![\"\"](\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/image-2026-03-23T223748.006-691x1024.webp\"){kind=spacer}
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nIt has been just over ten years since viewers were first introduced to the work of sci-fi author Andy Weir with Ridley Scott\u2019s \u201cThe Martian.\u201d In that film, a scientist (Matt Damon) was stuck on a planet millions of miles from Earth and forced to use his wits to survive against near-insurmountable odds, often punctuating his actions with smart-aleck remarks that only he could hear. New Weir adaptation \u201cProject Hail Mary\u201d is different. In this film, a scientist (Ryan Gosling) is stuck on a spaceship millions of miles from Earth and forced to use his wits to survive against near-insurmountable odds, often punctuating his actions with smart-aleck remarks that only he can hear\u2026 until he has an alien buddy that can hear them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dr. Ryland Grace (Gosling) is on mission to save the Sun (and consequently Earth) from a bacteria that is severely diminishing its output. He\u2019s not what you\u2019d call a \u201clikely\u201d hero (just a schoolteacher with some controversial theories), and he doesn\u2019t exactly \u201cvolunteer\u201d for the mission. Sketchy mission organizer Eva Stratt (Sandra H\u00fcller) has to use some nefarious means to get him on the ship, but only because she truly believes his way of thinking makes him the best hope for humanity. His \u201cway of thinking\u201d doesn\u2019t extend to knowing how his spaceship works after over a century in an induced coma. After Grace spends a few days flopping around the ship, the whole vessel is intercepted by an alien spacecraft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Piloting the new ship is a creature that comes to be known as Rocky (voiced by James Ortiz, once he has a voice), because his body is so rock-like. He\u2019s on a mission to save his own planet from the same problems plaguing the Sun. Not having many ideas of his own, his plan is to abduct Grace so they can pool their resources. Of course, Grace doesn\u2019t really know what he\u2019s doing either, but after a tedious process of learning to communicate with one another, the two of them start hatching something resembling a plan to save their respective worlds. And they might just become friends in the process. Okay, I won\u2019t make it suspenseful, they become friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Grace and Rocky\u2019s friendship is really odd, considering that they never knew the other\u2019s species even existed until they met in outer space. Also, neither can so much as breathe the air on the other\u2019s ship. Grace has to keep his helmet on in Rocky\u2019s, and Rocky has to travel around Grace\u2019s in what I can only describe as a hamster ball. But through inspiring determination, they make it work. And though the attitude is usually kept light, there are very high stakes for both parties. Entire planets need to be saved and sacrifices need to be made. Will those sacrifices have to include our heroes\u2019 ability to get home? How about their very lives? Can they even have a mission successful enough to warrant these kinds of questions?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The story of \u201cProject Hail Mary\u201d is very familiar territory, especially if you\u2019ve seen \u201cThe Martian.\u201d I joked about it earlier, but Gosling\u2019s character is basically a carbon copy of Damon\u2019s in that film. And the friendship with Rocky has been done before too, in any number of movies where a human has to work together with an animal or alien (\u201cE.T.\u201d comes to mind). Fortunately, the writing, acting, and directing from the ever-enjoyable Phil Lord and Christopher Miller are all crisp enough to make this a decent version of a cookie-cutter space adventure. It could probably stand to eat up less time, but for the most part, \u201cProject Hail Mary\u201d is worth cheering on as much as your favorite sports team making the titular play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Grade: B-<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cProject Hail Mary\u201d is rated PG-13 for some thematic material and suggestive references. Its running time is 156 minutes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Bob Garver It has been just over ten years since viewers were first introduced to the work of sci-fi author Andy Weir with Ridley Scott\u2019s \u201cThe Martian.\u201d In… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64049,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDNcL2ltYWdlLTIwMjYtMDMtMjNUMjIzNzQ4LjAwNi1zY2FsZWQud2VicD9maXQ9NjkxJTJDMTAyNCZzc2w9MSIsInR4dCI6Ik1vdmllIFJldmlldyAmIzgyMTE7IFByb2plY3QgSGFpbCBNYXJ5IiwidGVtcGxhdGUiOiJoaWdod2F5IiwiZm9udCI6IiIsImJsb2dfaWQiOjE2MzA0MDY2MX0.t8QMYWrCx5dFV2JuL4QtQck5l052w9q6ceW6qfnw1dUMQ"},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[13],"tags":[14175],"class_list":["post-64048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-movie-review-project-hail-mary"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64048"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64048\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64050,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64048\/revisions\/64050"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}