Fans of the book were worried that the spoilers for this film were going to be released in the marketing for this film. I won’t spoil anything that isn’t in the trailers or that I would say is a spoiler. The book is written by Andy Weir, who also wrote The Martian, a film I think this one will also get heavily compared to. I think the filmmakers manage to tackle the film from a different angle, and almost treat the film like you already know about Rocky, and I don’t think it’s a bad thing, it would’ve been hard to market the film without him.
Project Hail Mary follows a science teacher, Ryland Grace (played by Ryan Gosling), who gets recruited to be part of the project to help prevent the sun from being killed by an unknown substance. When Grace is woken up aboard the ship, he is alone on the ship, but encounters something else.
Directors, Phil Lord and Chris Miller have had an interesting journey in the industry so far. The duo make a break into the industry when they directed animated hit for Sony, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. This success allowed them to have the reigns for 21 Jump Street, which proved to be another big success, which allowed them to make a sequel which is just as funny, and get tapped by Warner Bros to direct,The Lego Movie, the biggest swing at the time but paid off with a strong box office performance and audience ratings, setting a universe of a few spin-offs and a sequel. 22 Jump Street was the last film the pair directed 11 years ago, since then they haven’t been lazy. They were initially brought on to direct Solo: A Star Wars Story, but where fired mid production due to some creative differences, a reports of the set having a lot of improvisation, something that lead actor, Alden Ehrenreich struggled with. The duo had have a big part in Sony’s animation studio, being heavily involved in the Spider-verse trilogy particularly. All of the other films they’ve previously worked on as directors have been heavy on the comedy, but do all manage to pack a punch at the right times for emotional moments as well. This film is a lot lighter on the comedy (however there are still a lot of laughs), but there’s a real balance to the very real threat facing Earth, as well as Grace being the very last hope for humanity. The line is towed perfectly throughout, and for a film that’s over 2 and a half hours long, it really flies by, paced pretty perfectly, even if it sometimes it does slow down for the plot with Rocky, and for Grace to learn about him.
This isn’t Ryan Gosling’s first venture into space, after he appeared in Damien Chazelle’s First Man, and it also isn’t his last as he enters the Star Wars universe next year in Star Wars: Starfighter. He’s obviously a fantastic actor, and one that’s loved by many for clearly being a loveable human and having fun where he can while on the press tour for his films, and behind the scenes. He’s been working in the industry for a long time, and managed to pick up 3 Oscar nominations (Barbie, La La Land and Half Nelson) along the way, consistently delivering strong performances, which is even more impressive given the range of genres he’s covered, clearly wanting to challenge himself where possible. He does another fantastic job considering he spends a lot of time acting opposite an alien that’s made of rocks (he has acted opposite a mannequin before in Lars and the Real Girl). The charm he has as a person carries over and into his character, and he does it with such effortless ease.
German actress, Sandra Huller is the only other human that gets a fair amount of screen time. Huller really broke into Hollywood after having a fantastic 2023 when she appeared in Zone of Interest and Anatomy of a Fall, picking up an Oscar nomination for the latter. 2026 could be a similar type of year for her, with her performance in this film, as well as alongside Tom Cruise in Digger, and German film, Fatherland, which many have predicted could lead her to a double Oscar nomination. Huller plays the lead of the Project in this film, a woman who has the weight and pressure of having a plan to save the world and humanity. She grounds the film, and owns every scene she’s in, demanding attention.
Another big heap of praise needs to be on the visual effects for the film. I mean by that the fact that the fact that they decided to make Rocky as a puppet. You can tell in the film that he’s actually there, and the impact he as a character is able to have. He is puppeted primarily by James Ortiz, who also is the voice, who does an absolutely fantastic job, and deserves the praise. It’s clear that the film is infinitely better for going this route, and really helps the character feel more real, when it would’ve been so much easier to go down the CGI character route, that many filmmakers would’ve gone down.
Overall, Project Hail Mary is confidently made by a directorial duo that have earned the trust of a studio to deliver and have come up with another. The film is carried by Ryan Gosling, who might not have had much a supporting cast to work with aside from a puppet, but the balance of both impactful and light moments are able to achieve the best film of the year so far.
What did you think of Project Hail Mary?
Flooders Films 
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