Mastodawn

I love #movies. I love #scifi. I love scifi movies.

I like hard scifi, but I'm aware of the compromises that must be made when bringing technical material to a broad audience on the big screen. I can make allowances for that. So I don't have a problem suspending my disbelief when a technical or scientific clunker is required by #story mechanics.

But suspension of disbelief only goes so far. If @pzmyers is right about "Project Hail Mary" (2026), I strongly suspect I'm not going to enjoy it. So I'll wait for it to come out for home viewing, I think. Easier to "walk out" when it's just pressing the "stop" button and you didn't fork out $40 for tickets and a bucket of #popcorn.

His take - not really a review as such:

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2026/03/22/the-last-andy-weir-movie-i-will-ever-waste-money-on/

#SciFiMovie #AndyWeir #ProjectHailMary #SuspensionOfDisbelief #film #BadMovie

The last Andy Weir movie I will ever waste money on

The commenters here are persuasive. I dissed Andy Weir and his new movie, and I was told that it was entertaining and I should give it a chance. So I did. I went to the theater to see Project Hail …

Pharyngula

@cazabon You’re welcome to ignore this response—everyone is entitled to their opinions, especially when it comes to artistic expression—but I fundamentally disagree with this article.

As someone trained in microbiology—and someone who read the book—I can say that the premise (like The Martian, btw) strains credulity but isn’t outside the realm of possible. The biology is actually decently sound.

My other thoughts are too long for a toot (though I’m happy to go into it) but I *loved* the movie.

@cazabon (re: The Martian: the inciting incident—the wind storm—would have to be otherworldly to trigger an emergency exit. Wind storms on Mars do indeed blow in the hundreds of miles per hour on the regular… but the 0.1%-of-earth’s air pressure means that even 250mph winds would feel like a breeze 😅 the premise in Project Hail Mary follows a similar philosophy: theoretically possible, but not terribly plausible)

Yep, I've seen a lot of people saying it was fantastic. Different things press buttons on different people, so I'm not surprised some love it. I might be wrong, and I might like it - won't know 'til I see it. But a few things in PZ's commentary sounded like red flags to me.

What a flag sounds like, I dunno.

@cazabon half the complaints are decently addressed in the book, the other half just sound like nitpicking to me...

I care more about the premise itself (even if it's unrealistic) and the experience, over the hard science. The director of Spiderverse, the most incredible visual spectacle of animation in years, working on a space sci-fi? sign me up.

I will probably read the novel some day. Scifi is virtually always better in written form; there's just so much you have to leave out to fit a story into a 2-hour movie. I think that's why many of the best scifi movies are based on short stories or perhaps novellas, rather than full-length novels.

On the subject of nitpicking: if the spaceship has magical engines to get it to near lightspeed, why would the crew have to travel in suspended animation/induced coma state? Time dilation would mean the trip was subjectively short, maybe just days or even hours, for everyone on board. Obviously I haven't seen it yet, so maybe that's addressed.

#nit #pick #nitpicking

@cazabon Villeneuve though! Can't wait for his next Dune, and his upcoming adaptation of Rama...

I can't quite recall if the ship actually goes at near light speed or if the fuel is just super efficient and able to last for the
whole trip

I do really like Villeneuve's work - Arrival (2016) was the best scifi film in years (and from a short story...) in my opinion.

I wasn't aware he was doing Rendezvous with Rama, but that should be interesting. I'm always surprised by how few of Clarke's works have been adapted for the big screen.

The new Dune movies are (again, IMHO) not a good example. 1 and 2 were terrible - I posted about those when they came out.

@cazabon I am yet to read that one, but something that I've found in the one novel I read (Childhood's End which I absolutely loved) and what I can gather from 2001, is that they have incredible ideas and end with some crazy cosmical event that would never ever happen in real life but why would I complain if it was an awesome experience anyway?

So like, yeah I liked Project Hail Mary and I look forward to the movie :P

Agreed, Childhood's End was great (and interesting). The miniseries was a decent adaptation, and Charles Dance could read the phonebook and be gripping.

@joel @cazabon wow, Rama! That is such a scary book. (Re Hail Mary, I loved the book and going to see movie with spouse, adult yet at home kids and one partner in a few hours; glad to have some of my internal hype slowed down, more likely to enjoy it that way; I would go see Artemis as well if it were a movie.) Star Trek long ago acculturated me to hand wavy physics things. IMO even more implausible than the energy capture is a common mitochondrial, protein based life from other solar systems.

miszeleq Mar 22

@cazabon @joel @pzmyers

The induced coma was there, so the crew didn't go mad and kill themselves during the trip. The trip was relatively shorter than on earth - it was around 3 years long as far as i remember correctly.
But those things were addressed in the book, not in the movie. I enjoyed the book because it was fun to read all about in-universe science, that compensated somewhat naive story. In the movie they removed like 90% of the science talk, and we're left with the story.
It's not that it's bad. But it could be so much better.

@joel @cazabon @pzmyers I saw the movie and thought it was fantastic.

Most sci-fi can be nitpicked to death.

Project Hail Mary is heartfelt, funny, and captivating.

teaneedz Mar 22

@cazabon @pzmyers this is why i always look over the 1 star reviews first. there's better clarity there.

Andy Postantiquarian Mar 26

@cazabon @pzmyers
It was a good book but a bad film. The directors said that they wanted to "show not tell" which can be a good idea. But that doesn't work when the main point is the characters using science and engineering to solve problems. In the book they explain things but in the film it is more like they are solving problems by vibes.
They also failed to capture the awe and wonder of the book. Which is where "show don't tell" would work. Instead it is just a bad film.

Lord Caramac the Clueless, KSC 4d ago

@cazabon @pzmyers While I do enjoy it when the science part of SF is halfway believable even for a science nerd like me, I find the sociopolitical and cultural part of SF much more interesting. I want to read about societies where gender doesn't exist. I want to read about societies that are collapsing in a capitalist cyberpunk nightmare. I want to read about worlds where everything can be made almost instantly for free. I want to read about worlds founded by anarchist squatters settling in a half-abandoned commercial mining colony on some backwater planet and kicking out the corporate overlords.