Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir has been my all-time favorite book for years, so naturally, I was cautiously optimistic leading up to the recent film adaptation directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller.
The film released to glowing reviews, with a rating of 4.4/5 on Letterboxd, 94% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes and 8.5/10 on IMDb. But for a hardcore fan of the book, is this adaptation worth it?
Long story short, absolutely, 100%, yes.
Project Hail Mary is a very faithful adaptation to its source material. The science fiction novel was released in 2021, and it follows a stranded astronaut trying to recover his lost memories while also solving a mystery of the alien bacteria consuming the energy of the sun.
What I love so much about this book is the very truly human themes. Even as the world is ending, the characters such as Ryland Grace, Rocky and even Eva Stratt, the closest thing this book has to an antagonist, are fighting with their lives to solve it and help humanity.
The book makes the point over and over that anyone can be a hero, and that’s something I appreciate. The film does an absolutely phenomenal job of translating these themes, and even expanding them in certain scenes.
There are many emotional moments between the characters (all of which are wonderfully cast, in my opinion) that really highlight the resilience of goodness, even as the world is slowly dying.
One aspect of the novel’s plot that wasn’t as thoroughly adapted was the in-depth explanations of the science and biology used to solve the various roadblocks throughout the book.
This detailed approach is one of my favorite aspects of Andy Weir’s writing, but I will admit that it’s not quite suited to the film format.
Minutes and minutes of monologues about how the science works, as invigorating as it is in writing, likely would have made the film feel bogged down and excessively technical, so I understand why this decision was made. This is my only critique of the storytelling in this film.
While it makes the plot more streamlined, it also leaves some minor details unexplained, which I think would be slightly confusing to a first-time viewer without context from the novel.
This is a nitpick, and it didn’t diminish my enjoyment of the film in the slightest.
Another point in this film’s favor is the absolutely stunning visuals. Every moment of Project Hail Mary is visually beautiful, sometimes to the point of bringing me to tears. There are dozens of shots I could potentially point to as my “favorite,” not only for the pure visuals, but for the storytelling and thematic relevance.
As someone who’s a huge fan of the book, this movie was a great adaptation, and a great story in its own right as well.
I would rate it a 10/10, and wholeheartedly recommend it to fans of hard science fiction and philosophical stories. When it comes to The Majestic in Wayne the weekend of April 17, you will certainly catch me there for one or two rewatches.
After watching the Project Hail Mary film, I can confidently say that it has joined my list of ‘favorites,’ not only as my favorite book, but my also as my favorite film.
