I am reading the book prior to viewing the movie, which I am planning to see on March 28th. If I can do a chapter a day, I’ll be golden.
One chapter down. So far, so good. Classic Weir humor. I can’t wait to see how this is adapted to screen.
Looks pretty cool. It might tempt me into a movie theater, something I haven’t done since Covid struck.
A quick skim of links to assorted reviews seem overwhelmingly positive. My own local paper’s (San Jose Mercury) critic just loved it.
Off to check which local theater will be showing it.
I saw this last week at the first IMAX Early Access showing and loved it! I had never read the book (had never even heard of the book until I saw the first trailer.)
Just came home from the theater. I really enjoyed it, but I think a lot of the suspense was spoiled by having already read the book. Rocky looked exactly as I imagined him and the recovered memories /flashbacks were paced and integrated perfectly. The book may have done this as well but I was surprised they didn’t pull the trigger on Chekhov’s Heroin.
I just listened to the audiobook, and it was the same as your spoilered item.
This movie is doing $140M worldwide on its opening weekend, with a Cinemascore of A. It’s going to make a lot of money get nominated for a lot of stuff.
Just got back from seeing it. Never read the book.
It was really good, enjoyable, time flew by , etc. so I guess it’s kind of unfortunate to say I think it’s ultimately going to be kind of forgettable.
Very much an amalgamation of a lot of stuff seen before. I’m guessing the book would have been more my taste since it feels like they Hollywoodized it with a lot of crowd pleaser proven cliches. The problem solving “hows” he did that would be interesting were glossed over into “eh, he’s really smart, he just figured it out”. Traded out for scenes of goofy fumbling about for laughs.
So, really enjoyable but I won’t be thinking about it next week.
Also, I don’t think this could have been pulled off with anybody but Ryan Gosling. Put Chris Pratt or Ryan Reynolds in there and I probably would have hated it.
Just saw this (without having read the book) and really enjoyed it. It was maybe a touch too long but really good. I was afraid the trailer gave too much away but it actually didn’t.
Saw it last night. Loved it.
I predicted it would solve the storytelling problems I had with the book, and it did. Now instead of a bunch of random emotional moments it’s a story about a fearful man who learns to overcome his fear and save the world, with a little help.
Rocky is adorable in his little hamster ball.
I told my son about the story and showed him a video of Rocky. He was really into it.
Two lines from the book I wish had made it in:
“I poked it with a stick.”
and
“What are you, blind? Wait. Are you blind?”
Grace’s T-shirt game was epic. I think my favorite is “I had potential.”
Over $300 million now. We’re planning to see it, but on a weekday when it’s not mostly sold out.
This was my impression too. I liked it, but didn’t enjoy it as much as everyone else seems to.
I wasn’t wowed by the book, so it already had a strike against it going in. I really liked The Martian, both the book and movie, but PHM seemed like a poor attempt to just repeat the formula. Plucky guy acts goofy and solves problems with science, but whereas Watney was serious when needed, Grace was just goofy. The Martian made real attempts at science (other than the windstorm and lack of radiation) but that just went out the window with PHM.
The Martian had a good and believable narrative, while PHM seemed contrived throughout. The drug-induced memory loss, a 14 ly journey only to arrive at the same time as Rocky, everyone else (in)conveniently dying except the two heroes – it got to be a little much.
I got some genuine laughs out of it, but I would have appreciated 50% less goofiness. I’ll certainly recommend it to people, but I don’t see it as a movie that enters the pantheon of greats.
It’s a really fun movie and worth a watch. Is it a ground-breaking film that warrants multiple watches? Probably not. But it’s definitely a solid theater movie that is worth the ticket price.
They didn’t arrive at the same time.
Per the book and the movie, Rocky had been alone in the Tau Ceti system for 46 Earth years—doggedly trying to solve the mystery by himself—before Grace showed up in the Hail Mary. Rocky maneuvered his own ship over to the Hail Mary when he noticed its distinctive decelerating astrophage exhaust plume as it entered the system.
And I thought everyone else dying—on both ships—was fairly well-explained and plausible. Everyone surviving such a fraught, quickly thrown-together expedition is actually more unlikely, IMHO.
Fair enough. But I haven’t seen any suggestions that this movie is our modern Godfather. I liked the book very much. I liked the movie. That’s all I ask.
The most unbelievable part about PHM for me was the nations of the world actually working together to solve a problem that won’t have catastrophic consequences for several decades.
I mean, we are experiencing that right now. Not only are the nations of the world not cooperating to solve the problem of global warming, but the official position of the current U.S. administration is to call it a hoax and to cancel projects trying to ameliorate fossil fuel use (like wind farm projects).
If the situation in Project Hail Mary were to actually occur, I would expect the nations of the world to bicker about whether it’s actually happening or not indefinitely until it was too late to do anything about it.
This idea of international cooperation is present in both The Martian and Project Hail Mary. I wonder if Andy Weir (the author of both books) was trying to make a point about this.
Saw it this weekend with spouse, kiddo, and two of kiddo’s friends! All of us enjoyed the movie. Kiddo loved it.
I did think that it was hard to follow in places without having read the book recently. Like the whole thread of non-water-based life appears to be dropped in the movie (I am told that we find out in the book that Rocky is not water-based). And there were places where I felt it could have changed and streamlined the book story. Anyway, I liked it a lot! It I also really like Ryan Gosling, so there’s that.
Haha this was definitely something that I thought was extremely unrealistic about PHM the book, though I didn’t mind it at all.
In the movie, a few years later, a lot of international bickering later, and since I’d already been primed for it with the book, it just made me tear up a lot. I just really like this world where everyone pulls together, and it makes me sad too.
Nope, all of the life forms in the book, terrestrial, Epsilon Eridanian, and Tau Cetian, are all ultimately related, and all have cells containing water. In fact, Rocky’s “muscles” are steam-powered.
I thought it was made pretty clear that everyone working on the project knew that the Countries of the world would not work together beyond this group and this group was pretty much the bare minimum. Sure they had money to do experiments and make plans but no one there expected the countries to make real sacrifices.