Science teacher Ryland Grace wakes up on a spaceship light years from home with no recollection of who he is or how he got there. As his memory returns, he begins to uncover his mission: solve the...
WHAT I LIKED: Drew Goddard, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller's 'Project Hail Mary,' is basically a case of Christopher Nolan meets Steven Spielberg.
On the one hand, it has all the hallmarks of a stern, modern sci-fi epic. Following astronaut Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling) on a last-ditch mission to save humanity by heading into outer space to investigate a planet-killing virus, the stakes couldn't be higher. That's then milked for all possible sources of tension; from Gravity-style spacewalks or Interstellar docking sequences, to a particularly gripping descent into a planet's atmosphere, all realised viscerally against the cavernous backdrop of space with impressive practical effects and pulsing music from Daniel Pemberton. On top of that, like in any great Nolan epic, there are a bunch of flashbacks to the people Ryland cared about on Earth, and the dire circumstances that lead him to the mission to add some character pathos too.
But what brings the Spielberg flavour is that Ryland also encounters an alien who's on the same mission to save his own planet. We watch as the pair fearfully interact for the first time, learn to communicate, and then build a friendship to help each other with their research. That's touching because it's an example of "humanity," transcending boundaries, and the film does such a beautiful job of bringing it to life.
On the one hand, the design of the alien (who Ryland nicknames Rocky) and his ship and technology is so original and truly other-worldly. But then the way the script has them communicate through mime and dance before Ryland associates Rocky's sounds with words is both hilarious and heart-warming, not only because so many words and phrases come up that Rocky gets wrong or doesn't understand, but because there are so many things - like love and companionship - that are intrinsically understood by them both.
WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE: It certainly ticks a few Hollywood cliché boxes along the way.
VERDICT: It's rare that a blockbuster is both tense and existential, and funny and touching, but 'Project Hail Mary,' knocks it out the park.
