Project Hail Mary

UK Release Date: 19 March 2026
Director: Phil Lord, Christopher Miller
Cast: Lionel Boyce, Ryan Gosling, Sandra Hüller, Priya Kansara, Ken Leung, James Ortiz, Milana Vayntrub
Runtime: 156 mins
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Review:
Having already amassed a filmography consisting of science fiction epics - The Creator, Dune and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story - Greig Fraser adds to his catalogue with Project Hail Mary. An array of breathtaking visual sequences that capture the spectacle of Interstellar travel with chemically altered greens and a bright spectrum of reds. Equally adept at capturing the vast, limitless emptiness of Space. Love how he plays around with refractions of light and perceptible reflections - akin to Geoffrey Unsworth's work on Superman (1978). 

Project Hail Mary is at its most accomplished when pairing Daniel Pemberton's fantastical score with Greig Fraser's marvellous cinematography. Emulating the frenetic energy of a Jonny Greenwood composition and the awe of Hans Zimmer's discography. Soft instrumentation and angelic choir voices emphasising the authentic wonder of Project Hail Mary. Pemberton's score sets the stakes for the film with its impact - doing a lot of the emotional heavy lifting in the film's first act. 

The drawback to Project Hail Mary is that it does not work on Earth at all. Every cut away from Space is a jarring experience. There's a definite shock of being placed back into a world full of dull, muted tones. Sandra Hüller is incredibly flat in each flashback, giving a weak, timid performance for a supposed person of authority. Furthermore, albeit without the context of having read Andy Weir's novel, the film adaptation does come across a blatant misinterpretation of severe stakes. Project Hail Mary doesn't have the same sense of urgency as an Interstellar or a Sunshine despite tackling similar drastic themes of gradual human extinction. In sections, Drew Goddard's screenplay is tonally misguided, unquestionably resulting in a lack of necessity. 

However, in Space, when the creatives get it right - the script being stripped back to its simplest form - Project Hail Mary truly does feel significant. A story of friendship and the discovery of one's place in the universe that is best embodied in the relationship between Rocky and Dr. Grace, who will surely go down in history as one of the greatest on-screen duos. The two are able to draw a sensation of unashamed joy from the audience due to the tender and sincere bond they share with one another. Full credit belongs to James Ortiz for physically, and audibly, bringing Rocky to life and Ryan Gosling for being able to convincingly attach himself emotionally to a faceless, spider-like alien. 

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