Project Hail Mary

Based on the excellent book I worried about how the film-makers would visualize it. How would they show a life form that is agile like a spider but made of stony plates? How might they conceive the spaceship of the alien? And how would they include the many details that made the story great in a two hour movie?

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They did an exceptional job with all of it! The special effects are remarkable and the puppeteering is top notch. Some details had to be left out, of course, but the storytelling doesn’t suffer for it.

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Ryan Gosling is perfect in this. His earnestness and childlike sense of wonder come through and he’s more than able to convincing carry the first few intense scenes when things don’t make sense and he’s trying to understand who he is and how he got there.

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“Hail Mary” is an America football term that refers to a last ditch, long-shot effort to succeed. In this case it relates to a space program that this hastily thrown together by the major nations of Earth to understand an organism that is eating our Sun.

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What is beautiful about this is that it shows how an open, curious mind and assuming the best in someone else can bridge gaps and lead to meaningful collaboration and true friendship.

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