One of our first 2026 releases that’s sprung onto audiences that claim it as most likely to be one of the best of the year is none other than the new film adaptation of the Andy Weir novel of the same title, Project Hail Mary, starring Ryan Gosling and directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller. The two have made their way as beloved crowd pleasing filmmakers from their previous comedy works like kid classics ranging from Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs to The Lego Movie, as well as adult comedy staples like the comedy series 21 & 22 Jump Street. Now they leap forward with their biggest directorial test, with their expansive creation of their new blockbuster film Project Hail Mary. The movie is a space exploration sci-fi that follows an ordinary science teacher (Rylan Grace) who gets trapped in space against his will, forced to deal with the tall task of saving the sun from being absorbed and ultimately ending humanity. The task seems insurmountable at first, but he starts to gain confidence slowly when out of the blue, he meets a space creature buddy he names Rocky, that he grows stronger than ever with in order to overcome his fears and challenges of the universe’s vastness.
Phil and Chris together with this film, have easily hit their peak of hefty creative challenges and carrying the literal & figurative weight of a world larger than life itself. The universe captured is undeniably a wave of mixed emotions and overwhelming grandiose, captured through the atmosphere created by technical wonders done in production of the movie. The production design around the spacecraft and on ground labs, feels just as intricate and lived in as the science behind the operation being done in the film narrative itself.The VFX from the large crew and cinematography from Greig Fraser together go hand in hand as visual catharsis on the silver screen, with making each still breathe vibrancy and life inside the spaceship and pure awe in the colorful air of the space outside. It’s not just shades of moon blue and black captured, but a stunning visual array capturing space for what it is – an endless landscape of wonder and fascination in its array of newness. the camerawork is also deeply intimate, with capturing the full range of emotion in multitudes of close ups getting a personal look into the character’s expressions and heart posture. What’s even more astonishing from a technical standpoint is that visuals aren’t the only skilled technical excellence to note
The score from Daniel Pemberton is incredible, allowing for tonal balance at any moment and striking at all the right times. It’s there for the heartbreak and confusion of it all, it comes out with a bang when a moment of pure atmospheric astonishment. The score is truly an ultimate service to the roller coaster ride of emotions and tone the film goes for, and so is Ryan Gosling for that matter. He completely owns the screen and makes use of every second he has on it, constantly gripping you in with his charm of charisma that brings out a greater complex and volatile humanity. Gosling brings to the table a natural self awareness of his character that’s funny, but also relatable in all of his shortcomings that brings confusion and sadness in his portrayal of Rylan Grace. Even throughout the large world created, Ryan manages to bring a grounded form of a human reacting to unprecedented circumstances with a fearful, bold, comedic, and genuine free spirited acceptance of the absurdity he is given. The ultimate flaw beneath all there is to love about this movie lies in Drew Goddard’s script being held back by a few choices that don’t always land. Crafting a cohesive structure is where it probably lacks most, with the exposition being an example. It focuses on the focal point of Ryland Grace preparing for his astronaut trip, crunching the numbers and doing careful observations to make a valid claim of why he isn’t fit for the space mission.
It’s nearly impossible to say the whole spill of the first act is boredom, as it’s easily the most comically entertaining part of the movie with plenty of landing jokes to be had in the script carried by Ryan Gosling’s magnetic energy, but the fault of it lies at getting to a point in time where it starts to not serve a greater purpose to the plot ahead of space exploration. The meetings and talk about the weight of the impending space mission, start to become redundant talking points and only operate in a cycle of the same states like confusion or hesitance from Ryland, ultimately feeling slightly underwhelming compared to the much more emotionally complex second half where Ryland and his new space creature friend Rocky grow an emotionally inseparable bond. Even when it does start to press the gas of emotion, its structure still gets clunky when flashbacks of Ryland’s already established hesitance to go to space breaks the flow of emotional moments between Ryland and Rocky. For most of the second half, the evident bond carries the emotional weight and entertainment of the movie well but when it comes to and end, the relationship doesn’t quite know how to hit the right conclusion in the narrative. Throughout the last act, there’s a plethora of heartfelt embraces between the two, realizing the inevitable end of the road in their longtime bond.
It’s heartwarming and effective to bring you near to tears, but towards a point it feels like a long cycle of last goodbye’s, faking you out like it’s finally coming to an end and deceiving as if there’s not still one more small adventure left to go. The last act feels emotionally earned but is also a confusing cycle of chasing some high note to end on without seeing where in sight that high note is, which can make you question whether the emotions invoked in the script at that point are forced or natural. Despite that, the two’s bond is easily still the movie’s biggest narrative strong suit when it makes a clear connection with the audience, not muddled in sequencing or endings but just simply passing through the middle of time. It builds off the typical man’s best friend trope, but feels so much more emotionally earned with the time and effort they take to slowly immerse you into the hows and whys of their emotional chains of love for each other. Lost in the infinite vastness yet isolation of space, the two lonely souls manage to find each other at just the right time when they need it in a moment of deep loneliness mutually stored in each other’s hearts and minds before they met. There’s something so beautiful created with their relationship in the space setting, both not knowing how to navigate the confusing nature of cutthroat space chaos, but finding peace and tranquility finally through going through these space journeys together and no longer alone.
It’s a true emotional bond and shift in the second half that works for something deeply earnest that many desperate for love and a tight hug in the trying times of the world can relate to. The greater tensions itself in the script to save the world and take a roundtrip in space isn’t really reinventing the wheel from a space exploration sci-fi standpoint, but it does have moments that know how to pull on that one special cord of your heartstrings. The large adversities Ryland has to face in the movie like stopping the sun from exploding or exploring the scarcely large realities of space, aren’t tropes truly expanded upon or forming new grounds for sci-fi. It follows a classic space story of overcoming the one adversity of stepping out of a comfort zone into a large body of space by creating the classic tension of stress inducing control of navigating buttons or machinery in a crashing ship – a simple staple of the genre that can be used for some method of triumphant marks on people on its own by a simple heatwave of intensity. It’s not actually reinventing the wheel or saying something groundbreakingly new for sci-fi messages, but rather just using established trends in the genre to build off of. At times it feels like where the film can be playing it too safe and selling itself short, but in many instances its where the movie ultimately succeeds, making something raw and honest in a brotherly bond in between the crowded branches of a sprawling science fiction world. Project Hail Mary is one you’ll want to see on the big screen for its daring choices that make works of technical wonder and immersion on the large theater canvas. Phil Lord & Christopher Miller take bold swings the whole movie in general, and despite not all landing and some being more bold than the others, it is an effort you must commend for the things it does achieve.
Rating: 4/5 stars
