A One Mann’s Movies review of “Project Hail Mary”. (2026, 3.5*, 12A).
One of the first big blockbuster movies of the year, “Project Hail Mary” has the likeable presence of Ryan Gosling, is filmed from a much-loved novel by Andy Weir (my son George’s absolute favourite novel) and a Science-Fiction theme. So why wasn’t I completely blown away with this one?
I feel I might be in the minority here with my conclusion that it was merely “fine”.
One Mann’s Movies Rating:
Plot:
Teacher Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling) wakes up with amnesia and (understandably) freaks out when he finds he is not only alone on a spaceship but millions of miles from earth. As his memory slowly returns he recalls that he is on a ‘Mission: Impossible’ to save Mankind from destruction.
Certification:
UK: 12A; US: PG-13. (From the BBFC website: “Moderate threat, rude humour, drug references, implied strong language”.)
Talent:
Starring: Ryan Gosling, Sandra Hüller, Ken Leung, Milana Vayntrub, Liz Kingsman, James Ortiz, Lionel Boyce.
Directed by: Phil Lord & Christopher Miller.
Written by: Drew Goddard (Based on the novel by Andy Weir.)
Running Time: 2h 36m.
Summary:
Positives:
- It’s a neat set-up and story.
- The effects are excellent.
- Daniel Pemberton’s score is fabulous.
- There are more laughs than I was expecting.
Negatives:
- It came across as more frivolous than I was hoping for.
- I wasn’t convinced with Rocky as a life-form!
- At over two and a half hours, it’s a bit of a bum-numb-er.
Full Review:
Nice set-up.
This is down to Andy Weir’s book rather than the film, but I really enjoyed the set-up of the film: Grace awakening in the hands of persistent robot doctors; finding, like Ripley in “Alien 3”, some nasty surprises post-hypersleep; and the astronaut only slowly dawning as to where he is and why. (In the book, my son George tells me, there is no “window” so this ‘realisation’ section requires scientific experimentation! I must read it!)
Flashbacks work well.
The concept of the film, with backstory elements flashing back to Grace as his memory returns, works well, although I found some of these edits a bit harsh.
All of this is helped along by the easy-going screen-presence of Ryan Gosling, in sparkling form, as the ‘hero’ of the hour. Andy Weir of course also wrote “The Martian“, and it is easy to see comparisons with Gosling’s wry humour and self-narration with that of Matt Damon in that hit film.
Propping up Gosling’s performance during the Earth-bound scenes are the wonderful Sandra Hüller as Eva Stratt, the cool, calm and collected leader of the science mission, and Lionel Boyce playing Carl, Grace’s helper and ‘heavy’ in the lab.
Adventures in planet fishing with Rocky.
All of the extra-terrestrial antics are well-shot from a VFX point of view and I would be surprised if this film is not a front-runner for the Visual Effects Oscar at next year’s awards. A scene where Grace activates the astrophage clouds while orbiting the planet Adrienne (LOL!) is spectacular and moving.
The other technical stand-out for me in the film is the music by Daniel Pemberton: a really unusual set of tracks that complement the film perfectly. There is one track in particular, where two spaceships are doing a ‘dance’ together to a jaunty little waltz, reminiscent for me of Justin Hurwitz’s score from another Ryan Gosling space film, “First Man“. Again, I would suggest, an early candidate for the Oscar Best Score category.
Songs include Sandra Hüller singing “Sign of the Times” and some nice needle drops including Oasis (“Champagne Supernova”), Neil Diamond (“Stargazer”) and the little heard “Two of Us” by The Beatles.
A comedic tone that negated any tension for me.
The film had many more laughs in it than I was expecting, which you might see as a good thing or a bad thing.
In terms of the Illustrious Mrs Movie Man, she went along to this film as a bit of a ‘dragalong’ (“Ugh, two and a half hours of science-fiction tedium” I could imagine her thinking!). But in the end, because of the light-hearted nature of the film, she ended up really enjoying it.
I think I was looking for something a bit sharper and edgier… more along the “Interstellar” sort of line. Which was clearly not what the film was aiming for! As such, I found the film a bit too flippant and frivolous for my taste, never really feeling any sense of thrill or danger during the mission’s action scenes.
Would Rocky exist?
Another thing I struggled with was the design of Rocky themself. I appreciate that we haven’t fully determined the presence of life, let alone highly-intelligent life, in the universe. But if life was to evolve to our level of spaceship building (and probably beyond), then if doesn’t feel likely to me that it would evolve into a creature with clunking great claw-like hands (albeit 5 of them) that would prevent it from doing intricate engineering work. I know I’m being a tad pedantic with this one, but while I rather believed that E.T. was a possibility, I never once believed the same for Rocky.
Overlong.
For a film that older children will probably enjoy, 156 minutes might stretch their attention spans to breaking point. As George mentioned, the book goes into all sorts of interesting places, many of which never made it into the film as it is. But for the sake of the running time, I kind of wonder if some further divergence from the book might have helped in the interests of a shorter running time.
For example, there seems to be a natural “end” of the film at one point…. but then the story reboots again as Grace suddenly realises something, and we shoot off for another 20 or 30 minutes. Now, all of this was great and made for a novel end to the story. But did I really need it? (I realise of course that purist lovers of the book would have rioted if they had chopped that ending! But it’s not like filmmakers like Ron Howard haven’t done it before for “Inferno“!)
Summary Thoughts:
I went to see this as a preview showing this weekend. “Project Hail Mary” opens for general release in the UK from next Friday, March 20th 2026.
This is a great popcorn space adventure that I think older kids and most adults will really enjoy. And, if my review comments don’t fully express that, ftaod, I enjoyed it too. Perhaps I was just not in the right mood to fully appreciate it and need to give it a revisit? (As the Illustrious Mrs Movie Man has pointed out, I have been so deeply engrossed in so many different heavy-duty Oscar films of late that maybe my ‘fun chip’ has been temporarily disabled!) But, as things stand, I was not completely wowed by the film.
By the way, I note from IMDB that Phil Lord and Christopher Miller are following up on this film by also planning to make another Andy Weir book, “Artemis”, although that film is not yet in production.
Where to watch?
Trailer:
The trailer for the film is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m08TxIsFTRI.
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