[Nicolai P. Zwar]

So here’s my take on PROJECT HAIL MARY after I slept a night over it.

On the plus side, the movie has real heart. It’s got that warm, Spielbergian glow that comes from two beings, the human Grace and the extra-terrestrial Rocky, forming a bond so earnest it almost feels retro. It’s a love story, of course. Yes, their relationship is simplified. Yes, they get along suspiciously well for two creatures separated by biology, culture, and a few million years of evolution. But it works. It’s honest. It’s sweet. It’s gentle, the kind of connection that makes you lean back and wait for the film to have its moments.

The movie sure looks good. Beautifully shot, confidently scored, Pemperton knows well when to let the music swell and when to step aside. The intercut flashback structure snaps into place with surprising elegance, it actually helps to keep the story going rather than slowing it down. And the special effects? Top‑tier. The atmosphere? I loved that, I loved the feel of loneliness of that ship, the hum of machinery, the quiet terror of deep space.

But, and that’s a big but, the movie is a demonstration how you can do many parts right, but much is lost when something isn’t quite right. And something is not. I am talking about pacing here. And psychology. And believability. Ryan Gosling once again shows that he can carry just about any type of movie, but the problem is the story never truly builds. Let’s look at the wrongs:

Pacing:
Moments that should crescendo simply… happen. Then drift away. Even the big emotional beats feel like they’re checking in rather than arriving. The movie is two and a half hours long, and basically, there are few scenes with a real “pay-off”, there’s just stuff happening. The movie doesn’t take itself too seriously, which I enjoyed, but nevertheless, it should have a sort of gravitas, of awe.

Psychology (contains SPOILER):
So it turns out, they pick Ryan Gosling, a character that is established as having no wife, no kids, “not even a dog”, no social connections, and when he refuses, kidnap him and drug him and shoot him up on a literal SUICIDE mission to save EARTH? You know how many people would wake up, look down on Earth and say “fuck you for that!” Much too risky that Grace would be such a guy. That just was a very wrong basic premise for such an otherwise cheerful space trip.

Believability:
And for a (more or less) hard‑sci‑fi film, the script occasionally waves away logic and plausibility. A non‑astronaut turning a ship around to intercept an alien craft heading in a completely different direction? In space? Space, which is, let’s be clear, big. Really BIG. Bigger than an ocean. You know how hard that would be just for one ship to intercept another on the OCEAN? But in space? From a guy who has never navigated a space ship before?

And the mutual last minute rescues — Rocky rescues Grace, Grace rescues Rocky — lands somewhere between touching and overindulgent. Yeah, I know it’s a charming buddy story, sure, and as that it’s all good and sweet. But maybe it’s also a bit too thick, like a dessert with one too many layers of frosting.

Still, I enjoyed it. The music, the atmosphere, the sense of isolation, the charm, that all pulled me in. I felt like I was on that lonely ship, drifting through the dark with only the hum of engines and the hope of connection. So I liked Grace and Rocky, I liked spending time with them.

A flawed film with a beating heart. A beautiful experience that never quite becomes the great one it could have been.