I have been waiting for Project Hail Mary to hit the streams for a while now, and it finally hit this weekend on Prime. 

I have had this book sitting in my inbox for quite some time. Far before it was made into this movie,, and it is still there. I have not gotten to it yet. But now I will have to. (foreshadowing) 

First, a quick rundown of the 2026 MGM release… There might be spoilers ahead so take precautions if needed.

The movie follows Ryland Grace, a generally unknown middle school science teacher that is recruited/volunteered to join an interstellar crew sent to investigate a distant planet that is somehow immune to an alien parasite known as “Astrophage, ” that is killing or dimming not only our Sun, but almost all of the stars in the galaxy.

My quick, half assed summery of Project Hail Mary..Plot holes, skip overs, confusion, too may questions.

A few things were at work when I started watching this. And remember I did NOT read the book yet, and have managed to keep myself separated from almost any and all info for this movie. But..

First, when I saw that Ryan Gosling was the lead character I was like .. wait, what? Genuine concern, but because of the second thing, you just never know…

The second thing, I had just come off the Passengers movie so I was expecting something along those lines, and I had the same feeling about those actors going in.

It took roughly 10 minutes to see that I was NOT getting dramatic or even semi serious Sci Fi, but a comedy. Had I looked up anything about this movie I would have seen that. That mistake was constantly rearing it’s head.

Looking at my notes:  

-”12 minutes in If there ends up being a talking alien I’m leaving”

-”20 minutes in and all can see is Abbot and Costello in space”

Comedy was not what I was expecting. But that aside, the immediate and continuous feeling of everything being rushed passed and skipped over just to put a laugh up. 

Why, just why this guy? Out of all the people of Earth, they send a guy with Zero qualifications out to save half of the universe. A middle school teacher.. Who himself continually asks the same question.. Why is it him? How does he know how to work all this stuff or read the data, or anything. We don’t know and never do, even though about half of the run time is flashbacks.

This whole thing from start to finish feels like a Nickelodeon movie. But here is the thing. If I had known this going in, if I wouldn’t have been expecting something totally different, I probably would have liked it. 

Project Hail Mary. At first I hated it. Then I kinda liked it. Until I thought about it more, then kinda hated it again. But I think I’m gonna settle on, its ok.

Visually it has some pretty good scenery and that makes the everything feel bigger or tighter when it needs to.

I’d say if you started watching this movie mid way through and didn’t know any of the reasons for Ryland Grace to be there and doing any of the things he is doing, and just assumed they already explained all of it, yes,, you will like it. 

But the second you have to think about it…

My expectations tainted the experience, and I’m not sure who’s fault that is.

I think the story and plots were wasted here. This could have been a great sci fi entry.