Project Hail Mary review
By Joel Humphries · Watched 03.30.26
★★★★ 4 / 5
Spoiler-free review
Project Hail Mary softens much of its hard science, landing closer to Oppenheimer than the problem-solving rigor of Interstellar or The Martian, and its back half slows more than I wanted. None of that prevented me from enjoying the central relationship: an alien and a human risking everything to save their respective planets and becoming best friends in the process. It is essentially an interspecies buddy comedy smuggled into an extinction-level mission—Men in Black 5 with considerably more heart. Sandra Hüller also deserves a supporting-actress campaign based on one song alone.
Full review — contains spoilers
I feel like the movie kind of glazes the science making it more Oppenheimer than Interstellar/The Martian as far as the hard SF comparisons go. And the back half was a little slow. But I really enjoyed it. It's an alien/human buddy comedy where they risk their lives to try to save their planets and become besties along the way. It's like MIB 5.
Also I want Sandra Hüller to win best supporting actress just based on the one song.