I was having lunch with my close friend Arnie who was eagerly awaiting that evening when he was going to see “Project Hail Mary” on an IMAX screen. The 2021 novel of the same name, written by Andy Weir, has won numerous awards, including the Dragon Award for Best Science Fiction Novel. Arnie thought the novel was in the Top Five Sci-Fi Novels he had ever read, right up there with “Dune” and the “Foundation Trilogy.” I had seen the film the day prior to our lunch. I liked it, but, like most novels adapted into movies, I’m sure the novel is considerably better. The movie may make it to my Top 20, but I doubt it will make my Top 10 for this year. I saw it with Robin & Noah, and they both liked it better than I did. My good friend Bruce, however, thought it was “very disappointing.” The public also gave this film mixed reviews, so you will need to decide for yourself how good it is.
The film begins with Dr. Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling) waking up from suspended animation on a spaceship. He is confused. His two team ship members are both dead. He thinks he knows them, but he can’t recall much. Dr. Grace has no idea what he is doing in space or what his mission is. We soon learn, via multiple flashbacks, that, sometime in the future, our sun is dying, but the experts don’t know why. Within a couple of decades, all life on Earth will be extinguished. Dr. Grace had been recruited by Eva Stratt (Sandra Huller) to join a team of scientists feverishly working to solve the mystery and prevent the end of humanity. Most of the nearest stars are suffering the same fate as our sun, except for those in the star system “Tau Ceti,” which is 12 Light-Years from Earth. Powered by Astrophage spin drive, which somehow creates photons, the spaceship can travel the 12 Light-Years in 5 years of Dr. Grace’s time, and a bit more than 10 years Earth time (due to time relativity). Dr. Grace’s mission, very unlikely to succeed, is to solve the mystery and relay the solution back to Earth. Unfortunately, there isn’t enough fuel for him to return to Earth, so he will be sacrificing his life on the “Hail Mary” chance to save the world. Dr. Grace arrives at “Tau Ceti” and meets an alien who he names “Rocky” (voiced by James Ortiz), who is on another spaceship. Rocky is trying to save his sun and planet from the same fate. Since two heads are better than one, they decide to work together and, in the process, become very fond of each other. Their relationship is the heart of the movie.
I thought the CGI was good, but not spectacular. Gosling does a fine job, but it’s demanding a lot from him to carry a 2 & 1/2 hour movie primarily by himself. I thought the film was slow until Rocky showed up. (As usual, I would have skipped about 20 minutes off the first half of the movie). The early flashbacks were necessary, but I think the film relied too much on the later ones. I would have preferred a primarily-traditional-time sequence.
Bottom Line: It’s a good, but not great, sci-fi movie. “2001: A Space Odyssey” or “Star Wars,” it isn’t.
