In an era that has seen cinemas dominated by franchises more than ever before, it’s fairly rare for a movie that isn’t a sequel to anything to be as highly anticipated as Project Hail Mary has been. Since the first trailer, the movie has promised to be one of the first must-see films on the 2026 movie calendar and the sort of science fiction spectacle we haven’t seen since the last time an Andy Weir novel was adapted for the screen.
Matt Damon got an Oscar nomination for his work in The Martian, a movie that was very much a one-man show for the actor. While Ryan Gosling is similarly the only actor on screen for a lot of Project Hail Mary, he does have a co-star in the film, and the two of them are getting a lot of praise from critics.
However, in this particular case, Gosling’s co-star is a puppet. While some saw the character’s reveal as a spoiler, it’s well understood now that Project Hail Mary sees Gosling’s character working alongside an alien as they both attempt to solve the same problem threatening both of their planets. In our own Project Hail Mary review, Eric Eisenberg says the relationship between the two characters is one thing the movie adapts perfectly from the original text. He said…
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Regardless of anything else, I knew that I would appreciate Project Hail Mary so long as it properly brought to life the phenomenal dynamic between Grace and Rocky, and the adaptation doesn’t disappoint.
While the primary plot driver of Project Hail Mary is an extra-terrestrial threat that has the potential to wipe out all life on Earth, the actual story is much more self-contained. It’s about two characters, from different planets, who decide to work together to try and save both their worlds. Despite the fact that one of the characters has no discernible face and looks like a sentient stone, as Collider points out, the relationship between Gosling’s Grace and his alien friend Rocky is what the audience will connect with…
[T]he real heart of Project Hail Mary comes in Ryland’s relationship with Rocky and how this pair assists each other. [James] Ortiz, who puppets Rocky on set and is also Rocky’s computer-translated voice, matches Ryland’s energy. This dynamic is a delight to watch, and beautifully hits on the film’s themes that we’re all in this together. It might be too early to say this is one of the best human-alien relationships ever portrayed in a movie, but few have been as moving and sweet as this friendship is.
The friendship between Grace and Rocky isn’t the only thing Project Hail Mary has on offer, however. The Los Angeles Times, while it does praise the relationship, also takes a moment to call out the unique score and the cinematography, because you can’t have a great science fiction movie without sweeping images of deep space…
Fittingly, Daniel Pemberton’s score has that same sense of free-ranging curiosity, flitting between genres at will. In one sequence, a solemn Gregorian chant pivots to a tango as Grace and Rocky’s ships connect airlock-to-airlock in spinning orbit. It’s distractingly eclectic but vastly preferable to sci-fi scores that just aim to sound, well, vast. Meanwhile, the vistas of Tau Ceti outside the window are intimidating and gorgeous, with cinematographer Greig Fraser indulging in showers of purple glitter.
While nearly every review for Project Hail Mary is positive, that’s not to say that every review is entirely glowing. The Independent opens its review critical of the fact that, perhaps in trying to be a film on par with some of the best science fiction movies ever, it feels a bit too much like them, saying…
Project Hail Mary is some top-shelf nostalgia. And it doesn’t signal especially happy days ahead for film culture that some of the greatest skill and effort is being funnelled into giving a modern film like this the illusion it was released in 1979.
Meanwhile, IGN thinks that Project Hail Mary perhaps outstays its welcome a bit, as the film continues on past the point where it probably should have rolled the credits…
For most of its considerable 156-minute runtime, Project Hail Mary roars ahead, but the third act does suffer from some structural issues which keep it from ending as strong as it could’ve. On its own merits, the final leg of Grace and Rocky’s mission is a thrilling set piece which sees every aspect of the production at its most impressive… but by the time it’s tailed off, there’s still a lot of Project Hail Mary left to go, leaving the rest feeling a little anticlimactic, even if the film does land on its feet in how it pays off Grace and Rocky’s relationship.
Based on the response of both critics and fans who got early screenings, Project Hail Mary appears to be one of the first movies of the year that is truly worth getting to a theater to see. It looks amazing on a big screen, even if what makes the movie truly shine is a great deal smaller.