Project Hail Mary is one of my favorite lighter reading, page turner books. I was worried they were going to screw the movie up, and I’m happy to say they didn’t. It was actually a really faithful adaptation. They even spent an appropriate (fairly long) amount of time on the first contact communication struggles. Of course after they advanced past that point, they quickly moved into the super easy communication stage, but the book did that too if I recall correctly.
They hit all the story beats I can recall. The way they interweaved the flashbacks was pretty well paced and pretty faithful to the books. I’m glad they didn’t write out the part about Grace being an unwilling volunteer. The woman who played the German project manager was really good. Ryan Gossling was actually pretty good and I’m not always a huge fan of his. The way they interpreted Rocky was fine - I kind of wish his voice was a little more like windchimes, but still very charming. They got his sort of enthusiastic but easily confused by human communication style down really well.
All in all, great adaptation. And totally worth seeing even if you didn’t read the book. Fist my bump. Go see it.
That’s something that I love to see in first contact stories: Just how do they even get started on communicating? Once you’ve got rudimentary understanding, it’s straightforward to go from there to deeper understanding (so it’s OK for the story to fast-forward at some point), but that first step is a doozy. The book did a good job on it, and I’m glad to hear that the movie did, too.
I should say they spent longer than I would expect for a Hollywood movie who would usually assume their audiences are too dumb to hold their attention during a “learning to communicate” scene without a montage. The scene between first contact and having the computer start to interpret Rocky is maybe 12-15 minutes? Fairly long but not as extended as it would be in the book.
Long enough to catch the vibe, longer than I’d expect for Hollywood.
After they solve that, most of the communications issues are mostly cleared up (aside from humorous misunderstandings), Rocky speaks through the computer, but the book is like that too IIRC.
Almost everything about this matched the visualizations I had reading the book; more so than probably any other movie I have ever seen. The only thing that didn’t match was Grace’s habitat on Erid. From the book I pictured Billy Pilgrim’s dome on Tralfamadore.
We saw it today and really liked it. Like others, I had read the book and thought that it was pretty faithful. I think they short changed Rocky’s engineering prowess somewhat.
I wish Milana Vayntrub had had a bigger role just because she’s so darn cute.
It might have just been our theater but it was LOUD. My wife forgot her hearing aids but didn’t need them at all.
I pictured Rocky as black and shiny like a black widow for some reason.
I was kind of surprised that there was only a single Beatles needle-drop considering how prominently the Fab Four figured in the book. But the one song they did use was placed perfectly.
Our judges also would have accepted “Across the Universe” as an alternate choice.
I think the only thing I noticed being cut was the explanation of how the Astrophage worked that involved antimatter. But I guess you didn’t really need to know that. They explained that the Astrophage is eating the sun and that it stores a lot of energy; the mechanism (by creating antimatter) didn’t necessarily need to be explained.
I’m hoping to see PHM next week but I’m bewildered by my choices! The local theaters are offering IMAX, ScreenX, Giant Screen, and 4DX options (https://web.cinemawest.com/experiences). Have any of you tried these “cinematic experiences?” Which do you think is best for PHM? I’ve already been warned to wear earplugs if I see it in IMAX.
We had a bunch audio and format choices like that at our local cinema, too. We just went with the time that was most convenient which had Dolby Atmos. I was worried because the trailer for the new Mandalorian movie was uncomfortably loud. But when the feature came on it was just fine.
Speaking of sound, did the MGM lion at the beginning go quiet for everyone else? I figured it was either the filmmakers setting the stage for silence in space or a brief sound issue at my IMAX theater.
The film has an 8.5 rating on IMDB over the first 37k votes. It’s probably going to go down, as it’s likely the people who saw it on the first weekend were likely to respond positively for it. It’ll come down (maybe 8 long term) but it seems to be recognized as a great film, as it should. I think the RT scores were something like 95/96 too, but that’s ane asier bar to clear than >8 on IMDB.
Saw it today. Unlike a lot of people, I like exposition (assuming done well). I thought it was done well.
There was a really great line I LOVED, but I don’t remember it (it isn’t in the IMDB quotes)
There a bunch of videos with Dr. Becky that I can now watch (supposedly with little spoilers, but I still wanted to wait.
Xenon isn’t just a gas, it is a noble gas and therefor doesn’t react much (though it does some)
I have not read the book, and I love The Martian (movie, also have not read that book).
I wouldn’t rate it as high, but quite high
Does the book explain how the other humans died?
FYI the trailers were for: Young Washington (very short ad), Disclosure Day, Masters of the Universe, Deep Water, Spider-Man, Michael, and Sheep Detectives (not in that order)
Not explicitly; it’s just assumed that something went wrong with trying to keep someone comatose and alive using purely automated systems for years. Which, really, doesn’t need much explaining.
In the book, Grace actively tries to save Rocky by cleaning out his “airways” and putting him back in his cube thingy. Rocky tells him later that what he had done was actually bad and that he would’ve self-healed eventually. Something like that.
In the movie, Grace just waits by Rocky’s side and talks to his lifeless body as he continues working on the astrophage mission. After an extended stretch, Rocky comes “back to life” while Grace is sleeping next to him.
I knew the scene reminded me of another movie and then it hit me - Rocky Balboa waiting for Adrian to come out of a coma in Rocky II.
Was this a deliberate homage? Or am I reading too much into it?
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.
