Project Hail Mary review.
First off, I went in mostly blind: I haven't read the book, and I knew the plot to the extent of the synopsis/trailer, but no more.
Barring heavy spoilers, I'm not really sure where to start on this one, so I'm just gonna start with something I haven't heard anyone else talk about (surprisingly, I think)… this movie actually respects the whole "there is no sound in space" thing, and uses it to dramatic and/or comedic effect. This allows for the score to properly carry certain scenes. During some scenes, the score is at times the only sound. During a particularly tense scene, it even drops the score and goes completely silent.
Ryan Gosling spends the majority of his screen time performing opposite an alien who is appropriately named Rocky. Otherwise, the set was actually built, and practical effects were used to the extent possible, and it shows.
One of the things this movie definitely gets right is switching between past and present.
The biggest blunder here, I think, is not something I can really get into without spoiling basically everything; believe me when I say that whatever that is, is ambiguous, and I find that frustrating. Perhaps this is resolved in the book; again, I don't know.
Score: 10/13
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