My Thoughts on Project Hail Mary

      Before we start I must be honest about my biases. I have read the book. I have listened to the audio book. My first go at college was as an engineering major. I have read a ton of classic sci-fi, and some sci-fi you’ve never heard of. I am 100% the type of person you would think would rip this movie to shreds. And having read through my dead old blog, to remain unnamed, I might have done so not long ago.

      Adapting full novels into movies is hard. It is almost impossible to do it well. This is why the best literature to film adaptations are almost always short-stories. This is why Philip K Dick stories make such great films and Stephen King novels never really hit well. Most of Dick’s famous works are short stories or novellas. While Stephen King likes to write big fat tomes. There is nothing wrong with big fat tomes. I am a fan of big fat tomes. But they make terrible movies. So having said I read the book, means I am already biased against the film

      This audiobook is different than most others. The nature of the alien in the film, spoiled by the trailer not me, is such that how the voice was handled was integral to any adaptation of the book that involved audio. The audiobook handles this so well that listening to the audiobook before hand biases you against the film. IT just crushes the way the way the film handled it. And because of the book-to-movie problem, you get all the talking bits that the movie left out due to time constraints.

      I was an engineering major when I first went to college in the late 90s. This means I have a bias in favor of hard science. And while that seems like it should make me pro-PHM, in reality the hard science parts of the book were slashed and burned to the ground in the book-to-movie translation.

      I already mentioned my love of Dick, but I also read a ton of Clark, Heinlein, Herbert, Ellison, et al. In some ways PHM is as grand and fantastic as any of these, but in other ways it is not at all. There is a type of barrier between the old scifi and reality, a barrier that Weir works hard to destroy. He does not want you to feel like you are in an alien situation, even when an alien is present. He wants it grounded, to feel real, to feel accessible. The classics, took to you places you had to work to be a part of. They took you away, even when they were just making a cold war analogy or telling an alternate history type tale.

      And reading my old blog reminded me of how much I have changes in my views toward movies, and movie adaptations. In some ways I am kinder now that we live in a time where adaptations try to capture the heart of the source material. I grew up watching the worst comic-book adaptations you could imagine. But even book to movie translations were fraught with having the main character with the same name and nothing else. And that led me to having a low bar in certain circumstances, and an unrealistic one in others. As we have seen the written, and comic-booked, word given the respect they deserve by Hollywood, I have flipped those areas of forgiveness and harshness. I would have picked this film apart bit by bit once upon a time. I have gotten better.

      Film-making has gotten better also. The team of Lord and Miller have had their mistakes, but I think they get it. And when they nail something, they make magic. They make hollywood classices when they are hit it right. The Lgeo Movie will still hits hard and Spider-verse will stand up through time as well. Project Hail Mary will stand the test of time as a classic. It has been a very long time since I sat in a theater and felt everyone experience the same thing. It was probably Avenger’s Endgame where I last saw an audience this fully wrapped up in a film’s emotions.

      This film really felt like a classic hollywood film. It had actually pacing where there were slow moments and intense moments and there happened the way the fast and slow moments of a good song happen. The way the highs and lows of a rollercoaster happen. It worked, we were all sucked in. We were all invested.

      Yes, there were too many parts cut out and I missed them all. But I understand the why. What I wanted most is 5-10 more minutes of Eva Stratt. They never really get to the heart of her position. And I think another scene or two of her would have improved the movie and her Oscar chances, They also cut a large section of the opening of the book, nearly all the science. They showed sum, but the science was as detailed and prevalent as it was in the Martian and the movie versions of these two works have very different amounts of science and math in them. They cut a lot of the learning curve of Rocky and Rylan, not just becoming friends but learning how to communicate. And they leave out key Earth scenes that I won’t even hint at because they got cut that hard. At least with the other things, you know these are part of the story and I wish we got more of it. But the earth stuff that’s missing is straight up book spoilers.

      Like everyone else who liked the film, I also give it 👎👎. Which again, is in the trailer. The movie takes you on a very real emotional ride. The alien is a fresh and interesting take on alien species. The bromance is real, the protagonist is a different kind of anti-hero, and the cinematography was just stunning. There are shots in this film that will blow you away. The visuals are where the Interstellar comparisons come into play. For me, these films could not be more different, but for those not well versed in science fiction, they are very similar.

      Of course the film is competency porn, which we need right now. It is a hopeful tale, which we need right now. It is about humanity coming together to save the planet, which is the most fictional part of the film. The best part is how accessible it is. This is the type of movie where I can tell someone to read the book, not a book-snob, but as a way to tell them there is more to enjoy if they want more. And that is the best part of it all. The book will expand interest in proper filmmaking, in science, and in reading, I am in favor of all of these things. It is a generationally important film, despite its flaws. Go see it, and if you have, go read the book, and if you have, go listen to the audiobook, and if you have go tell someone else to read the book.

      The poor scifi and book subreddits are going to be even more sick of PHM and Andy Weir than they already were.