Amaze, Amaze, Amaze: A Spoiler-Free Project Hail Mary Review

With reviews coming out of Project Hail Mary reading 'the film we need right now,' 'E.T. Extra Terrestrial meets Interstellar,' and 'a sci-fi masterpiece,' the latest Andy Wier novel to be adapted is set to hit theatres on Thursday, March 19th, as the crown jewel of Amazon's recent commitment to the theatrical landscape.

Beyond the commitment from Amazon's theatrical commitment, directors Chris Miller and Phil Lord directed their first feature film in over a decade, and returned to live-action after producing Sony's Spider-Verse favorites. This is where the film truly shines immediately and throughout, as the sensibilities of its directing duo and their knack for practical effects bring the galaxy and its unique lifeform to life straight from the page, adapted for screen by Drew Goddard. The film follows Ryland Grace, a disgraced scientist-turned-science teacher that has grown comfortable, even if never happy, in his role shaping future minds. When astrophage begins to eat the radiation of the sun, Eva Stratt hires Grace as a consult for a top secret mission called Project Hail Mary, a suicide mission that would keep the Sun from disappearing and wiping out the population of Earth. Along the way, Grace meets another lifeform, named Rocky, who is trying to do the same for his planet.

The adaptation itself is very true to its source material, though it bypasses an exploration of science and minutiae to make the film more accessible to everyday audiences, while finding a way to maintain the driving forces of the plot while still narrowing down a detail-rich text. It also keeps the emotional crux of the book primarily the same, directly down to its style of humor and its emotional gravitas that needs to be balanced. That's where the casting of Ryan Gosling truly pays off, as you believe in each moment thanks to the levity his style of acting brings to the screen, and his charm-reliant sense of humor never takes away from the sincerity of the stakes that the Ryland Grace character faces. In a lot of ways, this is Gosling's magnum opus, as for a majority of the film Gosling is acting opposite no actual, tangible human being, and the authenticity of the film is found entirely in how much you believe in his relationship with this other sentient being that can't speak English, and has an entirely different set of rules that make his species a viable form of a life. While they didn't explore the novel's character study of Strat, and the bureaucratic responsibility that ties her hands, the film did more than enough to make its decision to fixate on Grace's character study to make the character so multi-dimensional that it ultimately elevated everybody around him. For the film itself, it very much feels timely, and that isn't because of anything that's going on in particular, as much as the divide within society in the last decade and a half. The idea that two very different species, experiences, and perspectives can work together to not only strive toward a common goal, but become each others family is a message that will resonate in an incredible way in 2026, but it's also a message that'll give the film a timeless quality.

The film looks remarkable. Visibly stunning, VFX that are state of the art and practical in a world where computer generation has become the normal, and the budget of the film is seen directly on the screen throughout the duration of its run. It's briskly paced, where, despite its substantial runtime, the film never feels as though it's overstaying its welcome, as its clock delivers the bow on an incredible editing job. The humor gets more than its chuckle, the emotion packs a punch. If a viewer is looking for something that explores the scientific aspect of the book, they're bound to be disappointed, but anticipate fantastic audience scores as its as crowdpleasing that populist blockbuster fare can be. This demands to be seen on the biggest screen imaginable. To quote Rocky, amaze amaze amaze!

Project Hail Mary opens on Thursday, March 19th in all formats.

Photo credit: Project Hail Mary, Amazon Studios.

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