TheImpressiveX"Project Hail Mary" is bringing audiences to movie theaters in numbers the industry hasn’t seen for a non-franchise film since "Oppenheimer"
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HenriVolneyIt’s the Marvel syndrome: making fun of your characters to bond with the audience. The result is that said audience is less engaged when the pace accelerates into dramatic moments. You end up mildly interested without any emotional bond with the characters.
Hail Mary failed exactly where The Martian succeeded
What movie did you watch?
Yes, please ignore all the boring science that he explicitly did throughout the film, and just concentrate on the humorous presentation instead.
Yes, that’s kind of the point of an adaptation
I think you wandered into the wrong theatre, buddy.
What do you mean? Goofy slapsticks back to back for several hours. I didn’t expect a silly comedy.
I’m not even confident that we’re speaking the same language.
What was in that popcorn?
I’m not sure about unbearably cringe…
There was so much humor in the book, I found myself laughing constantly. But I do have to agree that for some reason, the humor of the film hardly ever landed for me. Some of the jokes that carried over from the novel worked fine for me still.
My theater was roughly half full and they were surprisingly quiet too, so I don’t think it was just me. It was the first showtime on my large format screen - maybe they were all enthusiasts who were just as angry as I was that the highly competent Grace of the book was turned into a bumbling, constantly terrified idiot in the film.
Those of us who aren’t bumbling, constantly terrified idiots are just liars.
My theatre was packed to the brim with people who were very vocal at appropriate moments. Where were you, Arkansas? For example, I remember seeing The Second City do an eerily quiet tour stop there, which I can only assume is because of the obvious reasons.
Just say you didn’t get it. The Super Mario Galaxy movie was next door.
“Project Hail Mary” is bringing audiences to movie theaters in numbers the industry hasn’t seen for a non-franchise film since “Oppenheimer.”
So, 3 years ago?
MontaggeThat’s an eternity for dipshit business brains that can’t think beyond the current quarter
Sucks killing them wpuldnt fix anything.
what if we made Oppenheimer 2: nuclear bugaloo?
This was a joke, but I think a biopic about Edward Teller that kept the cast of Oppenheimer would be truly excellent.
lime!i would definitely pay to see a dramatization of “project nuke the shit out of the alaskan coastline”.
There was an equally brilliant plan to nuke all of Hibernia in Canada to get oil.
Oppenheimer and Melania 2. Melanheimer.
so 3 years is like 12 superhero movies. AND THEY STILL HAVEN’T MADE THE ORIGIN OF THE SHOVELLER.
I read and enjoyed the book, but the movie improved on some story beats and trimmed some sciencey stuff that wouldn’t have translated well to the screen. Pretty great adaptation.
If you’re considering watching it, do try to avoid the trailers for it. I understand that you have to market the story, but introducing things in ads that should have been delightful surprises kinda stinks.
ScrubblesI was trying to abstain from the trailer. I was watching a live episode of Saturday night live when it cut to commercial- the project Hail Mary trailer. They showed Rocky in the first 5 seconds! I was pissed off. I had to quiet my rage at 11:30 pm while my wife and kid were sleeping. I hate movie trailers
Rocky isn’t even the biggest twist, tho.
Which is why they put him in the trailers. They wanted a cute character beside the Hollywood guy.
I assume you mean Ryan Gosling is the cute character beside the Hollywood guy, Rocky.
I managed to avoid all trailers, bought tickets for the family, got to our seats and guess what was showing in the early trailers? That’s right, clips from the movie spoiling Rocky and giving stupid facts.
Like WTF?
Don’t show promotional material for the movie you’re already in, let alone spoilery ones
I’ve read the book a billion times, it’s so damn good, (listened to it ray porter is amazing in everything he reads) and watched the trailer and yea…they spoil the hell out of the big surprise. Like damn…
The trick is to find a theatre that lets you reserve seats with your tickets and then show up about 10 minutes late to miss all the ads spoilers/trailers for other movies.
It’s one area where my procrastination paid off and gave a better experience instead of a worse one.
That would be so infuriating. I DESPISE spoilers
Does the movie keep the suprise? I’ve read the book, just hoping it pops out of nowhere in the same way.
There are a couple of good surprises, one early-ish and one pretty late. (Trying to avoid spoilers here.)
The early-ish surprise (a character reveal) was a genuine jump-scare for me and I knew exactly what was about to happen. So pretty good.
The later surprise (a revelation about why someone is in their situation) is actually subtly foreshadowed better in the movie than it was in the book. A really great improvement.
I literally jumped at that first surprise. Well played …
Agreed on all points! Went with a friend who hadn’t read the book, and the important story beats hadn’t been ruined for her; certain emotional points hit her hard. So well executed.
Dude certain emotional points still hit me hard and I had just re-read the book two weeks ago
Turns out these chumps knew how to make a fuckin’ movie.
I love them both, but I think I prefer The Martian due to its lesser sci-fi nature. PHM probably has the more dynamic and interesting story though.
The martian is the better book. It’s one of the best examples of “science applied to problems” I’ve read. Unfortunately the movie did it a dirty, and cut out a lot of the good parts.
Project hail Mary is an excellent book, but not quite to the level of The Martian (REALLY enjoyed it however!). The film is a better adaptation. It still cuts a lot of science out, but at least plays lip service to it having happened. It also captures the characters PERFECTLY.
I felt like The Martian was a really good adaption, but I like it when the movie is different from the book. I want to have a reason to read and watch both. If it was all 1:1, there wouldn’t really be a need to watch the movie.
I personally liked Project Hail Mary more than The Martian, but wasn’t all that happy about the ending. I felt like the ending was a bit rushed, and wasn’t really what I wanted to have happen, but whatever, still a good ending.
I definitely agree with you.
spoilerI suspect there were several deleted scenes in the ending. The 1 second blip was all that was left of the science applied at the ending. The whole using the engines as a searchlight, combined with creative use of the speed of light was completely cut down to a 1 second shot.
At the same time. I can’t see how they could fit the awesomeness from the book into a reasonable length film.
That was my biggest worry reading it. After about 150 pages I thought “Wait, how are they going to fit all this within a single movie?”. There’s just so incredibly much backstory in the book. Granted, I haven’t watched the movie yet, so I’m looking forward to seeing how they’'ve managed.
They’ve had to pear it back hard, as well as made some (slightly controversial) changes. It was needed to make the transition however, and the movie flows quite well.
spoilerThey absolutely nailed Rocky. They captured his energy far better than the book portrayed it. It’s awesome watching a movie with aliens, without military tension being the default.
I managed to avoid the trailers and just caught some pre-release hype which motivated me to go see it. I didn’t read the book so I can’t compare the film to the book. It’s definitely one of the best movies I’ve seen. I really enjoyed it.
I went to a 9pm Thursday showing and the theatre was probably 3/4 full which I haven’t seen in a general screening in a long time, definitely since the pandemic.
trimmed some sciencey stuff that wouldn’t have translated well to
…American audiences
non-franchise
Are you really saying that people might actually be fed up with recycled and reheated remakes or yet another addition to a superhero universe? Color me shocked…
You’re reading that wrong, they’re saying franchise films make more money than non-franchise films. You might interpret that as franchise films are still more popular than non-franchise films. Alternatively you could say even though franchise films suck most non-franchise films suck even more.
proof: Big Bang Theory.
Marvel Avengers IV: Revenge of Steroid abuse. Featuring the lovable, Shrinky the Testicle.
Makes sense. The book was really good and had a lot of the same energy that The Martian did. Weir very clearly grew up on Whedon/Tarantino and the constant self-quipping lines up with that. But, at its core, it is competency porn driven by a refusal to fail. The Martian was about Wattney’s personal survival whereas PHM is more about the survival of a species. Of course it is going to be good.
That said: never read Artemis. That ALSO makes it very clear that Weir grew up on Tarantino an Whedon and why it is probably only a matter of time until “nobody could have seen this coming”. Jesus fucking christ.
Wait, what’s the deal with Jim Butcher?
He has always tended to spend multiple pages lingering on the bodies of any female character in his novels (… and I am intentionally not going to think about how old whatsherface was in Codex Alera) and they almost always have very “porn star” bodies. This is explained by Harry being a self-admitted chauvinist as though that is a good thing.
For years, the big “what the fuck” bits were Lara Raithe (who is literally a sex vampire so she kinda gets a pass) and… one of Harry’s best friend’s daughters (Molly) who literally stripped naked and tried to seduce Harry at least once. But his true love was his cop friend who was very clearly Butcher’s wife.
Then Butcher got divorced. Then the cop friend got got. Then we continued to get stories about how Molly is possessed by a primal energy and almost fucks someone to death. And quite a bit of text that she still wants to bang Harry and how it might even be HIS responsibility because of the primal energy he is possessed by. Then Harry is randomly betrothed to the porn vampire but its cool because they are into each other.
And… people with connections to the publishing/convention world can very much tell you that it is barely even an open secret who Lara Raithe was “inspired” by. And it is NOT mutual and has caused a fair number of headaches for folk over the years. Which then raises the question… if Karrin was his wife and Lara is <REDACTED> then who is Molly?
I gotta be honest, that just sounds like a lot of very boring drama.