Critics reviews are now in for Phil Lord and Chris Miller’s sci-fi feature “Project Hail Mary” and the word seems pretty good. With 59 reviews counted, this film adaptation of the Andy Weir novel currently sits at 95% on Rotten Tomatoes and at 78/100 on Metacritic.
Praise is very high in particular for star Ryan Gosling’s performance, a few of the reviews saying it’s some of his best work to date and elevates the rest of the material that is more overly familiar.
In the film, Gosling plays Ryland Grace, a science teacher who ends up working with an alien called Rocky in an effort to solve a mystery tied to stars dying out. Clocking in at 156 minutes, the PG-13 film is expected to be one of the bigger openers of the season.
Here’s a sampling of reviews:
“Project Hail Mary is a movie that believes it’s possible to save the world. It dares to hope. And that’s more beautiful than all the stars in the sky.” – Liz Shannon Miller, Consequence
“A stirring celebration of bravery, camaraderie, and human ingenuity that goes big in every respect, not least of which by recognizing and foregrounding the majesty of larger-than-life movie stardom.” – Nick Schager, The Daily Beast
“It goes, in other words, where plenty of men have gone before. The good news, again, is that the film moves so impressively fast that you won’t mind much of anything.” – Barry Hertz, Globe and Mail
“Even if Project Hail Mary at times leans into the sentiment to an almost saccharine degree, the movie’s natural sweetness is disarming. And it’s impossible to imagine an actor more adept at striking that tricky balance than Gosling.” – David Rooney, THR
“The tonal balance between life-and-death stakes and buddy-comedy bonding is sometimes wobbly, but Ryan Gosling gives an open-hearted performance as our planet’s unlikely saviour.” – Tim Grierson, Screen
“With Gosling and Hüller to the fore, Lord and Miller have delivered a cosmic adventure with hope in its heart and a twinkle in its eye. It’s the science-fiction blockbuster we need in these fractious times.” – Philip De Semlyen, Time Out
“Project Hail Mary is shamelessly calculating and somewhat spurious in its fabrication of childlike wonder, but then, people said that about Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T.” – Jonathan Romney, The Financial Times
“Project Hail Mary wants to be the kind of “great escape we need right now,” and I have no doubt that many will hail it as one. So forgive me if I say that it’s not a very good movie.” – Owen Gleiberman, Variety
“Project Hail Mary” is set to hit cinemas on March 20th.
