Credit: Emily Davids

Join WSPN’s Kyle Zhang as he reviews the recently released film adaptation of “Project Hail Mary” by Andy Weir.

The film “Project Hail Mary” is a movie adaptation of one of my favorite science fiction novels “Project Hail Mary” by Andy Weir. Directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, the producers and writers behind the “Spider-Verse” movies, this movie might just be one of my favorite movies of all time.

The story follows a middle school science teacher named Ryland Grace, who happens to have a doctorate in molecular biology. He wakes up from a coma to find himself alone on a space ship called the “Hail Mary” almost 12 light years away from earth with no memories. After piecing together his memories, we are told that he was sent on a mission to find a solution to a problem: the Sun is dying.

A single celled alien was found called Astrophage that was draining the Sun’s energy, and not just our Sun, all nearby stars were dimming, except for one, Tau Ceti. The film tells the story of Grace’s expedition into space on the “Hail Mary” to find a solution for astrophage. In addition, the film also explores his bond with his best friend — the alien Rocky.

Tone-wise, the adaptation was flawless. The comedy in the movie was just as snappy and witty as in the book, with brilliant visuals and score, creating an even stronger sense of wonder than the original book. This largely owes itself to Ryan Gosling’s performance, balancing comedy and tragedy to create some fantastically somber scenes, contrasting the light tone of the movie. Gosling’s acting really is in top form here, making you laugh, celebrate and cry, all within a minute.

On the topic of visuals, this movie is gorgeous. The visual effects create a stunningly colorful backdrop while still maintaining the dark, cold and vast nature of space. The infrared of the Petrova Line visualized as a multitude of ruby, garnet and cherry reds was breathtaking in theaters. It was only outdone by the vibrant emerald greens contrasted by the orange flames of the “Hail Mary,” as it descended into planet Adrian’s atmosphere.

Outside of digital effects, the set design and puppet work in this movie was fantastic. Yes, you read that right, puppet work. Controlled by James Ortiz, the alien Rocky was moved around by an elaborate puppet setup that made the character feel infinitely more alive than CGI would have. Impressively, not a single green screen was used throughout the entire movie, meaning that the set of the movie was physically built instead of the giant green rooms that have become all too common.

Continuing with production, the score and sound design for this film was amongst the best I have heard. Starting with the score, composed by Danil Pemberton, it perfectly captured the wonder and fear with a whimsical space-y sound that I found myself listening to again on Spotify the very next day.

For the sound, Rocky’s harmonic whale song-esque language was extremely well done, with the ship’s mechanical whirring and metallic thuds also being satisfying to hear. Together, with the score, they worked together to make a beautiful soundscape to underscore the visuals and help control the tone in each scene.

Now, aside from the production, how did the story itself hold up? Project Hail Mary’s story carries themes of connection, bravery and sacrifice. The bond between Grace and Rocky was especially well done considering the movie’s limited run time in comparison to the nearly 500 pages given in the original text. The verbal and nonverbal interactions between the two as they learned to understand each other created a genuine bond between the two in a very organic and convincing way.

The parallel story lines told by blending flashbacks into the main storyline allowed for the plot to have a deeper level of complexity, as the audience learned information at the same time as Grace does. It also provided a clear way to track Grace’s growth through the story, such as how we are shown how he uses his wit to hide his true feelings and avoid getting close to others on Earth. This is contrasted with his scenes with Rocky where we see him open up and have genuine heart-to-heart moments.

The best use of this style of storytelling is near the end of the movie, where Grace’s greatest moment of cowardice is contrasted with Rocky’s noblest act. It is revealed that Grace didn’t go on the mission willingly, but instead chose to save himself at the expense of everybody on earth. However, after this flashback, Grace makes the sacrifice he couldn’t in the past, saving Rocky and giving any hope of returning home. Bravery doesn’t come from a gene in your body, but protecting the right people.

When adopting a book into a film, there are several challenges that can often occur. For example, the tone of the story can be difficult for a movie to accurately reflect without the writing style of the author guiding the reader. Visuals can be difficult as well, as oftentimes readers will be disappointed when the movie differs from the mental image they created while reading.

For me, this movie scored full marks on nearly everything. Yes, there were some things cut out of the movie that shouldn’t have been, but faithfully adapting a whole book to a movie is nearly impossible. The minor gaps left in the story could be inferred, even though I would prefer if they were stated. The pacing of the story was also a little choppy at some points, especially at the beginning and end.

The theme of connection and the bond between Grace and Rocky was the highlight of the movie for me, but the sacrifice at the end could have been done better. It was made clear that there wasn’t really anything left for Grace on Earth, so his choice to save Rocky at the end gave me less of an “Oh wow” reaction and more of a “Of course!”

Overall, despite its minor flaws, I truly believe that this is one of the best movies created in the past few years. I would give this film a 9.5/10 and would recommend everybody see it.