Quick synopsis: In a bid to stop the sun from dying, the Earth launches Project Hail Mary, full of Grace.

Thoughts going in/expectations: This should be good, I’ve been waiting for almost a year since I first saw the trailer.

There’s a moment in Project Hail Mary (PHM, pronounced Pa-ham) which perfectly encapsulates my feelings towards it. Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling) is walking away from Rocky, both characters having completed their mission and are free to go back home. As Grace walks back to his ship, he keeps pausing and looking back, delaying leaving because he doesn’t want this moment to end. Even through the beauty, both characters drag it out. That’s like this film. It’s so scared of closure that it keeps adding more and more in the closing section. The closing moment itself is good, but the journey could be significantly shorter.

I also have issues with the visuals. For 95% of the time, they are absolutely stunning. But some of the exterior shots of the spaceships look like a kid holding plastic toys in front of a green screen; you can almost hear the “vroom vroom, pow pow pow”.

That’s it. At the time of writing, that’s all the negatives I can think of. Otherwise? This was stunning. It’s one of those films which is better if you haven’t seen the trailer, because some of the plot points heavily focused on in the trailer don’t occur until relatively late. But you won’t mind, because even the moments until those are incredible. Visually, this is incredible. We don’t see much of other planets, but when we do, they’re breathtaking. This is a movie that deserves to be seen on a big screen. The scenes set on Earth are pretty standard, but there are some cool moments at the end where we see the effect the weather has had on the world. T

It’s not just the visuals: the script is interesting enough to keep you invested throughout. Moments of narrative beauty keep you on the edge of your seat, fully buying into what the movie is selling. The relationship that Grace has with Rocky is very sweet. Gosling works best when he has someone to play off, so it’s smart that not only do we have Rocky, but we also have flashbacks of Grace’s time on earth intercut throughout the movie. We see the preparation for the launch and how he reacted to what was happening. If everything took place chronologically, then it would take far too long to get him into space, so the audience will tune out. And without the flashbacks, we’d have long periods where his character is on his own, which would be robbing him of his charm. I’m not often a fan of flashbacks in films which are supposed to be about isolation, but it works here. Slight downside: the way the flashbacks are presented to us makes it look like he’s only just remembering those moments as we see them, and I’m still not 100% certain whether that was the case or not. If it were, then it could have got away with having the flashbacks be a bit more fragmented and non-linear, as memories often are. If they’re not, then they shouldn’t have introduced them just as he’s coming back from a bout of amnesia. Again, a minor flaw.

I’ve criticised 2026 for poor movies, so I am immensely grateful that something like Project Hail Mary exists. This isn’t just storytelling; this is magic. It’s a LONG film, but you won’t want to leave at any point. Genuinely one of the best films I’ve seen in a long time. The characters are great, the visuals are great, plus Sandra Huller delivers an incredible Harry Styles cover. Side note: is Sign Of The Times a modern classic? I think it might be.