‘Project Hail Mary’ Mostly Dazzles as Ryan Gosling Shines in Vibrant Pop Space-Opera [Review]

“Project Hail Mary” is populist entertainment. It doesn’t necessarily take risks so much as it wants to be fully loved by its audience. Drew Goddard, who earned an Oscar nomination for adapting Andy Weir’s “The Martian,” penned the screenplay here as well, also based on a Weir novel. Behind the camera, Phil Lord and Chris Miller get ambitious with a 156-minute space pop opera.

The review embargo has lifted on this buzzy film, 10 days before its theatrical release, and 79 on Metacritic seems about right. More mainstream Rotten Tomatoes predictably has it at 95% fresh.

There are similar beats to “The Martian” here — a feel-good vibe — but a jaw-dropping action set piece near the final stretch far outweighs anything in that movie. In fact, I’m not a big fan of “The Martian,” which felt too earnest and the filmmaking too flat. Yes,’ Hail Mary’ still has some of the issues that plagued that film, but Lord and Miller’s filmmaking is far more vibrant, and the sincerity feels a bit more hard-earned.

Ryan Gosling’s Ryland is a science teacher, a geeky loner, sent 11 light-years away to save Earth. The sun — and nearly every other star — is dying. Humanity’s only hope is a journey to the one star that isn’t fading, in hopes of discovering why.

Told in flashbacks and flash-forwards, the film begins with Ryland waking alone on a spaceship after a decade in an induced coma, his memory gone and his crewmates dead. Flashbacks reveal a freezing Earth and Ryland, a quirky middle-school teacher whose once-dismissed research proves crucial when the sun begins losing heat. Recruited by Eva Stratt (the always-effective Sandra Hüller) for the Hail Mary mission, he helps study Astrophage — organisms that can power a journey to Tau Ceti, the only star still thriving — and ultimately ends up aboard the mission himself.

Most technically accomplished of all is the puppetry and voice performance by James Ortiz as the alien Ryland names “Rocky,” a small, five-limbed, blocky creature whose technical brilliance becomes the foundation for a touching bond rooted in shared curiosity and isolation. It’s light and at times cutesy, but you’re eventually won over.

Much like “The Martian,” it’s a lone-astronaut-in-space epic with a charismatic lead, keeping the stakes alive by talking to himself throughout — at least until he befriends Rocky and the film turns into a buddy movie. Midway, the camaraderie can feel a bit tiresome, but the film then pulls the rug out from under you and raises the stakes in thrilling fashion.

That’s the thing about Project Hail Mary: it’s long, and for a brief stretch becomes derivative of films like The Martian, where the cutesy camaraderie can feel tiresome. However, the brief slack in pacing is quickly shrugged off by Lord and Miller, who balance playful lightness with precise craftsmanship. The film delivers big as the action picks up, and their affection for classic filmmaking is a welcome touch. Ryland is a perfect fit for Gosling — charm and charisma to the fullest. This isn’t high art or provocative cinema; it’s pop art — a film destined to please a large part of the moviegoing public, and that’ll do.