TheImpressiveX"Project Hail Mary" is bringing audiences to movie theaters in numbers the industry hasn’t seen for a non-franchise film since "Oppenheimer"
becausechemistryI 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.
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.