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Project Hail Mary Review
Image Credit: Amazon MGM Studios
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Directed By: Phil Lord and Christopher Miller
Written By: Drew Goddard; Based on the novel by Andy Weir
Runtime: 156 minutes
MPA Rating: Rated PG-13 for some thematic material and suggestive references.
Ryan Gosling – Dr. Ryland Grace
James Ortiz – Rocky
Sandra Hüller – Eva Stratt
Milana Vayntrub – Olesya Ilyukhina
Ken Leung – Yáo Li-Jie
Lionel Boyce – Carl
Phil Lord and Christopher Miller adapt Andy Weir’s epic sci-fi novel, Project Hail Mary, to life on the big screen. Together, the directing duo and scribe Drew Goddard craft a stunning interstellar odyssey. Project Hail Mary provides a tearjerking cinematic event that defines why experiencing movies on the big screen can be a wondrous experience.
Much like he did with the 2016 movie, The Martian, Drew Goddard exceptionally translates Weir’s text for the screen, helping to elevate Weir’s excellent novel to visual life on screen. The story follows Ryland Grace, a maverick in his field of molecular biology. However, Grace has since been ostracized from his field and finds a new calling teaching middle school science.
Unfortunately for Grace, the world faces a dire crisis. Scientists discover a type of interstellar bacteria, dubbed the Astrophage, which appears to be eating away at the sun. At its current rate, if the Astrophage continues to sap the sun’s energy, the sun will dim, and all life on planet Earth will die.
Next, Grace gets scouted and recruited into a special project, headed by Eva Stratt (Hüller) to investigate and find a solution to the Astrophage problem. With little time and information remaining, the project offers humanity the longest of long shots to save the planet. Grace reluctantly joins the project, eventually making some crucial breakthroughs, discovering how the Astrophage reproduces from the sun’s energy.
Eventually, Grace deduces how the Astrophage reproduces by using energy from the sun, while his colleagues discover that what is happening to the sun is also happening across the cosmos. However, the only star seemingly unaffected by the Astrophage is Tau Ceti, located over 11 light-years from Earth. Believing Tau Ceti holds the key to discovering a way to fix the Astrophage problem, Project Hail Mary seeks to send its team to Tau Ceti to unlock why it’s unaffected.
The movie begins with Grace waking up from a hibernation sleep aboard the space station as the only survivor. Due to his long time asleep, he suffers from amnesia, but he gradually remembers the mission and his purpose to fix the Astrophage.
Over the course of his journey, Grace unwittingly makes contact with another party seeking to solve the Astrophage issue. Here, Grace meets an unlikely friend, whom he names Rocky (Ortiz); and together, they forge an incredible intergalactic friendship to hopefully find the key to saving their home planets.
Lord and Miller achieve something quite special through Project Hail Mary, presenting an interstellar adventure that’s epic and awe-inspiring, but never loses sight of its emotional heart. That’s largely depicted through the special bond between Grace and Rocky. By the final act, the movie drives one to tears over their heartfelt relationship.
The cinematography for the movie looks incredible. The juxtaposition between the amazing visual effects and the immersive depth of the space travel sequences an incredible type of cinematic verisimilitude not seen on screen in decades.
Although the film was shot on digital Arri Alexa 65 cameras, cinematographer Greig Fraser transferred the digital footage onto film stock print, giving the movie a type of filmic, grainy warmth. The film-out process certainly works well, unconsciously adding to the presentation’s overall throwback look and feel, interestingly raising the narrative’s level of immersion.
Weir’s writing always excelled in making his stories scientifically authentic, and Lord, Miller, and Goddard translate that style well to the screen, so every scene plays in a grounded, believable fashion. Even the simulated gravity created by the Hail Mary comes from a scientific basis.
Ryan Gosling showcases his singular talent across Project Hail Mary, considering most of the movie centers heavily around him and his performance. Gosling presents Grace as a likable, relatable everyman hero, who is thrust into a harrowing ordeal and must rise to the occasion. But it’s really after he meets Rocky when the plot truly starts to soar and take shape.
James Ortiz, who voices and performs the live puppetry work for Rocky, similarly achieves something incredibly special and beautiful with his performance. He transforms Rocky into a tangible, living character, yet something intangibly more, as all these collective elements coalesce into Rocky and Grace’s unforgettable bond. Their bond achieves a rare emotional response that even the best movies rarely accomplish
Despite the movie’s rather hefty length at well over two-and-a-half hours, Lord and Miller maintain a shockingly brisk pacing. The movie never comes across as boring or overly long and deliberate. If anything, more time might have helped flesh out the other members of the Hail Mary crew, Olesya Ilyukhina (Vayntrub) and Yáo Li-Jie (Leung), who are more like incidental background characters here, but that does not genuinely detract from the experience.
The most prominent member in the supporting cast is Sandra Hüller as Grace’s superior and the Project Hail Mary lead, Eva Stratt. Grace brings an interesting, nuanced stoicism to the role. She’s clearly dedicated to the project and goal of discovering a solution to the Astrophage problem, and in some key moments, she shows more emotional vulnerability with fantastic subtlety.
Witnessing Project Hail Mary for the first time at IMAX HQ was a wondrous experience. The outer-space sequences translate magnificently on a genuine IMAX screen and look awe-inspiring. Project Hail Mary transports the audience across the universe and the edge of space. Perhaps that sounds like hyperbole, but watching Project Hail Mary on genuine IMAX creates a pure cinematic event unlike anything seen before.
At a time when the future of movies and the big-screen experiences appears uncertain, Lord and Miller knock it out of the park by making Project Hail Mary a movie that demands the biggest and best screen possible to achieve a next-level cinematic experience. IMAX is absolutely the way to go to watch Project Hail Mary for the first time.
Where To Watch Project Hail Mary
Project Hail Mary arrives in theaters on March 20. Ticket and showtime information are available at the movie’s website.
