Project Hail Mary (2026) is a Phil Lord & Christopher Miller movie starring Ryan Gosling, with truly great work put into it.

The story is quite the simple one, the sun is dying. Not just in the Earth solar system but in quite a lot of others. Except one. Why? What’s up? There comes the quest of the film to save the universe, using whatever is keeping this solar system’s sun alive.

The lead character rocks, genuinely great acting on Ryan Gosling’s part as well as on that of the box team. It’s quite the enjoyable research quest the film is. I wouldn’t call the characterization fully resonating but it did a nice job overall both him &…the other rockin fun character.

Now comes the most important element- the visuals. Outer space is portrayed beautifully, as are the scenes of Earth before this mission through this…final frontier. Both have their unique stylistic elements in composition and coloring, complimenting each other quite beautifully.

The most important element after visuals in space, is of course sound. It truly is mesmerizing, with the viewer feeling every scene in all the spaces the story encompasses. Even when the sound isn’t there, the preceding & following noice makes it all the more noticeable. If this film will be nominated for only one award at next year’s Oscars, this should be it. Phil Lord & Christopher Miller did a great job at creating the sense of space in which the story encompasses.

Conclusion

★★★★★

All in all, a truly nice piece of science fiction (is it science fiction? Or more fantastical?) that is worth the hype. Admittedly for a moment at first I was puzzled but as the film went by, it grew on me just as the mission grew on the character. I’m glad I saw it- it was a unique theatrical experience as opposed to the usual. Now I find myself wanting to dig more into space movies that entered my watchlist over the years- Gravity, The Martian, Moon.