Imagine waking up on a spaceship located 11 light years away from Earth with no idea who you are or what you’re meant to do. “Project Hail Mary” explores this scenario, as this is exactly how the movie begins.
Based on the novel by Andy Weir, “Project Hail Mary” follows scientist and school teacher Ryland Grace (played by Ryan Gosling) as he is recruited to help figure out why the sun is dimming. They figure out that microscopic cells (aptly named Astrophage) are eating the sun’s heat energy in order to travel to Venus and reproduce. Due to many circumstances in the film, Ryland finds himself on the Hail Mary, the ship that is sent to discover why a certain sun in the galaxy isn’t dying when all of the other ones are. When he wakes up on the ship, he has no recollection of who he is or what he is supposed to do. On his journey, he is introduced to one of the biggest twists of the movie: he’s not alone.
“Project Hail Mary” is wonderfully directed, with Phil Lord and Christopher Miller taking the helm for the movies. With previous directed films including “21 Jump Street,” “The Lego Movie,” and “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs.” They also plan to direct another movie adaptation of Andy Weir’s third and final currently published book, “Artemis.”
Usually when a book is translated into a movie, details can be lost or fuzzy or completely changed from the source material. However, “Project Hail Mary,” follows the book so well. Only a few small details were glossed over and a lot of the physics and numbers details were skipped, but other than that, it was like a one-to-one adaptation.
This movie reminds me of another one of Andy Weir’s book-to-film adaptations, “The Martian,” which follows NASA astronaut Mark Watney as he is stranded on Mars. Both of these stories follow a man in space with some attempt to get back home. However, “Project Hail Mary’s” plot differs heavily from “The Martian.”
The comedy in this movie is spot-on, with quips and jokes hitting the mark every time. Even though there is a significant amount of jokes and comedy, it doesn’t feel overdone at all. It definitely helps us feel more comfortable with the characters, especially since they are really the only ones we are following in this story, apart from Sandra Hüller’s character Eva Stratt, who appears frequently in the flashbacks of the movie. She steals the show with her karaoke scene.
Speaking of the flashbacks, they are incredibly done and used. They exist for the purpose of memories returning for amnesiac Ryland as he goes on with his journey through space. They serve as both a reminder of who Ryland was before he was sent on his mission and, near the end, it shows us why he’s on the ship in the first place.
The score for “Project Hail Mary” is masterfully done. Daniel Pemberton does a phenomenal job with the music in this film. It added even more emotion to the most emotional scenes. The score also goes perfectly with the beautiful shots this movie has. I was awestruck at some of the space scenes.
Through the many comedic moments in the movie, “Project Hail Mary” also has some tear-jerking moments. It’s hard to imagine that such a comedic movie could pull at the heartstrings; so many parts in this movie made me tear up.
I went into this movie with extremely high expectations, and they were still blown out of the water. “Project Hail Mary” is one of the best movies I’ve ever seen, and I can’t wait to see it many more times.
