PREMISE
A science teacher wakes up alone on a spaceship. As his memory returns, he uncovers a mission to stop a mysterious substance killing Earth’s sun and that an unexpected friendship may be the key.
THE GOOD STUFF
GOSLING- You know, in all of these conversations that I tend to have about what a movie star really is in 2026, people are so hesitant to put RYAN GOSLING in that category even going as far as the hint that the man is overrated because he’s had so many high-profile things in a row. Folks, his last five major theatrical releases were la la land, Fall Guy, blade runner 2049, THE nice guys and barbie. At some point the resume has to speak for itself and people have to calm down.
This is the kind of movie that celebrates all of his strengths. Gosling has always had the magic to display high level comedic energy, and absolute raw vulnerability. The best movies that he’s in are the movies where he gets to display that on numerous occasions like this one. There is a scene in this film where the character Rocky is let’s just say…..sleeping. it is in that short stretch of film where we see all of the things that Gosling is really good at if you don’t know what I mean.
Considering his resume, I’m not going to go as far as to say that this is a top five performance from him….. But it is close.
EVERYTHING ROCKY- From the origins of the name, to the character design, to the backstory, to the voice-over performance, everything involving this particular character is ingenious. This is the character that is supposed to separate this film from the numerous other space odysseys that we’ve come across over the years and this is a grand slam. This is a world-class Grand slam voice over performance from James Ortiz who should get all the praise in the world for what he does here.
Rocky as a character is just so charmingly childlike and enthusiastic all at once that if done incorrectly would be a Jar Jar Binks kind of a presence in this film. Thankfully that is not done here. I don’t think people truly realize the power of a great voice over performance, and James Ortiz needs to be a name that we come to know a lot more in the upcoming years.
STORYLINES- I think it is here where Lord and Miller really shine in terms of their directorial efforts. One half of this movie (set in the past) remind me a lot of the highly underrated 2000 film space cowboys with Clint Eastwood. Bright colors, and heavy comedic undertones a lot of compelling space talk about the upcoming mission with scientists and astronauts and the like. The other half of this movie (in the present) reminded me of the first 30 minutes (the George Clooney section) of a movie called gravity back in 2013. Lord and Miller seemed to be inspired by a lot of space films in the making of this and it shows. But it seems like they were inspired by all of the good stuff and not the bad stuff.
THE BAD STUFF
PACING- Whenever movie goes past the two and a half hour mark we have to talk about pacing. There must be conversations about what filmmakers could have done to lessen the length of their film. I now understand that this is a very popular book that’s been adapted, and it’s very loyal to that book with the exception of a few things. In that, I understand why this film is so long.
That being said, this story structure didn’t have to be so loyal to the book in order to be an effective film. This is a film that interchanges past and present events simultaneously, and in doing that kind of upends its own momentum a couple of times throughout the film. I understand that the book does this, and the fans of the book are very happy about that. But this movie really could have benefited from a straight chronological order of things. Just tell the past stuff concurrently until the present stuff concurrently. I personally failed to find the symbolism between the past events that they were showing in connection to the present events that they showed right after. This is not really messy or anything like that. But I did find it to be annoying as the events of the present got more intense and the events of the past was not as much.
THE UGLY STUFF
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I do think can you start acknowledging Lord and Miller as a filmmaking duo that gets the job done whenever they step up to the plate. Cloudy with a Chance of meatballs, the Lego movie, the Jump Street films, and this. When it comes to directorial efforts, they have literally never missed.
Their respect is long overdue if it is overdue it all. It’s just worth mentioning here.
PROJECT HAIL MARY is in theaters now
