Project Hail Mary Review: I Hate To Be The ‘Book Is Better’ Guy, But…

Adapting books as movies has been in practice for pretty much as long as the latter have existed, but the reality is that the two mediums have very different and independent storytelling capacities. There’s the matter of perspective: prose can take a reader into the minds of characters in ways in which films aren’t capable (without violently abusing voice over narration at least). And then there’s the matter of scope: there is no real limit for the length of a novel, but a feature is expected to be three hours at maximum (and the average is about an hour shorter). A perfectly faithful adaptation is an impossibility.

I have been reminding myself of all those facts for the last two years – which is the amount of time I spent between finishing Project Hail Mary by author Andy Weir and awaiting the adaptation from directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller. I adore the novel and always recognized a movie version would be difficult. In addition to its length and plot complexity, it sports a non-linear narrative built on the protagonist’s recovered memories. I’ve always had complete confidence in the work of the talented Lord and Miller (not to mention screenwriter Drew Goddard)... but I’ve also known that my experience watching the film would be a study of alterations, cuts, and general comparisons.

My conclusion: I hate to be the “book is better” guy, but a few dings to an otherwise phenomenal story still makes for a really great film.

There are some key excised elements that are missed, a lesser degree of competency porn than expected, and what feel like some missed opportunities, but what’s retained is a fascinating and compelling hard sci-fi trip across the universe that keeps a special extraterrestrial friendship as its heartbeat.

Ryan Gosling stars as Ryland Grace – a middle school teacher who wakes from a coma to find himself alone in an interstellar spacecraft called the Hail Mary that is orbiting the distant star known as Tau Ceti. At first confused and panicked with no memory of how he got there, he soon begins to recall why he is in such extreme circumstances. A mysterious microscopic lifeform dubbed Astrophage is discovered to be consuming energy from the Sun, and should their activity go unimpeded, the consequence would be the Earth cooling and experiencing an extinction event. Tau Ceti is the only studied star seemingly not dimming because of Astrophage, so Grace is sent as part of a team to understand why.

His two crewmates (Ken Leung, Milana Vayntrub) die during the journey, but the amateur astronaut doesn’t end up being isolated for long. The Hail Mary’s radar picks up the presence of another, much more massive ship in the area, and after an initial fear reaction, the protagonist ends up becoming best friends with a five-legged, dog-sized, rock spider-esque alien he names Rocky (James Ortiz).

The relationship between Grace and Rocky is just as wonderful as it is in the book.

Regardless of anything else, I knew that I would appreciate Project Hail Mary so long as it properly brought to life the phenomenal dynamic between Grace and Rocky, and the adaptation doesn’t disappoint. Say what you will about the credulity of a guy who looks like Ryan Gosling being an introverted scientist, the actor’s proven and effortless charm is perfectly utilized, and all of the emotions that he wears on his sleeve reflect the audience’s as we witness Grace’s relationship with Rocky develop – he is first terrified to discover a sentient alien being, then captivated by his new friend’s intelligence, biology and sociology, and then deeply invested in his survival and the survival of his world.

Gosling has the significant challenge of his primary scene partner being a puppet (one that doesn’t have a face, no less), but solely praising the Barbie star would be a disservice to the phenomenal work of James Ortiz, who is both the voice of Rocky and was the lead puppeteer on set. Just as in the book, the character is a brilliant goofball, but Goddard’s script does a fun job of also amping his blunt bossiness to successful comedic effect.

Project Hail Mary is every ounce the spectacle that it should be thanks to practical sets and effects.

Thanks to beautifully expressive puppeteering, there is never a single moment with Rocky on screen when you think that he is anything other than a living, breathing alien, which also adds greater verity to Gosling’s performance – but I feel like it’s also important to laud the production’s dedication to practical effects. It is far, far too common nowadays to watch sci-fi movies and television shows with shots that clearly just have performers working on chroma key sets, which are distracting and look cheap, but Project Hail Mary has an extra authenticity lent to it because everything seems tactile.

This isn’t a knock on the movie’s visual effects either, because there is plenty of brilliance in that realm as well. Lord and Miller and the artists working under them include a number of interstellar shots that are not simply jaw-dropping in their beauty but reflect the stunning immensity of the cosmos. The deep love for the mystery and expanse of the universe that is featured in the book is well-reflected in the blockbuster’s cinematography.

Effort is appreciated, but I can’t help but miss the parts of the book that didn’t make the cut for the movie.

The film looks like what I saw in my mind reading the book, and while Sandra Hüller’s Eva Stratt doesn’t quite have the coarseness of her literary counterpart, the various characters’ journeys are exactly what they need to be for the big screen experience. I’m very happy with it as a presentation of Andy Weir’s novel… but I also can’t help but miss a variety of things that Drew Goddard had to take out.

A lot of on-ship issues that Grace and Rocky face in the novel end up being skipped, and while all of the big plot points are still included and the cuts are effective in keeping the story moving, it means that Project Hail Mary isn’t nearly as satisfying as The Martian (the previous Goddard-scripted Weir adaptation) when it comes to “using science to solve problems.” There are also significantly fewer flashbacks, meaning a major reduction in the colorful characters we meet as humanity tries to stop the Astrophage-driven apocalypse, and the film is also much less effective in presenting the flashbacks as recovered memories. Nothing that is absolutely needed is missing, but I would blissfully watch a four-hour cut with all of it put back in.

I’ll admit that my opinions here may change with time. If I rewatch Project Hail Mary in a year, I may be able to better view it independently from the book and appreciate it more for what it includes instead of dinging it for what it lacks. But for right now, my deep appreciation for the book heavily colors the way in which I take in the movie, and I expect others who feel the same way are going to have a matching reaction.