I Watched Project Hail Mary

I should have seen it in theaters

September 18th, 2026

I was skeptical about Project Hail Mary. The first trailer didn't reveal much and leaned hard into what I can only describe as millennial humor - a forced and self-aware kind of comedy that rarely fails to pull me out of a scene. I knew Andy Weir wrote the source material, and I liked The Martian well enough, but the trailer really lowered my expectations. Then the positive reviews started rolling in, but I still didn't trust them. Plenty of Marvel movies with that same flavor of humor reviewed well, and I ended up not liking many of those either. I was wrong, and I genuinely regret not catching this in theaters.

It opens in familiar territory - a grounded, vaguely Martian-like hard sci-fi mystery with a lighthearted tone that mostly works. The comedy shows up early but doesn't overstay its welcome. About an hour in, though, it becomes almost a completely different movie. I won't say much because the trailers wisely kept it hidden, but a second character enters the picture and the film shifts into something warmer and more unexpected - a story about friendship and bravery that never leaves the sci-fi mystery behind. It's a turn I didn't see coming, but I found myself completely invested anyway.

Both characters are genuinely likable and work really well together. The stakes are high, and whenever a new problem gets thrown at them, watching them work through it feels rewarding. A few emotional beats hit harder than I expected too - credit to Ryan Gosling's range and a director who knows exactly when to hold a shot and when to cut away. The lighter and more serious moments sit comfortably beside each other, which is harder to pull off than it sounds. There are a few moments where the charm overshoots and starts trying a little too hard, but they're brief and the movie recovers quickly.

There's also this weight of responsibility hanging over everyone in the story. The movie never dwells on it for too long, but when characters are finally forced to confront it, those moments hit hard and feel genuinely human.

At around two and a half hours, this is a long movie, and you definitely feel the runtime, but it never really feels overlong. It's visually gorgeous throughout, and the practical effects and set design are excellent. The whole thing has the feel of an '80s or '90s movie - wholesome, full of heart, and sincere without feeling self-important. That's rarer than it should be these days. A lot of movies right now default to dark and cynical, and I enjoy plenty of those too, but the market feels oversaturated with that tone lately and Project Hail Mary was exactly the change of pace I didn't know I wanted.

My wife only caught the last stretch and immediately wanted to start it over from the beginning. That probably says more than anything else I've written here. I strongly recommend this one - and I don't say this often, but I think it could even work as a family movie.