Project Hail Mary has already cemented itself as one of the decade’s defining films. Photo: Jonathan Olley/Amazon MGM Studios.
It seems that every decade a new movie set in outer space redefines the genre.
It started in the late 60s with 2001: A Space Odyssey. It saw a resurgence in the 90s with Apollo 13 and Event Horizon, and eventually continued with the likes of Interstellar, Gravity and The Martian in the 2010s.
Now it’s the 2020s turn to take a crack at the great unknown with Project Hail Mary.
Similar to the events of Interstellar, Project Hail Mary has Planet Earth on the brink of destruction. An unknown bacterium is killing stars across the galaxy, except one, and is currently on track to destroy the Solar System’s sun.
Science teacher and world-leading astrophysicist Ryland Grace is tasked with travelling light-years to another galaxy to discover why one star survives while all the others don’t.
On his journey, Grace makes contact with a life form from another planet, a rocky-like creature that is also a brilliant engineer, whom he names Rocky. The pair must learn to communicate, combine their skills and save their planets.
In the simplest terms possible, Project Hail Mary is incredible.
It takes a very tight crew to get an audience to fully engage in a story that primarily focuses on one man and a puppet for nearly three hours.
It takes an even stronger team to take that premise and make one of the best films of the decade.
The vision of directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller takes an already incredible novel by Andy Weir, elevates it to new heights through a thoughtful script, beautiful visuals, and a very strong lead performance by Ryan Gosling.
Gosling is at his charismatic best, giving his finest performance since Blade Runner: 2049.
He somehow manages to work alongside a faceless puppet so well that the relationship between Grace and Rocky feels more organic than any other interaction in the film.
The scenes between Grace and Rocky are so heartwarming. They’re both sent on a suicide mission, neither expecting to return home, yet in the most unlikely of places, against the most minuscule of odds, they find friendship.
It’s a testament to just how great the narrative is. Andy Weir’s original novel is already fantastic, but with Lord and Miller, the geniuses behind the Spider-Verse films and the Lego Movie, applying the movie treatment to an already strong foundation, it is clear to see how Project Hail Mary turned out so well.
It’s impossible to talk about this movie without mentioning the visuals.
It’s not an overstatement to say that if you paused the movie at any random moment, the still could be turned into a movie poster. That’s how impressive this film looks.
Whether it’s rockets taking off, organisms under a microscope, new planets or even Gosling staring at a computer, everything looks like it’s framed on purpose and with intent.
This again comes back to the vision of Lord and Miller. The love and care put into the making of this film are so clear that the audience can’t help but reciprocate.
Project Hail Mary is an incredible cinema experience that needs to be seen on the big screen. At a time when families are visiting the cinema less and less and are more selective about what they do see, I feel it is important to highlight movies that deserve the big-screen treatment. Project Hail Mary is the most deserving movie of the year so far.
Project Hail Mary is currently showing in cinemas across the country.
Original Article published by Jarryd Rowley on Region Canberra.
