in the conversation for one of the best movies I’ve ever seen, period. It beats everything I saw last year (yes, even newly-crowned Best Picture One Battle After Another), and I was seriously weighing if it was better than Interstellar on the way home. I know I’m probably in the minority there, but I just fell in love with this movie. From every angle, Project Hail Mary was what I wanted it to be. Lord and Miller perfectly adapted one of the best books I’ve ever read, and I can’t wait to go see it again. Amaze amaze amaze!