“Amaze. Amaze. Amaze.”

Justin’s rating: Fortunately, the Beatles references were minimal

Justin’s review: We’ve been inundated with plenty of scifi movies over the past decade, but that doesn’t mean we’ve had the opportunity to sail around the cosmos in a spaceship on an adventure. Those kinds of scifi movies are quite rare, and rarer still are the ones not about warfare. So it was a special kind of thrill to be able to take a couple of my kids and enjoy the sheer cinematic spectacle — and space-faring adventure — that was Project Hail Mary.

When a strange “Petrova line” appears in space to eat up the sun’s energy, the people of earth get pretty worried that an apocalypse is brewing a few decades down the line. So a global task force is created to figure out the problem and find a solution — a solution that might be 11 light years away in a completely different solar system.

Grace (Ryan Gosling), a high school science teacher who loves to let his glasses dangle from one ear, wakes up on board a spaceship with no immediate memory of who he is or what he’s doing there. With the other two crew dead (medical comas gone awry is my guess, as the movie doesn’t really explain this), he has to piece together his past, the current mission, and what he needs to do when he gets to Tau Ceti.

But it’s the unexpected appearance of a much larger alien spaceship that throws him for a loop. On board of that vessel is another lone survivor: a rock-like, faceless, six-limbed critter that Grace promptly names Rocky (puppeteer James Ortiz). As the language barrier is gradually overcome, Grace and Rocky form a rather endearing friendship and decide that they’re going to save both of their worlds. Oh, and Rocky moves into Grace’s ship, even though he’s got to build a special enclosure and hamster ball to do so.

As the mission proceeds, we do get several flashbacks to earth to see how the project came about, how Grace became a part of it, and ultimately how he arrives on the ship. German actress Sandra Hüller positively steals all of these scenes as the stoic and enigmatic project leader who sees something in Grace that he doesn’t.

Like The Martian, author Andy Weir’s previous adaptation, Project Hail Mary is mostly about a geeky scientist using his brain to overcome obstacles and win the day. But this one works better, because it’s a buddy flick between two incredibly different species that nevertheless forges an intense bond that had me both laughing and tearing up.

I do applaud the decision to tone down the SCIENCE-SCIENCE-SCIENCE technobabble of the book in favor of more character moments, humor, and sheer cinematography. This is one absolutely gorgeous film that went big in its scope and has a soundtrack to match. Seeing it in theaters felt absolutely right.

There are a few points where the movie stumbles, almost literally, as it keeps portraying Grace as a flailing klutz who leaves messes everywhere, but that is gradually toned down as well. There’s also maybe a little too much time spent before we get to Rocky, which I think might hurt this on rewatches.

Still, it’s an excellent film and a really solid piece of storytelling that will most likely be seen in a very positive light for a long time to come. My kids compared it to Flight of the Navigator for its unlikely buddy pairing, while I was thinking more of Sunshine. But truly, Project Hail Mary is its own thing, and I’m glad to see that space adventure still lives on such a scale in 2026.