Movie Review: Project Hail Mary

Hey, it's me your random movie reviewer... today I'm bring you my thoughts on Project Hail Mary. 

I wanted to like it. I really did. Actually, I think I did like it. That's my problem. I liked it. I didn't love it.

I loved The Martian, the first movie based on Andy Wier's first book. It's one of those movies J and I just watch when we feel like watching a good movie. I could watch it again tomorrow and enjoy it. 

I just did not love Project Hail Mary. 

Visually, it's stunning and it is reasonable true to the book, but I think that might be the problem. The movie suffers from trying to be too true to the book in places while skipping the heavy science-y parts. Unfortunately Andy Wier stories hinge entirely on the heavy science-y parts. That's even more true for Project Hail when we're dealing with fictional science.

Fundamentally, I think Project Hail Mary fails to build it's world. 

Mild Spoilers

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The story centers on the idea of the astrophage... an alien microscopic life form that literally eats stars. It consumes solar energy, slowly causing stars to dim. Earth's sun has been infected with the astrophage, and all life on Earth is endangered as the sun slowly fades. A desperate mission - Project Hail Mary - is launched to the one nearby star that seems unaffected by the astrophage.

Unfortunately, for me, the movie completely fails to establish the "rules" of astrophage... how it works and how and why it is ultimately used as fuel for the Hail Mary mission. These details are critical to understanding the story.

The movie also fails completely to establish any dramatic tension regarding the threat of astrophage and the potential end of all life on Earth. We can a short scene with the main character downplaying the danger to a bunch of grade school kids, and several calm, measured and dispassionate statements by Eva Strat, the leader of the project. Don't mistake me, I believe actress Sandra Hüller plays Strat perfectly. Her character is calm, controlled and driven... but no one else, at least no one over the age of 12, expresses any urgency about the impending death of the sun. I feel like we needed to see someone freaking out, shocked or afraid. Everyone is just too calm about the end of life as we know it.

So, that's why the movie doesn't work for me. It fails to establish it's world or drive home the stakes in the kind of visceral way that movies need to.

That said, I think Ryan Gosling did a great job as Ryland Grace, the reluctant heroic nerd. Rocky looks fantastic. Kudos to the movie's crew for using practical effects for him. 

The interactions between Grace and Rocky are funny, insightful and touching in turns. You really feel the friendship they form. It's the saving grace (unintended pun) of the movie.

So, yeah, I liked it but I didn't love it. 

Week Ending 5/17

 Hey, it's me...

Well, this was a busy week.

Went to the eye doctors. You may remember I had some problems with my new glasses. (I think I mentioned this...) They were giving me headaches and things looked weird through them. So, we had a follow up appointment to check and see what was wrong.

It turns out my new glasses were perfect. That's what was wrong. Perfect was too clear. So clear that it was literally physically painful. I didn't need perfect. I needed good enough. 

There's a lesson in that, I think.

In other news, I got a gadget to test my blood sugar. It's actually kind of cool, but since it pokes bloody holes in me, I won't just randomly test myself a bunch for the fun of it. 

We got it because I'm trying out some new medication for my type 2 diabetes. I tried it and got slammed by fatigue and weakness... like 'can't keep my eyes open or lift my arms' fatigue and weakness. I worried it was working too well and crashing my blood sugar.  Turns out, nope. Blood sugar is still high. Fatigue and weakness are just a side effect of medication.

So, new plan... take the blood pills with dinner instead of breakfast. What's a little more fatigue and weakness at the end of the day? Just rocks on top of the mountain.

So, yeah, busy week.

Onward

Week Ending 5/10

Hey, it's me...

What to say about this week. It feels like it's been busy but I can't really think what it is I was busy with. I did managed to finish the 25 minis I planned on painting by May 9th.

If you'll forgive the bad pictures, here we have a Doombull.

A unit of Darkoath Fellriders

... and some tents for a Darkoath camp.

So, that's something.

Other than that, J and I played an Age of Sigmar battle (I managed to pull out a win because she overreached early and I was able to divide and conquer) and we're continuing our Wild Beyond the Witchlight adventure.

That's really about it. 

A pretty good week really.

Onward 

Week Ending 5/3

Hey, it's me...

This has been a weirdly intense week. 

On the one hand, I've felt very much at loose ends. Like I've been doing stuff, but don't really feel like I've had a direction and, at various points, I've felt pleased with things or very, very lost and dissatisfied.

I signed back into Facebook for the first time forever. I'm still not entirely convinced it was a good idea. I was partly lured back by the promise of a SimLit Facebook group. Still, what I really used to convince myself to do it was the idea that it was the last "place" I "saw" so many of my old friends. I think I hoped to reconnect with them, while avoiding the general filth that is Facebook. On both fronts, I would call it a tepid success. 

I posted a link to one of my Wyrd Tales short stories (A Tartosan Wedding), which was written to be a good introduction to my characters for new readers. It got some likes. I've made a few general posts and replied to some posts from friends. Those have gotten some likes and a scattered few responses. Still, I'm not sure either is really scratching that "want to interact with people" itch as well as I'd hoped. I think I'll stick with it a little while longer and maybe lower my expectations.

In health news, I tried metformin - a diabetes drug - for the first time. Within about a half hour of taking it, I crashed super hard... like couldn't keep my eyes open, could barely lift my arms, tingling all over. Juno looked over the side effects list of the meds and immediately got me some maple candy. Felt better within minutes. So, maybe metformin isn't for me. Reached out to my doctor, but haven't heard back yet.

In other news, Juno and I started up a new rpg campaign. I'm adapting the D&D adventure Wild Beyond the Witchlight for us to play. We managed to get in a short introductory session and it's been fun so far. We also managed to start (but not yet finish) a new game of Age of Sigmar, testing out some house rules that seem to working well. The "new" edition of Age of Sigmar is trash, so we're making our own... because, of course I am.

That all sounds really impressive as I write it up... so why do I feel like this has been an unfocused, dissatisfying and emotionally draining week? Probably because there is a lot of just laying around feeling unhappy in the gaps there.

Ah well, I can work on that. 

Onward

Week Ending 4/26

Hey, it's me...

Well, it's been an interesting week. Where to begin? 

Let's see... no vertigo this week. So, that's good.

Wednesday, I woke up at 4am , which weirdly turned out to be a good thing. I woke up and decided that rather than fighting with things, I'd just get started. I rewrote a chapter of In Moonlight that was badly in need of revision and am very pleased with the results. All in all, I had a really good day that day... it just ended before most other people woke up. That was OK too. I spent the rest of the day dozing in bed, watching stuff on streaming when I was awake and being quiet when I wasn't. I seem to have good days when I let myself not worry about needing to up and doing things.

Thursday, I had a doctor's appointment which actually went really well (touch wood). I felt like my doctor and I really communicated this time. He listened. I listened. We got along. It was good. I think this might work out after all (touch wood, again).

Also, I managed to get some more minis painted, including finishing up this guy... a Dragon Ogre Shaggoth (yes, there are little people on his back, braiding his hair).

Finally, I actually went outside and sat in the sun a little.

All in all, an interesting week. 

Onward

Week Ending 4/19

Hey, it's me...

So, you remember how, in my last post, I'd spent week recovering from the mess of the week before. 

Yeah, still working on that. 

I'm doing better than I was but not as well as I thought I was doing. To the extent that, on Thursday, I got nailed by another bout of vertigo. 

So, yeah, trying to balance "take it easy" with "doing enough to not feel like a total useless slug" and not really succeeding.

We'll get there.

Onward

Week Ending 4/12

Hey, it's me...

Well, this week was spent recovering from last week.

Monday and Tuesday were complete write offs. I basically spent them in bed, drifting in and out of consciousness, binge watching early episodes of Castle (because it's one of those shows I can almost recite from memory and so can sleep through most of an episode and not feel like I missed anything) and doing not much else.

By Wednesday, I was feeling well enough to really focus on something... anything... for more than a minute at a time without my brain feeling like it was on fire.

By Thursday, I was feeling well enough to recognize how truly horrible I felt... which, believe it or not, represents great progress.

Friday and Saturday, I felt well enough to start thinking about all the things I wanted to do and feeling annoyed at not being able to do any of them. Again, really good progress.

Today, I was finally able to do a little something. Actually did a little writing. Juno and I managed to play a short TTRPG session, and I'm writing this. Now I'm going to crash and spend the rest of today... well... resting. 

So, all in all, not actually a horrible week.

Onward