On Friday, March 20th, Project Hail Mary opened exclusively in theaters, to both critic and audience praise, delivering a compelling sci-fi adventure that pulls viewers into its high-stakes mission and tension through its runtime.
Project Hail Mary, written and directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller who you may know as the writers of the Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Across the Spider-Verse film series, and is based off of the 2021 novel written by Andy Weir. The filming started in June of 2024 with the production wrapping up in October of 2024 with most of the film being shot in the United Kingdom, with one of its more notable locations being Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory in Cambridge. The film follows Ryland Grace (played by Ryan Gosling) who wakes up confused on a spaceship and is tasked with finding a way to stop the sun from losing its heat, but in his journey, he comes across an alien (later given the name Rocky by Grace) who also has the same goal as him and their efforts to save their respective planets.
Some of the positives about the film include the connection between Grace and Rocky. Most of the film follows them as they learn to communicate and try to solve the Astrophage problem (A living organism like a bacteria, that is feeding on the suns heat) together leading to incredibly emotional moments between the two that feel so genuine and at times desperate. Ryan Gosling gives an amazing performance that really shows the difference being alone in space has caused him, as compared to when he was on Earth that can definitely lead to him being nominated for best actor in the next Oscars. Another thing would be the visuals, Project Hail Mary for most of its runtime, has stunning and beautiful visuals that give off a great spectacle, especially when Grace and Rocky are scanning for Astrophage, being one of the highlight scenes of the whole film. But the parts that stand out among all of the space travel are the flashback scenes, before Grace had gone to space, seeing how he and others worked together to try and solve this problem and the different events leading up to him eventually waking up in space.
While Project Hail Mary is an excellent film, that doesn’t mean its without flaws. One being the pacing, some scenes feel as if they drag on a bit too long, fortunately this is a problem that only affects the first 20 minutes of the film as things pick up after that point. The next issue is the CGI used in the opening scene, while most of the CGI looks incredible, the CGI in the first thirty-ish minutes is a little spotty, with some parts standing out as looking very computer generated. But those were the only “problems” the film really had, everything else about this movie is stunning and cohesive.
Overall, Project Hail Mary is an amazing film with a few flaws that you may notice, but shouldn’t affect your overall experience. It’s great acting by Ryan Gosling and the genuine and emotional connection with Rocky, Project Hail Mary is a must see in theaters.
