3 out of 5 stars (Average)
Much like wedding toasts, corporate meetings, or stand-up routines, the difference between a good movie or a great one often comes down to knowing who your audience is and when to pack it up. Project Hail Mary, the new sci-fi film from Phil Lord and Chris Miller (21 Jump Street and The Lego Movie), stays at the mic too long and has an oddly uneven approach to its story that could keep kids happy (if they have the attention span) but alienate older viewers if they can’t get on its cutesy wavelength.
THE FUTURE: We follow Dr. Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling), a nerdy scientist and lone passenger on a spaceship heading to another planet. His objective: retrieve an element that could save the dying Earth and skedaddle back here before it’s curtains for us. Along the way, Grace befriends and learns to communicate with a sentient space rock (whom he names “Rocky”), easing the load of loneliness. With time of the essence and Earth in the balance, Grace and Rocky’s friendship will span the galaxy itself as they stand as humanity’s last hope.
For a sci-fi movie with a sentient rock, the least believable thing about Project Hail Mary is superhunk Ryan Gosling as a bespectacled science nerd. As strong as he is in the scenes with Rocky, Gosling’s hotness completely works against him whenever he has to wear the dorky glasses and speak technobabble. Does the future not have contact lenses? Sandra Huller is also good though underwritten as the government head who beams Grace up, the cinematography is sometimes beautiful, and I appreciate the change in aspect ratios (black bars on the screen) and the brightness or dullness of colors to differentiate between past and present time. It’s a technically well-made movie that I enjoyed seeing on the big screen, but I couldn’t escape a nagging question: Who is this primarily for?
Project Hail Mary reminded me a lot of Peter Jackson’s King Kong. Much how that film enthralled me as a ten-year-old despite its epic length and served as an intro to epic adventures and giant monster movies, Mary had the kids in my theater transfixed with its adorable creature that could rival Grogu in terms of plushies sold and introduce them to sci-fi. However, the key difference between Project Hail Mary and King Kong is that Kong is a movie made for adults that my mom loves and 10-year-old me happened to adore, while Mary plays like a movie made for kids with adult money that I couldn’t imagine my parents or other adults watching alone.
The other issue plaguing Project Hail Mary is that it doesn’t know when to END. There are at least 5 scenes and shots after what I thought was the climax where the movie could have closed, only to go on for another half hour (it runs for 2 hours, 36 minutes). Where it ultimately Does end is good, but had it ended sooner or been tightened up elsewhere, this would be a far more positive review. Project Hail Mary is optimistic, diverting escapism with a cute rock and good Gosling, but its overlong runtime and childish approach hold it back from blasting to the stars.
Rated PG-13 for Some Thematic Material (Rocky lost his home and Earth’s dying is taken seriously) and Suggestive References (Rocky says “Fist My Bump” a few times misunderstanding “Fist bump”)