By Owen Pfaff · Contributing Writer
“Project Hail Mary” premiered in theatres on March 20, 2026.
The short and sweet? You should go and see it! Light spoilers ahead.
My critique of the movie stems from two main concerns. The first is the self-aware humor. It needs to stop.
Modern Hollywood loves it, and the producers must believe that audiences love it, but I am sick of it. It’s overdone.
Self-aware jokes are excellent to use as humor mix-ups. But if you use the mix-up every time, it ceases to be a mix-up. The subversion becomes an expectation. Overall, the humor in the movie was quite pleasant, and I had a lot of great laughs.
People in the theatre were clearly happy to be there. The producers just need to clean up the Marvel slop. Get it out of the script.
Now, on to more substantive things. The most important issue with the film is that it almost totally lacks conflict. In this context, the word “conflict” has a very particular meaning.
I am not talking about tension, crisis or the hero’s internal struggles. Amusingly enough, the story has all three of the aforementioned things without having a true conflict. Conflict, in the sense that I am using the word, is always a product of the interactions between characters.
At its simplest, conflict is when someone fights someone else over something. Unfortunately, “Project Hail Mary” has none of this kind of conflict. Throughout most of the film, the two main characters work together in complete harmony to achieve the same goal.
This is really boring. Usually, a mistake of this caliber would completely sink a film.
I shall now explain why the film is still floating. “Project Hail Mary” is carried by three elements: its music, set and sympathetic protagonists. The soundtrack was unique and fit really well with the film.
I’m not a music major, so I won’t pretend to give a more concrete evaluation. The set and music together create an atmosphere of majesty. Watching the film is like taking a step into the lights of the universe.
As a movie to watch in a theatre, I found the spectacle to be more than satisfying. The same can be said for the two main characters. Ryan Gosling plays an “everyman” kind of character and does it to perfection.
The design choice for Rocky the alien was brilliant. It is the peak example of “aesthetically pleasing.”
Original alien design can be very difficult and always runs the risk of running into the Zerg (bug-like) vs. Protoss (energy crystals) dichotomy.
The film makers deftly navigated this by making Rocky into a little craftsman who works exclusively in geometrically satisfying shapes. Everything that the alien does is nice to look at.
Before I conclude this review, there are a couple more things I should mention. Despite not having a lot of character-driven conflict, the film does have a complete character arc. Gosling’s character is initially reluctant, but over the course of the movie, he endures trials and becomes the person to do the good.
This might seem like a bare minimum standard to meet — it is — but so few films released nowadays have this element that the movie deserves a little gold star just for crossing the finish line in this regard.
On another note, the film tells the story in a non-chronological fashion, but does so in a brilliant way that makes the finale have an incredible payoff.
Lastly, the film has a message that naturally stems from the story and is conducive to that very elusive (in Hollywood, anyway) thing known as human flourishing.
For that, it deserves an enthusiastic recommendation.
