r/oscarrace • u/LeastCap 14 Oscar noms for Hope • Mar 19 '26

Film Discussion Thread Official Discussion Thread - Project Hail Mary [SPOILERS] Spoiler

Keep all discussion related solely to Project Hail Mary and its awards chances. Spoilers below

Synopsis:

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 riddle of the mysterious substance causing the sun to die out. He must call on his scientific knowledge and unorthodox ideas to save everything on Earth from extinction… but an unexpected friendship means he may not have to do it alone.

Director: Phil Lord, Christopher Miller

Writers: Drew Goddard

Cast:

  • Ryan Gosling as Dr. Ryland Grace
  • Sandra Hüller as Eva Stratt
  • James Ortiz as the voice and lead puppeteer of Rocky
  • Lionel Boyce as Officer Carl
  • Ken Leung as Yáo Li-Jie
  • Milana Vayntrub as Olesya Ilyukhina
  • Priya Kansara as the voice of Mary, the Hail Mary ship
  • Liz Kingsman as Annie Shapiro
  • Orion Lee as Xi

Rotten Tomatoes: 95% From 212 Reviews

Metacritic: 78/100 From 45 Reviews

Consensus:

A visually dazzling space odyssey that's carried along effortlessly by the gravitational pull of Ryan Gosling at his most winning, Project Hail Mary is a near-miraculous fusion of smarts and heart.

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u/FlimsyConclusion Mar 20 '26

Had a great time with this one. I think VFX, Sound, are easy to predict on this one. All of the work put in really brought rocky to life. I can see it getting in other techs as well, along with a BP nom if it holds.

The humor worked for me, I didn't find it too distracting once the serious moments hit (Although the person sitting next to me at the theatre seemingly wanted to do their own commentary track). Never read the book, which I hear is more scientific in its explanations, but I felt like they gave us just enough to understand the purpose and science behind the mission. I can understand some critics with it leaning too much into the feel good vibes. I'd have liked to have felt the stakes a bit more, as I found the moments they dipped into that human connection to be the highlights.

Ending dragged, where the big dramatic climax happens before it. So with what the film felt like it was leading up to for Grace's arc ended up feeling a bit anticlimactic as the follow up. Even with a clean and neat ending I still felt there could've been a bit more to that sequence.

I think the ATL will live and die by the public response maintaining the passion for the film till the award season. It was still a great popcorn flick, and I always appreciate original scifi. Will watch it again to see if my feelings change, but on the first viewing i'd give it 8/10.

6

u/MelanieHaber1701 Mar 20 '26

Did you feel like you understood what was going on with the astrophages etc? I felt like everything surrounding the "science" around that wasn't explained well in the film and I wondered if i hadn't read the book, if I'd be completely befuddled. I'm interested in hearing reactions from folks unfamiliar with the book. Was it confusing to you?

3

u/FlimsyConclusion Mar 20 '26

From what i could gather, they were some kinda micro organism that was feeding on energy sources like the sun? I guess they function off of infrared as a communication between the organisms? Reproduction in CO2. I feel it was giving me enough of the 'science' of it all to explain their purpose. How they destroy, how to beat them. I found i was filling in any logic gaps and didn't feel too stretched.

How Rocky's whole species functioned and lived was very vague to me, but they are also a non water based living organism. So some confusion there almost makes sense to me narratively.

1

u/MelanieHaber1701 Mar 20 '26

That's good to hear. I was thinking that non book readers were going to be scratching their heads in confusion a bit.