TheImpressiveX"Project Hail Mary" is bringing audiences to movie theaters in numbers the industry hasn’t seen for a non-franchise film since "Oppenheimer"
NuXCOM_90PercentMakes 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.
If you’re looking for more competency porn like The Martian, they pivoted HARD away from that with this adaptation. They turned Grace into a bumbling idiot and a top to bottom coward. It was awful. Did the screenwriters even read this fucking book, or just the plot synopsis?
While Grace wasn’t an idiot in the books, he was a self proclaimed coward. Like most of the book he’s trying to get away from his problems.
He might have thought himself cowardly, but he was certainly not a coward. That same “coward” didn’t sit on his ass and drink the second he woke up, he figured out what was going on and set his mind to solving the problem. Grace didn’t scream bloody murder when he shut down the centrifuge, he… just did it I guess. (Like, wtf else did you think was about to happen, movie Grace?) He didn’t scream and try and run away from Rocky, he was instantly excited and eagerly worked his ass off for a first contact with an intelligent alien race.
I haven’t seen the movie yet so I can’t make any comments on it, I was just saying that in the books gracy literally proclaimed he’s a coward… it’s kinda how he was put on the mission…
The word coward was used 5 times total in the novel, and it was Stratt accusing him of being a coward twice before he ever called himself one, denegrating himself AFTER recalling the memory of his selection for the mission.
Like I said, he did certainly have a cowardly act when faced with death. One act does not make a person a coward, and for the whole story up to AND after that point, he dives headlong into danger.
Maybe the literal word wasn’t used - but I’m failing to think of a single other cowardly act from Grace in the whole novel. I’d be happy to reread any section that you think fits your narrative, but for now I really strongly disagree and had the opposite takeaway.
A MAJOR point of the book was that he was forced onto the mission against his will. He was just a guy that liked what he was doing and didn’t like being forced into things. This was very clear to me in the book, and was illustrated well in the film.
Yes, that is the ONE moment of cowardice I have repeatedly alluded to, sorry if I was being too discrete while trying not to directly spoil the plot. Let’s pretend like he didn’t persevere, even after remembering, and save two planets in the process. Now where are all the other book moments that make him a proper coward? Or is one weak moment when faced with death all it takes for you? He’s just irredeemably a coward because he couldn’t force himself to elect to die with 4.5 hours notice?
grissinoThat same “coward” didn’t sit on his ass and drink the second he woke up, he figured out what was going on and set his mind to solving the problem.
The amnesia in the film was downplayed a lot (or the film would have had to be a couple more hours longer). In the book he didn’t even go though the personal bags until much later (he had already remembered the heroin bag so was not surprised to find it).
Grace didn’t scream bloody murder when he shut down the centrifuge, he… just did it I guess. (Like, wtf else did you think was about to happen, movie Grace?)
His panicked reaction when the Hail Mary stopped deccelerating for the first time (when falling into orbit around τ Ceti) is also indicative.
He didn’t scream and try and run away from Rocky, he was instantly excited and eagerly worked his ass off for a first contact with an intelligent alien race.
“He looks like a spider, big ass spider”. He was terrified at first glance.
Also, the movie failed to balance a tube centrifuge, that really bugged me.