© Amazon/MGM
Project Hail Mary
As frequent readers probably know, I'm a fan of hard science fiction. I'll try to make a point of seeing new, high-concept sci-fi movies in theaters, especially if they are receiving positive word of mouth. Two of my favorite movies of the past decade or so have been The Martian and Arrival. Project Hail Mary is almost like a combination of those 2 movies, and its based on a book by the same author who rote the novel of The Martian, so it should be right up my alley.
I did still like it. But I also found myself disappointed that it was so "cutesy" and not quite as smart or thoughtful as I had hoped it would be.
Yeah, the rock alien is adorable. And the practical effects looked exceptional. The scenes of Grace and Rocky learning to communicate with each other, explaining concepts that are common to them, but alien to the other, and then solving problems together are the highlight of the movie to me.
And hey! Rocky is from 40 Eridani, which is the same star that Star Trek's Vulcan is supposed to orbit. So that was a fun little Easter Egg! Rocky is a Vulcan. He's a "Rock Spock"!
But Rocky is also a symbol of much of what annoyed me. For every moment in which the two are having slow, thoughtful conversations about the nature of existence, there is also a scene of Rocky running around like an excitable puppy for strictly comedic purposes. It just seems off for a character who is supposed to be a highly-intelligent engineer on an interstellar mission to save his species from extinction.
More generally speaking, this movie leans heavily on the trope of an in-experienced "regular guy" having to bumble his way through an incredibly technically-demanding mission. Yes, the guy is a PhD, so he is a very smart person. This doesn't quite fall into "Mary Sue" territory. But he's a biologist. He's not an engineer, or a pilot, or an astronaut. Yes, he does have months (or longer) to learn the spaceship's functions, but it's still not entirely believable that he would be able to single-handedly figure out how to operate a complicated spaceship. This is what separates Project Hail Mary from the much better movies of The Martian and Arrival. The characters in those movies are experts solving problems within their field of expertise and experience. They aren't middle school teachers thrown into a spaceship with no training at all.
©Amazon/MGM
Grace has to single-handedly figure out how to operate an advanced, experimental spaceship.
The first red flag is when Grace solves the first major scientific mystery of the movie by figuring out how the alien parasites breed. But like, his solution seems so obvious that I found it incredulous to believe that the best scientific minds on the Earth couldn't have figured this out first. Like, if I were asked to solve this problem, the first thing I would do would be to try to recreate Venus' atmosphere and expose the aliens to it to try to find out why they are attracted to it. I probably wouldn't have known how to create the fancy box enclosure, but my first instinct would have lead to the solution to the problem. Put simply, this seems like a problem that a middle school science student could have solved, yet the movie makes it seem like Grace is a genius for having figured it out.
I also felt like the twist is completely unnecessary. In today's political climate of growing authoritarianism and police states, having a "one-world government" force the hero, against his will, to go on a suicide mission to save the planet is just not a good look. This is especially true considering that I just don't think that Grace is doing anything that literally any other biologist should have been able to do.
Contrast that against the scene in The Martian, in which the Chinese government decides to grant NASA the use of a top secret rocket as a gesture of good faith to try to rescue Matt Damon, after NASA's rocket explodes on the launch pad. That's a beautiful moment showcasing the humanity of the characters and the spirit of benevolent cooperation. it's about people putting aside their political differences in order to do what they know is right. It's not about "big brother knows best".
As I said, Hail Mary is just not as smart or thoughtful as its recent peers.
©Amazon/MGM
Rocky is undeniably charismatic, but often feels as much like an alien puppy, rather than a skilled engineer.
What's most important, however, is that Project Hail Mary does manage to pull at the heart strings and make the audience care about the 2 main characters (one of whom is a walking, talking rock). I really did like this movie! I cried a little bit, a few times. The movie is also great at its early awe-inspiring moments. The alien ship is exotic and mysterious, and I loved it. I just wish that the whole movie could have been as clever and thoughtful as those initial reveals, and that some of the energy of the "problem-solving" scenes had been carried over into more of the movie.
Now I want to re-watch The Martian and Arrival. And maybe even give Interstellar another chance...