"Project Hail Mary" Embrace the Hope

    Look, the nicest way for me to put it was that I was quite skeptical of this film. While it's rating on Letterboxd was high, and it seemed to have high praise. I was largely going to watch this film simply because my sister asked me to come along with her, to which I happily obliged because unlike Dr. Ryland Grace (is his real name actually Ryland no one ever says it), I have immediately family and loved ones that I do not need to learn how to love. I mean just this morning I had seen Andy Weir come out with a statement that there is absolutely, positively nothing political in his work. Even though the movie does mention that part of the reason Dr. Grace needs to find a solution is that the human race will almost certainly not work together to ration enough food to "only" allow a quarter of the population to die in 30 years. And also, I did see quite a few people call it Marvel-slop, the runtime gave me pause for concern, and some others called it hope-slop. I am happy to report, none of the above is true, the movie is in fact very good. Let's talk about it.

    I want to address the runtime first, because it made me think about Interstellar, not just because they're both space movies, but because I always imagined in my mind that Interstellar had a real pacing issue, because it was 3+ hours (in my mind, in reality it's pretty close but not quite three hours), and the first third of the movie drags on so long until the rest of the film blows you away. I am not here to pretend and say this film is better than Interstellar. That would be ludicrous, and I simply do not like Project Hail Mary that much. However I can gleefully confirm that the pacing in this film is well done, and while the runtime may seem intimidating, I never found myself lacking for anything captivating happening on screen. I had many concerns that Ryan Gosling would simply not be enough, but thankfully, the glorious Canadian pulled through. 

    Of course, it's also supplemented by plenty of flashbacks that slowly help fill in the gaps. The reveal that Dr. Grace was forced onto this mission was a mixed bag in my eyes. On one hand, it doesn't do much to paint Dr. Grace's actions prior to this reveal. He like a good scientist who doesn't hate humanity or doesn't hold any grudges to his employer diligently works to save humanity. You never really get a sense that there's any resentment. Obviously, viewers realize later on this was basically done for the sole purpose of making his sacrifice to make sure Rocky is safe feel more impactful. But frankly? I just don't know if it was impactful enough to feel necessary to the narrative. I mean he does talk about how he has no loved ones or even a friend, but they don't make him feel "lonerish" enough if that makes sense? He never really breaks down after a setback and is like "I don't even know why I'm doing this, there's no one back home I even like" or whatever. I mean he has no problem making friends he made friends with Carl, and his students seem to like him enough.

    I'm not saying that we needed more Dr. Grace flashbacks, plus the main theme of this movie is hope. I just thought the path to towards creating the emotional impact was a bit on the weaker side. Speaking of weaker impact. This is going to be really nitpicky. But who the hell chose the final song for the "success" climax? I'm so serious when i say it sounds like Midnight City by M83 and feels hilariously ripped out of some car ad from the 2010's. Like I thought the music was good for the entire film, except for that one part. It wasn't bad enough to make me laugh in the theater, but it was pretty egregious, they could have easily done better.

    My last and final nitpick was that I kind of feel like they copped out with Rocky a little bit. Don't get me wrong, I quite enjoyed the buddy dynamic between Rocky and Grace. I thought their little friendship was touching. It's just that they got past the language barrier between the two quite quickly, I was very surprised that they were so buddy buddy and friendly with each other pretty much off the bat. of course they were lonely and such, but I just expected a bit more of a ramp-up period. Is that so wrong? Also they spend all their time on the human ship. I was a little disappointed to find out that they pretty much never explore Rocky's ship until the end, would have liked to learn more about his culture.

Final Score: 80/100

    But they prevailed. Which is kind of the theme of the whole movie of course. I don't think it's hope-slop or hope-core or whatever you want to call it. I mean the stakes never quite feel that high, but they're felt enough to make you care. The dialogue can sometimes come off as a little corny thanks to all of the quips, but I think you kind of need those to keep the mood light, especially when it's basically just the Gosling show. Any problem or qualm you might have with this film, it just kind of shrugs off and keeps on moving forward, sort of like the characters in the film, and that's part of the charm. It's just a solid, good film. What more can I say. It's pretty, it's not offensive, and it's a good time.