Project Hail Mary

Yes, I have read the book (all of Andy Weir’s books in fact) so I did know what was going to happen (especially since it did stick pretty closely to the story, perhaps due to Andy’s producer credit).

Good things - Ryan Gosling, played it pretty perfectly, at least how I had imagined Ryland Grace to be; Rocky, the practical and visual effects team did a great job of making a lump of granite into a sympathetic and expressive character; and the environment of Rocky’s ship and his technology, believable but unquestionably “alien”.

Bad things - too many lingering shots, especially at wierd camera angles which did pad the running time; running time that might have been better used to expand on some of the plot points which I feel where skipped over a bit and I felt sorry for anyone who hadn’t read the book or didn’t have a companion to explain it for them!

Overall though, this was really good - an excellent piece of optimistic, science based adventure with some really good acting, nice effects and some flawed characters who were nonetheless heroic and a surprising number of the jokes from the book made it across to the movie too. Good work folks!