Whatever crack Pixar puts in their movies to make you want to cry at each one, Project Hail Mary harnessed it and injected it into this film too. I thought I was popping into the cinema to watch an apocalyptic space movie. My bad! I was actually watching a live-action Pixar buddy comedy for theoretical science nerds.
I usually have the same three complaints about these White Man Saves The World movies:
- There was NOBODY else available? The ONLY man who can save the world is an average white man from the United States who is almost certainly unqualified for the position?
They did a fairly good job getting around this. - How is this man so wholly confident in his abilities to do this thing he has literally never done before and that no one in the world can do?
They did a great job getting around this. - Why is there a random love story shoe-horned into this movie? Why is that the only woman in the cast always ends up kissing the hero at some point, whether they started out in a relationship or not?
They did an amazing job getting around this.
There were a few times I found myself gender-swapping the lead and picturing how much more interesting some of the dynamics and scenes would have been if Ryan Gosling’s character had been a woman instead, but given that the film is based on a book, I can imagine the uproar that would have caused among the Hollywood is Woke community. That’s only a minor observation from my own preferences though, and, as a counter, this is a central character with feelings who is expressing himself vulnerably, which is a welcome addition to male characters in the genre.
I’m being intentionally vague because I think the movie needs to be seen without a lock of background. It’s not reinventing the wheel and instead seems to pull from the very best of our favorite space movies. But a Greatest Hits compilation isn’t always a bad thing. They were hits for a reason, and in this case, the sum may indeed be greater than the parts. Star Wars never made me cry.
Score: 4.5 / 5
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