Project Hail Mary (2026)

by Rochelle

Visually-stunning, but nothing more than that

My boyfriend and I bought the earliest tickets with high expectations, lured in by the film’s 8.5 IMDb rating and 97% Rotten Tomatoes score at the time of its release. Project Hail Mary is visually stunning, with a distinctive green-and-red palette that sets it apart from other cosmic blockbusters. The chemistry between Dr. Grace (Ryan Gosling) and his alien companion Rocky is undoubtedly the film’s brightest spot, an unexpectedly heartwarming friendship destined to live on in countless nostalgic edits in the upcoming years. That said, I was disappointed by the underdeveloped plot and characters. If I were to describe Dr. Grace, the protagonist, in one sentence, it would be this: a “hero” with little motivation or intention to save the world who somehow manages to do so with barely any sacrifice. The soundtrack is so powerful that, without it, many supposedly dramatic and climactic moments would struggle to evoke much emotion. The movie is far from bad, but it falls short of Interstellar, and I certainly wouldn’t call it the best film of Gosling’s career, as some TikTok critics boldly claim. 3 out of 5 Stars.