Project Hail Mary

Phil Lord and Christopher Miller have unquestionably established themselves as a Hollywood power duo. Most of the creative partners’ success has come in animation, a domain in which they got their humble start as creators of MTV’s short-lived “Clone High.” From there, Lord and Miller moved to features, where they have been behind three of the best animated films of the past two decades as writers-directors of 2014’s The Lego Movie and producers of the two Spider-Verse movies, the latter of which they also wrote. The two have also dabbled in television and enjoyed critical and commercial success on the 2010s live-action comedy 21 Jump Street and its sequel.

Lord and Miller return to live-action filmmaking as directors and producers of Project Hail Mary, a big-budget, big swing of a sci-fi adventure adapted from Andy Weir’s bestselling 2021 novel of the same name. Weir wrote the novel that became The Martian and as on there, Drew Goddard has alone taken on the task of adapting the author’s text here.

I was not a fan of The Martian, a film so unserious that it actually won the 2015 Golden Globe Award for Best Comedy or Musical. I was in the minority on that Ridley Scott-directed crowdpleaser, whose blend of real science and utter silliness never won me over. I was better prepared for Project‘s light tone and am happy to see it works as intended. Lord and Miller may not have the sci-fi film experience of Ridley Scott, but they’re more adept at feel-good comedy and, sorry Matt Damon, but so too is Project‘s leading man (and producer) Ryan Gosling.

Gosling plays Ryland Grace, an elementary school science teacher who is shocked that important, high-clearance decision-makers have come to his classroom looking for him. Based on a derided piece of research he wrote years ago, Grace is of unique interest to Eva Stratt (Germany’s Sandra Hüller) and her eponymous task force assigned to investigate Astrophage (“sun eaters”), an alien organism that has been consuming the sun’s energy en route to Venus. Though Grace categorizes the ongoing phenomenon as a “medium whoop” to his concerned students, it’s clearly a potentially catastrophic issue for Stratt and her peers.

Grace’s scientific curiosity narrowly edges out his rampant self-doubt and he manages to figure out how the microbe reproduces. When other astronauts are sidelined, the public school teacher becomes the unlikely and reluctant substitute, called on to make the absurdly long one-way journey to Venus that the fate of the universe depends upon.

In space, Grace becomes the lone survivor of his ship and he befriends a fellow lone survivor, an alien creature he names Rocky, with whom he learns to communicate and comes to befriend.

There have been so many space movies over the years and yet also so few that every one of them commands attention with a steep budget, state-of-the-art visuals, and ambitious universal storytelling. Many films braving the terrain, from 2001: A Space Odyssey to WALL-E, end up classics that will continue to be watched for decades and studied for what they had to say about the state and fate of our planet and our species’ place in the vast galaxy.

Fortunately, despite the obvious temptation to borrow from the genre’s well-known milestones, Project Hail Mary opts to do its own thing. Sure, you’ll see a little bit of The Martian, some Arrival, and a dash of Gravity and E.T. in here. But by and large, Lord and Miller’s movie avoids being derivative or familiar. Its tone is its own. Its narrative is nonlinear but agreeably so. And its two stars, one human and one digital, are out of this world, giving us a cinematic friendship for the ages.

Gosling has subtly and smoothly transitioned from offbeat indie darling to mainstream movie star. He doesn’t really have the commercial track record to justify his standing; Blade Runner 2049 disappointed at the box office despite being excellent and, to a lesser extent, so did First Man. But creatively, Gosling’s resume is as strong as that of any Gen X actor, a class for which he narrowly qualifies. Any discussion of Gosling’s star power has to recognize the cultural watershed that was Barbie. You can argue that the IP, Mattel’s iconic doll, was the real draw and that the smart, existential comedy that Greta Gerwig directed and co-wrote was the reason the movie blew up. But you cannot deny that Gosling’s turn as Ken was an integral part of the phenomenon, a hilarious co-lead that brought Gosling his third Academy Award nominations. To survey Gosling’s work since 2010 is to basically assemble a list of the best films of the past decade and a half. In addition to the aforementioned gems, we have Drive, La La Land, The Big Short, The Nice Guys, The Place Beyond the Pines, and Blue Valentine. It’s a diverse lot of films, but it’s great cinema, all of which Gosling has undoubtedly elevated.

In Project, Gosling gets afforded that rare opportunity to carry a movie single-handedly. Think Sandra Bullock in Gravity or Tom Hanks in Cast Away. Yes, Gosling has Rocky (voiced/puppeted by James Ortiz), an endearing not terribly anthropomorphic CG creation that might have sparked a Saturday morning cartoon spin-off in a different generation. But Gosling does the lion’s share of the work here, both dramatically and comedically, and his well-utilized abundance of natural charisma does wonders for the film. If Damon won the Golden Globe for Comedy/Musical Actor for The Martian, then Gosling has to be in the conversation for an Oscar a year from now. That’s a long way off and I’m not sure that this will be the Academy’s cup of tea, but then they did nominate The Martian for seven Oscars including Picture and Actor a decade ago.

This is not Gosling’s best film. In fact, I’ve only placed it tenth out of thirty on my complete, ranked list of his filmography. It’s not his best performance, either. But the fact that it’s up there on either front is impressive enough.

Lord and Miller’s big stroke of genius here is making a live-action movie that feels like an animated one. The pair’s work in feature animation has repeatedly subverted and exceeded expectations. Why not make a Lego movie that was actually great? Or a Spider-Man movie that didn’t look like every other computer-animated film out there or rely on routine superhero good-bad conflict? Or a sequel that wasn’t simply trying to hit the same beats? Or a version of an old TV show that is an R-rated buddy comedy?

Even when relying on established IP, which they almost always have, going back to their feature debut, 2009’s Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Lord and Miller have infused their work with originality, passion, and a circumvention of existing limitations. Those ingredients have served them exceptionally well and do so again here in what is unquestionably the best of their three live-action films to date. Project has grandiosity, a winning of old school production values and jaw-dropping VFX compositions, and then a sense of humor that recalls the Will Forte comedy they produced for Fox, “The Last Man on Earth.” No one else could or would try to get this movie made in this fashion, but the world of cinema is so much better for the 50-year-old directors trusting their instincts and swinging for the fences.

For all the praise that I have lavished upon the directors and their leading man, I would be remiss not to mention that the three of them have a sharp, thoughtful script as foundation. Outside of The Martian, I have yet to be disappointed by Goddard, whose prior screenplays include Cloverfield, World War Z, The Cabin in the Woods, and Bad Times at the El Royale, the latter two of which he also directed. Goddard got his start on television (“Buffy the Vampire Slayer”, “Angel”, “Alias”, and “Lost”) and has spent the past several years back there (Netflix’s “Daredevil” and ABC’s “High Potential”), but the film world clearly benefits from his return. Without having read the books, I cannot speak to Weir’s abilities. It seems he’s got a niche and will probably stick to it and if these thoroughly-researched scientific adventures continue to win over readers and moviegoers, I see no reason for him to change course.

With a budget of over $200 million, Project Hail Mary needs to perform well, especially for a non-branded, fairly original work, for Amazon MGM Studios to profit. It probably helps that Weir’s book has been a fixture on bestsellers lists, that reviews of this adaptation should be golden, and that spring movie season competition seems to be fairly mild (with summer’s kick off two full months away). A win for intelligent, non-franchise filmmaking with top-notch crafts and respect for audiences is a win for everyone.