Project Hail Mary Film Review

There are some films that you know right away from who is making them if there going to be good films or not. Well that was very much the case with this film as when it was announced that the duo behind the Jump Street films and the Spider-Verse franchise would be directing this film it was pretty much guaranteed to be a good film and well then the film has come out and i've just seen it and I want to talk to you all about it and so then join me as I review the film that is currently taking the box office by storm with the film in question being called simply just "Project Hail Mary" enjoy.

The plot of this film is a scientist is reluctantly sent into space when it turns out that he is humanity's last hope of stopping the sun from going cold and when up in space he forms an unlikely friendship with an alien that will effect both of them forever. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good. With the films plot being one that is quite refreshing to see as quite often in science fiction films or even science fiction comedies we have a plot that is either super straight and doesn't leave alot of room for humor between the characters or in the case of science fiction comedies is bit to goofy to be taken seriously and yet here the plot does find that right balance as it ha the series part of both Rocky and Ryland's home world being threated with loosing there respective heart source and yet it also takes the time to have these more humorous moments with them bonding and effectively learning each others language something which is key to making the plot of this film work as well as it does. As this is plot that isn't the strongest of plots to begin with and while that could be seen as being a bad thing given the length of this film it is also something that could be seen as being a good thing as it's the friendship between Ryland and Rocky that helps to make the plot be as good as it could have been and while the plot of the book might be better this film did a fairly decent job of adapting the book plot and translating it to film with the plot of this film also being really rather entertaining and as well as being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. 

Starring in this film is one of this films producers Ryan Gosling as Dr. Ryland Grace and Sandra Hüller as Eva Stratt. Also starring in this film is James Ortiz as the voice Rocky , Lionel Boyce as Officer Carl , Ken Leung as Yáo Li-Jie , Marvel Rising: Secret Warriors star Milana Vayntrub as Olesya Ilyukhina , Priya Kansara as the voice of Mary , Liz Kingsman as Annie Shapiro , Mia Soteriou as Dr. Browne and Orion Lee as Dr. Li.

Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good. The fact that this film does have good acting in it is something that is both not that very and yet still very surprising at the same time as while the film does have a well known actor in the leading role and the film is both directed and produced by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller who do usually have some really good acting in there films. Given the fact that this films actors are all mostly unknowns or are at best very little known actors it would have been understandable if we the audience went into this film expecting nothing more then OK at best acting and yet we actually got better then that granted this films acting isn't going to be getting any OSCARS any time soon but given how bad that it could have been it's great that we got good acting in this film in the first place. With the best actor in the film oddly enough NOT  being Ryan Gosling as instead the best actor in the film is James Ortiz as not only does he voice Rocky but he also his main puppeteer and therefor he does have to get across just what the character is thinking and feeling with slight movements and while he does voice the character the character does spend alot of the film not speaking English and instead speaking an Alien language which does mean that James has to get across just what this character is trying to say in his movements and body language. With the acting that's in this film really being helped by the fact that this films script is just so good that all this films actors have to do is just say the lines as they are written and a good performance will come out of them naturally which is something that really does help to raise the overall quality of the acting that's in this very film.

Doing the CGI for this film is Framestore , the legends and the greats that are currently over at Industrial Light & Magic and Sony Pictures Imageworks. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual CGI that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual CGI that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good. Even tho this film does have alot of really good VFX in the film it does appear as if alot of the film was shot using practical effects with the film only using CGI for the scenes where you can quite clearly either see space or another planet and that's really it and that's a great way to use to CGI as those are things that you can't film for real and while Rocky is a whole practical effect it does appears as if there was some CGI used on him just to make other parts of his body do things that they might have not been able to do on the day of filming which again is a reasonable way to use CGI as alot of puppet characters these days have some level of CGI done to them be it making there eyes blink or move or making there mouths have certain movements. The fact that this film is mostly done practically is something that does help the VFX blend in alot more better as now the VFX teams can match the lighting from the set alot more better which is something that would help the effect feel like it was actually there on the day of filming and while there will be of course some exceptions to this in this film like the scenes set outside of the Hail Mary ship herself as you can't match the lighting in space to begin with and yet they still manage to make those effects look good due to the fact that the effects teams don't have alot of effects and can therefor dedicate more time and energy onto all of the films effects.

As alot of you might not know this film is adapted from the book of the same name by author Andy Weir who also serves as a producer on this film. After very quickly glimpsing the books Wikipedia page it does seem like that this film is a very close adaptation of the film albeit with a few very minor differences like the fact in the book it's stated that Ryland has been asleep for thirteen years and other such things which are things that don't effect the film in a major way but there could be more issues found within the book as this is all just based off of a very quick read of the books Wikipedia page but the fact that they have the guy who wrote the book working on the film in a producer capacity does say that the makers of this film wanted to respect the source material as much as possible. Which is something that it does appear that they did and while it will be of course hard to say if this film will attract new readers to the book as they could get the same expirence just from watching the movie this is a case where it might help peoples enjoyment of the film if they did read the book as with it being a book it does mean that they would be able to get more into things like the characters and the plot both of which that this film version just won't have the time to do due to the fact that with a book you have as long as you want to tell your story whereas with a film you only have two hours and thirty minuets to tell the same story and therefor of course there will be things that will be getting cut out of the book as the makers of this film would have to streamline the story. Yet it will also be understandable if people chose not to read the book as the book is four hundred and ninety six pages which whilst that is small amount of pages it is still alot of time to dedicate to reading one story no matter how good that that story ends up being.

Whilst Hoppers spend a good few weeks at the top of the box office holding back Scream 7 it's actually this film that knocked it off the top spot. This was something that was kind of surprising as both this film and Hoppers aren't routed in IP and yet the fact that as of right now they are holding the top two spots by quite a margin is something that does tell you that people want to see more original films being made and while yes this film is based off of a book and therefor it's debatable on if this counts as being an original story it's also a film that much like with Hoppers really isn't attached to a big franchise and therefor it has to rely on being a genuinely good film in order to get people interested in seeing it in the first place. This is something that the film does do mostly well as while yes there of course some bad things to be found in the film like the fact that the film doesn't really focus on it's plot all that much or the fact that the film has an ending which is kind of a let down both of those are also things that could be true for the book as well and aren't just things that are exclusive to this film and while yes the makers of this film could have made changes to the book to possibly fix those issues you would then run the risk of making those that loved the book in the first place angry and choose not to see the film which would be half of this films target fanbase already gone and given the fact that this film had a budget or $200 to $248 million dollars it does need as many fans of the book as it can get to go out and watch this film as even tho this film has already made $141 million dollars it would need to make upwards of $300 to possibly even $400 million dollars to break even and then make a profit.  

Anther of the things that this film does get wrong is the fact that it makes Eva Stratt appear to be both the good guy and the bad guy of the film. Due to the fact that we do see her openly being friendly with Ryland when he's on earth and yet when he openly refuses to do this one thing for her she then forces him to do by drugging him and putting him on the hip in the first place with there being no scene at all in the film where she shows any kind of sadness over what she's done as she's basically condemned a man to death and yet she just carries on as if what she did was the right thing to do when she very easily could have spent the time looking for more astronauts to go on what is basically a suicide mission instead of forcing someone who very openly and very clearly said that he didn't want to go on the mission in the first place. This is something that wouldn't have been that big of an issue if we got to see scenes with her showing some kind of remorse for her actions as then it would make it appear as if she had no choice but to force Ryland to go on this mission in the first place and while there very well might be scenes like that in the book which would be fair enough there are however no scenes like that in this film and therefor she does come across as being both the good and bad guy of the film with this being something that makes it hard to get a very good read on her character. While that is a small issue as she is basically a side character in the film it is something that really should have been addressed due to the fact that her actions are a key plot point in the film and yet all it does is make her seem like the kind of person who is willing to do whatever it takes to get what she wants think Amanda Waller but German and you get how her character comes across as being like in this film.

Now then this film has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly two hours and thirty minuets and thirty three seconds. Which for any film regardless of what genre of film it is is still a long running time to have with this being perhaps the films biggest issue as there is a huge portion of the films running time where the characters are doing nothing but talking and it's alot of those scenes that very easily could have been cut from the film and nothing that's actually important to the films main plot would be lost in the process yet the film does have the right amount of plot there to cover that amount of running time. However tho the film really doesn't use it's running time all that wisely as the film doesn't take the time that it has to fully develop it's plot due to the fact that alot of this films running time is spent with the characters just sitting and talking instead of doing things that help to push the plot forward yet if the film replaced alot of those scenes with scenes that do help to push the plot of the forward then it would have helped the film have a much more stronger and more well thought out plot in the process. With this even effecting the films character development as the films the films characters don't get any kind of character development with them all coming across as being these very one dimensional characters granted they are one dimensional characters that are really well done but they are still one dimensional characters none the less as we audience don't get to find all that much about the films characters with really the only character that we get to know more about is Rocky as we find out that he has a girlfriend and that he feels responsible for his crew dying which isn't much but it's better then nothing but I really will admit that this film really does have some really good pacing to it tho.

So now then as this is a comedy that really does mean that I have to actually talk about the actual comedy that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual comedy that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good. While this film isn't classed as being a comedy either on it's own Wikipedia page or on IMDB there is alot of focus put on it's jokes that do make it feel like a comedy with alot of this film jokes not only working but landing hard with apart of what makes the films jokes work so well being the fact that they are things said between Ryland and Rocky as we get to see the two of them bond and make jokes about each other with it being those kinds of jokes being where the films works best as it gives us a chance to see thee bond as friends grow. With the best joke in the whole entire film being something that's not really a joke as it's a running joke as when Ryland tries to teach Rocky to say fist bump Rocky ends up saying "fist my bump" which yes is a dumb joke but it's one that is perfectly in keeping with his character as he's someone who doesn't know English and therefor he wouldn't no how to say fist bump correctly and while it might appear as if the film is just poking fun at Rocky with alot of the films jokes being at his expense the film also has alot of jokes being at the expense of Ryland with this being something that does make there bond stronger as they do spend alot of time just making jokes at the others expense much like what friends do in real life. To the films credit it does also no when to stop being a comedy as there times in the film where it does feel like a drama as the characters get to show some real human emotion with those scenes not only not being undercut by having a character make a joke bu talso making the rest of the films jokes even more funnier in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.

Overall if this was the type of science fiction that we would have gotten if Kathleen Kennedy hadn't fired these two talented directors from Solo: A Star Wars Movie then that movie would have actually have been great as that's exactly what this film is it's a really good film that deserves all of the praise that it's currently getting in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good an as well as all of the bad things that are in this very film in this very review and as such that really does mean that this very film really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly an 8.5 out of 10 from me.

Now the as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from Wikipedia , IMP Awards . Com and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get images really from this very film being the really great Google Images this is really because of the fact that really all of the images that I really indeed got and really used from Google Images are all really high quality really with all of the images that really are all and of course really currently up and on the really great and the really solid Google Images really are all being really fairly high in quality and as well as them all really being fairly high in definition.