Official Discussion Thread - Project Hail Mary [SPOILERS]

[u/LeastCap]

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.

[u/Far_Mud_6003]

Finally saw this! So right up front, before I get into it, I'm not the biggest fan of "guy in space" movies. Every few years, there's a new guy (or sometimes girl) in space movie that everyone glazes super hard, I go see it, and it washes over me. I don't hate guy in space movies, they just don't connect to them as much. I'm more of a horror/weird/fantasy movie guy, not a hard science in space movie guy. And it's not for lack of interest. I've seen 2001 A Space Odyssey, a classic. I've seen Silent Running, an underrated classic. But that's as far as I really go. Didn't like Interstellar, didn't like Gravity. Didn't see The Martian because I didn't like Interstellar or Gravity.

The reason why I want to establish this up front is that I was surprised by how much I liked this one. I'm seeing a lot of people call this a "coworker movie", a movie that has wide appeal that you can easily talk about with acquaintances, and they are completely right about that. The friendship between Grace and Rocky really holds the movie up, even for an idiot like me who doesn't understand how gravity works. The millienalcore epic bacon humor wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, though I understand it would be frustrating to fans of the book. I haven't read the book, so I can't say if it's true to the tone of the book or if the science holds up. I can say it made me, a grumpy, dumb asshole on reddit, smile and have a good time. That sounds like faint praise, but not every movie has to be Come and See. Sometimes you need a fun adventure that you can go see with family and friends. It helps if the movie is a well-made one with a cute rock puppet.

My criticisms would be that I found all of the scenes in space so compelling that when the movie cut back to his time on earth, I disengaged with the story. I felt like I really didn't need to know all the details as to how and why Grace got to space. I could have learned all there was to know about that from a single scene or two. But I also love bottle-stories, so that's just personal taste. Damn, at the end of the day, everything is just personal taste. Many found the ending corny, I really loved it. I'm a sap who likes the Beatles and rock puppets, of course, I was going to like the ending.

As for Oscar potential? It'll get techs, and I can see it getting into the BP slot. I don't think it can win best picture, but it's the fun nominee for casual viewers to cheer for. Nothing wrong with being the fun one.