Project Hail Mary 2026
B
I had my expectations set way too high for this movie and found it to be disappointing. I had heard good things about the book it is based on and the critical reviews have been very positive. However, it is a long movie with a lot of problems, and also some very good stuff. First, it is very hard sci-fi, with a whole universe of made up stuff that it can then play around and bend any way it wants to, including an unnecessary second ending, just when you thought it was all over. Second, it has some big tonal shifts as it goes from tense to silly to maudlin. It is a big lift for Ryan Gosling who has to carry most of the movie since he is by himself for a lot of the time. There are also a number of technical problems with the movie's own made up science, including one of the most useless shipboard computers of all time. I can't talk about most of the problems without giving away most of the movie, so I will put that in the spoilers below. I feel like the movie wants you to be confused for most of the movie, just like Gosling's character is, but there is too much space magic at work. I do think Gosling does a good job with his role as goofball, genius, and best pal. The buddy story is good and well developed, and the backstory flashbacks tell a more interesting story than the main one. There are some big emotional payoffs, but I thought they were a little forced. Anyway, it is a neat movie and will give you some things to think about, but the more I thought about it, the more disappointed I got.
spoilers
I may not have understood everything and there may be details from the book that I just don't know about that explain some of these things. When he wakes up he immediately starts trying to escape and gets into the vodka? Wouldn't you think you'd be wanting to ask the computer what is going on and maybe reading up? It seems like they said it would take 11 years to send a message back to earth? And he has spent maybe 20 years in a coma, I guess? But then it is only going to take 4 years to get back? Also, he is traveling fast and far enough that when he gets back to earth or when his solution is supposed to get back time dilation will make that much longer. Also, the sun's fuel is being taken away and it seems like it isn't going to get that back once the virus is vanquished, though I don't know how that works, so maybe it will come back. Rocky gives Grace enough fuel to make it back to earth at the cost of 6 years on his return trip, but I guess their sun is running out of fuel as fast as ours where they didn't want to delay the project by even one month? The idea of a water-based star-eating virus makes very little sense, but then it turns out there is a predator of that virus, except they need to breed a special version of it that will work on Venus, which apparently is no problem. And they figure out they just need to scoop it up from the atmosphere of the planet and it will work. They've never seen any of this and they immediately come up with an audacious, extremely risky plan that has to work. Sci-fi does stuff like that all the time, but it bothers me when elaborate plans are developed based on almost no information.
Written: 25 Mar 2026