‘Project Hail Mary’ Review – Lord & Miller’s Sci-Fi Crowdpleaser Is Pure Magical Warmth From Beginning To End

In the film landscape of today, while the possibilities of the genre are essentially endless, it’s hard to make a sci-fi or space film that can bring a wholly unique experience to the table. The otherworldly abstract realities of Interstellar, the stress-inducing thrills of Gravity, even the true events of Apollo 13 and First Man, in some ways, can be some of the most daunting filmmaking to tackle.

Directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller are very aware of this, and their film adaptation of the best-selling Andy Weir novel, Project Hail Mary, knows how to blend the past success of the genre while implementing a fresh emotional core that provides poignant highs and charms alike.

Project Hail Mary isn’t just the type of magnificent beauty we want from our blockbusters, but it balances its thrills, breathtaking visuals, and delightful humor with an emotional warmth surrounding hope for the future amongst ourselves, even in the worst of circumstances. Add a career-best performance from Ryan Gosling to the mix, and you have what will be seen as a future classic of grand sci-fi venture, a fully transportive experience on nearly every front.

The film starts with Ryland Grace (Gosling) waking up in a haze on a spaceship that is eons away from Earth. Grace has no idea why he was sent to space, how he got there, or even his own name and what he did back home. As he starts exploring that vast crevasse of the ship, eating raw noodles and drinking bags of portable vodka, his memories slowly start coming back to him as we flashback and see he was a science teacher, doing what he can to give fun educational lessons amidst the news that the sun is dying out.

It isn’t long before Grace is approached by Eva Stratt (Sandra Hüller), chair of the Petrova Taskforce and the leader of “Project Hail Mary”, the risky plan to stop the sun from evaporating. It turns out nearly every star in subsequent galaxies is dying out, except for one, and Eva believes that Grace has the knowledge (in part from his educational background) to help them in their quest to find the mysterious substance that is causing the sun to fade, saving Earth from extinction.

Now alone in space with all his crew members dead from hypersleep, Grace thinks he’s on his own to relearn the specifics of his mission and problem-solve his way into formulating the perfect plan, until he has a run-in with an alien ship piloted by an otherworldly being Grace would eventually dub Rocky (voiced by James Ortiz). Once Grace realizes Rocky’s star is also dying and is alone in space for the same reason, the two form an intimate friendship and must collectively use their skills to save both of their worlds.

Project Hail Mary has so many magical elements that wash over you throughout the extended runtime, but Ryan Gosling is the glue that holds the project together nearly every step of the way. Aside from the flashback sequences where we see Grace’s interactions with colleagues leading up to the mission, Gosling puts on a one-man show up in the stars, and the range he brings is unreal and is some of the most that’s ever been demanded from him for a role. He balances the sheer warmth, sadness, and goofy physical comedy of the film so flawlessly, all while capturing the intimate loneliness at the core of his character.

We learn throughout the film that Grace, even before he was sent on his mission, never really had anyone with him in his personal life, and even when he did, it always felt so fleeting, causing him to struggle in space, wondering who he really has to fight for. Grace never really considered himself a brave person, and sees himself as expendable throughout his journey until he forms his special bond with Rocky, an alien that has his exact same emotional struggles despite an entire language barrier separating them, and these themes only make the care and love the two have for each other throughout more beautiful, and Gosling captures it wonderfully.

The concept of having a cute alien creature like Rocky at the center of this story and Rocky being the only other scene partner Gosling has throughout the film will lend itself to the obvious Spielbergian comparisons, but the film manages to build from prestige inspiration and create its own charming quirks and heartwarming bond between the two characters. The genuine laughs and authentic nature of Drew Goddard lend themselves to similar inklings of other works like The Martian (another adapted Andy Weir novel penned by Goddard), but the delve into human companionship at the center of Project Hail Mary gives it a sense of feeling that will leave you an emotional wreck one minute and grinning ear to ear the next.

Lord and Miller have yet to craft a truly sweeping sci-fi epic until now, and the pure wonder of Project Hail Mary’s technical aspects doesn’t disappoint. Greig Fraser’s cinematography is truly dazzling, but I especially love how the look of this film compares to others he’s DP’d. His work on films like The Batman, Dune, and even The Creator was also honed in on scale but with a more gritty and grand nature of it; his work in Project Hail Mary taps into both familiar and fresh territory in all respects. The size of space is vast and blends so many distinct colors in beautiful ways, even within tension-filled sequences, but it compares to the flashback scenes so creatively with the change in aspect ratio, to capture impeccable wonder and intimacy so tremendously.

The immersion of the film’s atmosphere is only further bolstered by the VFXs and awe-inspiring score composed by Daniel Pemberton. The VFX shots are marvelous to behold in the deep arrays of space, but the mixture of puppetry and practical effects used to give Rocky more physical interactions with Gosling is equally as flawless. Pemberton’s euphoric score only further bolsters the immersion of the film’s experience, combining a wondrous sense of discovery with infectious warmth at nearly every moment, acting as the perfect cherry on top of what is a technical marvel of a film.

Project Hail Mary offers nearly everything we want out of a modern sci-fi blockbuster: a myriad of beautiful visuals and scale, and all the pieces of previous sci-fi greats, but what makes it so satisfying is its grounded warmth within friendship, bravery, and hope in humanity, knowing its place as the crowd-pleasing, feel good, pop cinema we need and delivering on every front of it. Combined with yet another charming lead role from Ryan Gosling, you get what will be seen as a new euphoric sci-fi classic for both bookreaders and audiences everywhere alike.

Project Hail Mary will debut exclusively in theaters on March 20, 2026, courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios.