SYNOPSIS
Science teacher Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling) wakes up on a spaceship light years from home with no recollection of who he is or how he got there. As his memory returns, he begins to uncover his mission: solve the riddle of the mysterious substance causing the sun to die out. He must call on his scientific knowledge and unorthodox ideas to save everything on Earth from extinction… but an unexpected friendship means he may not have to do it alone.
What We Thought:
I’ll be one of the few people who (initially) don’t love Project Hail Mary. It’s not the movie I was expecting and I thought The Martian was way better because of it. I do think it’ll be a movie that grows on me and I’ll probably enjoy it more on a rewatch a year or so from now. I’ll explain my reasoning.
Let me start by saying that I have not read Andy Weir’s book that Project Hail Mary is based on so because of that I didn’t know what the movie was going to be about. I had rewatched The Martian recently and since that movie is based on a book from the same author, I expected a realistic type of science-fiction. That movie is about a man left behind on Mars who needs to use his wit to survive. It’s based on a realistic premise so I thought Project Hail Mary would be similar.
Unfortunately that realism is replaced with buddy comedy humor. Matt Damon gets left behind on Mars in The Martian with the humor of that movie coming from his ridiculous situation. This movie takes Ryan Gosling and adds in a rock crab alien to run puns against. The realism of Damon’s situation becomes a Double Act Comedy Duo with Gosling being the straight man and the rock crab the wild card. There’s literally a scene with the alien in a rolling ball type thing crashing around knocking things over. Gosling’s character is alone with the alien and has to “science” it like Damon, but the buddy comedy aspect caught me completely off guard.
When the film flashes back to Gosling and those in charge trying to figure out how to get to deep space to save Earth I really enjoyed it. I liked the space travel aspects and finding fuel to travel among the stars. I loved that it doesn’t go in the typical sci-fi disaster theme of climate change and humans bad. The Earth is in danger because of an alien life form close to Venus that’s draining our Sun. It has done it in other galaxies and no one is to really blame. I appreciate that it’s not another “We’re doing this to ourselves, we must find a place to survive cause we suck” theme. But then it goes back to Gosling and the rock crab learning to communicate and having issues with words and the rock crab not understanding human humor.
Project Hail Mary was a film I was highly looking forward to. I’m a big Ryan Gosling fan. I loved The Martian. I like directors Lord & Miller. So much of it should be right up my alley that I’m actually disappointed I didn’t love it. I expected to want to see it again immediately. I expected realistic sci-fi and instead got a buddy comedy. That’s on me for not having read the book or not knowing what it was going to be about I guess. I do think when I go to watch it again later on I’ll like it a lot more because I’ll know what to expect. I won’t be disappointed in it for not being the movie I wanted. My expectations will be hedged so I’ll probably find more enjoyment in it a second time. Gosling as usual is easy to root for and I thought Sandra Hüller was perfect casting so basically it all comes down to it not being what I thought it was going to be.
CAST
Ryan Gosling, Sandra Hüller, Lionel Boyce, Ken Leung, Milana Vayntrub
The Nerds Templar 