I absolutely love the movie The Martian. It is one of those movies that no matter what part of the movie I walk in on, I sit down and watch it to the end. There is so many different cycles of exposition, rising action and climax that it feels like ten movies in one. Like The Martian, Project Hail Mary is based on a book by author Andy Weir. Considering it is by the same author and about a similar topic, one man surviving in space, it had a high bar to measure up to. And did it ever!
My wife and I went to see Project Hail Mary by ourselves (no kids for once) in a Dolby theater. We are so happy that we did. Not only were the visuals and sound simply incredible, it felt so good to be on an adult date on a Saturday night like when we first met. And this movie deserved to be seen on the biggest screen possible so we are thrilled we did.
If I had known one simple detail, I think my expectations would have been even higher. It wasn't until the final credits that I found out that the movie was directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller. If you aren't sure who they are, these are the guys who directed 21 Jump Street, 22 Jump Street and The Lego Movie. So it should have been no surprise there were some belly laughs in this awesome movie. It should also be no surprise that about half way through it becomes a kids movie... in the best way possible. It becomes cute and fun but not in a saccharine way. It was just flat out pleasant and entertaining. I spend nearly the entire movie smiling. These guys know how to make an entertaining movie.
Without spoiling anything not already shown in the previews, the movie centers around a scientist who goes on an earth saving mission to figure out why our sun is dying. My wife, who read both this book and the Maritain, had very high praise for the film. in fact, she said it was better than the book. One of the reasons is that Lord and Miller decided to tell the story in a non-linear way. Instead of it being all set up for the mission and then the mission, they bounce back and forth. This means that you never get bored with either part of the story. It was masterfully done.
Quite often when I see a movie base don a book, it feels "off". The majority of the time, I feel like something is missing. This is especially true when I have not read the book... which is quite often. This is not the case for Project Hail Mary. They crammed in a lot of story in the 150 minutes of runtime. Although I am sure they sped up some details and most likely left something out, I never felt like anything was missing. More importantly, I was so engaged in every second of the film that I never got up to go to the bathroom once. That is VERY rare for me in a two and one half hour movie. So that is the highest praise I can give.
Just like Matt Damon in the Martian, Ryan Gosling is able to carry the movie in a significant number of one-man scenes. He's charming and, as we learned in the Barbie Movie, very funny. He pulls off the school teacher turned "hero" incredibly well. You root for him.... and all of humanity the entire time.
OK I do have to say something about the "science". I am not a scientist. Heck I'm not even a middle school science teacher but even I know some of the science things in this movie must be impossible. But that is OK. Any movie about taking a science teacher on a trip to another galaxy to save the sun requires a significant amount of suspension of disbelief. Because this movie was so well done and so entertaining, it earned that suspension of disbelief. So if you are looking for an episode of Cosmos thsi is not the movie for you. But if you are looking to have fun and enjoy an awesome popcorn movie, go see this on the big screen ASAP!