Like many people, I really liked Andy Weir’s book, Project Hail Mary. It was a fun read, with a solid premise, and a fast pace (from what I remember). So I was looking forward to the movie adaptation. I mean, I liked the Martian in both movie and book version. The odds of this being another solid outing were good, right?
I saw it with the fam over the weekend, and, sadly, it failed to really live up to my expectations. Not that I thought it would be the next masterpiece of cinema, but the consensus among my group was that we liked it, but we definitely didn’t love it.
My biggest issue with the movie is that it’s just too long. I’d guess it could stand to lose about 45 minutes, though I guess that might be a bit extreme. Its pacing just . . . plods. There are random scenes that I assume are there to build character, but they’re for characters that . . . just don’t matter? Not to the story they’re trying to tell. I’m trying to avoid spoilers here, so I’m not going to go into depth, but suffice it to say that (in my opinion) there are really only two characters in the film whose story matters. Everyone else is wallpaper. Trying to make that wallpaper look nicer is a lost cause, because no matter how much time you devote to it, it’s never going to be anything more than filler.
I really enjoyed the effects, however. The puppetry work in the movie was fantastic, and I was very glad to see them use practical effects for something they might have just decided to use CGI for instead. Ryan Gosling . . wasn’t my favorite actor for his role. Usually I’m a fan, but I had a hard time connecting with him in this one (and believing that of all the people on earth, his character somehow ended up being the one in the position to save it.)
Man. The more I write and think about the movie, the less I’m really able to recommend it. “Not a terrible way to spend 2.5 hours of your life” isn’t exactly a glowing review. I think my biggest gripe is that the book was a lot of fun, and it deserved a better movie adaptation. But such is life . . .
I know a lot of people who liked the movie a lot, so maybe I’m in the minority on this one. Thoughts?