Project Hail Mary
Project Hail Mary was a movie I went into completely blind, so I had to figure out its vibe while watching. At first I expected something more serious. It’s called “Project Hail Mary” and it is set in space, so the vibe I expected was different, and some of the jokes threw me off. Not because they ruin the movie, but because they set a more humorous tone. The film switches between silly or warm moments and serious ones, and I kept going back and forth on how much that worked for me.
What I did like is the core of the film. The mission starts as a “save the world” story, but the further it goes, the more it turns into something deeper. One of the biggest themes throughout the movie is sacrifice. Ryland is basically the perfect candidate on paper, because he does not really have anyone waiting for him, and even in the best case he only has a limited amount of life left if no one saves the sun. But still that does not mean his consent should not matter and he should get to choose if he wants to join the mission. And that is the ethical question of the movie, one person’s choice versus the survival of everyone else. I can see why they didnt , but I also wish the movie would’ve touched more on that.
Other than that the plot is very clear. The second main character gets introduced to us as Rocky. The communication between Ryland and Rocky evolves pretty fast, the movie is not trying to be realistic here but thats also not the point of the story. The point is rather something like trust, two completely different beings choosing to cooperate and to share their respective resources while using their diffrences rather than fighting because of them. That is why the silliness between them works for me way more than the other silly gags. It is not random comedy, it is more part of their connection. It’s a way to show them on a deeper level, which also helps to get the audience emotionally invested later on. The jokes that didn’t feel that necessary for me were mostly the ones that feel like they are just there to get the audience to laugh, not because the story needs them. The movie is also rather long, there are one or two moments where I thought it was finishing up, but it keeps going... but that doesn’t really affect my liking of it.
In the end I enjoyed it a lot. The visuals look great, it was a nice experience, and I think the mixture between deeper themes and a fun, warm movie is successfully done.