Project Hail Mary

[PersephoneSmith]

I was so looking forward to seeing the movie. Genuinely one of the best books I have ever read.
It was absolutely wonderful. I think I cried even more at the end than I did when I read it.
I think it will win best picture Oscar next year. And best actor for Ryan Gosling too.

I have rewatched Sunshine recently and I wouldn't say so, from what I've seen so far. It's a very loose connection. The only similarity is that both films seem to deal with something to do with our sun being in trouble. In Sunshine the crew of a few people go on a mission to 'restart' it. I don't think that it goes further than that.

I went to see this last night, I really enjoyed it (I did prefer the book though!). I didn't cry at all, I feel like I just beamed the whole way through it. Such a fun film.

Definitely not

Went last night with ds12 who read the book and has been excited about this for months

neither of us were disappointed. He def shed a tear at one point! Very faithful to the book I’d say but the book goes into the science far more deeply (unsurprisingly)

i have another DS who is nearly 11 and he wouldn’t have liked it at all. It’s a bit too long is my only criticism.

I’ve been waiting so long for this film to come out and whilst I enjoyed it I was a bit disappointed. It’s beautiful and feel good but a tad slapstick. My husband who had not read the book enjoyed it more than I did I think. I need to watch it again with my expectations reset. The audiobook is so fantastically well done it was never going to compare.

It’s interesting isn’t it. It’s definitely got more “comedy” than the book.
I do feel I would have enjoyed it more had I not read the book (and known how it would end) but I enjoyed the book immensely so 🤷🏻‍♀️

Thank you so much for your kind offer @GriseldaandMike , I’ve actually decided to pick up the Audible free trial they keep sending to tempt me back and listen to the audiobook narrated by Ray Porter.

I watched a video by Looper on YT last night and so many of the comments were recommending the audiobook. I think I’m still going to wait until after I’ve seen the film though as so many posts say there’s so much more detail.

💐😊

The audiobook is one of the best I’ve ever listened to. Ray Porter’s narration is absolutely fantastic, I can’t recommend it highly enough.

I can't wait - loved the book very much, and Th Martian is endlessly re-watchable (in your FACE, Neil Armstrong!)

I'm so heartened to hear my fellow fans of the book enjoyed the film.

The audiobook is one of my favourite - I have DNFed so many audiobooks since because they just don’t live up to Project Hail Mary! I was quite worried that they would utterly run the whole thing if the film wasn’t made to the same very high standards, but it’s a triumph. Ryan Gosling is as brilliant in this as he seems to be in everything he’s in. They did not mess up the other main character - I’ve seen enough movies utterly ruined by a terrible CGI/animated/puppeteered character to know they could have properly mucked up there but they didn’t. (I was reminded of Michael Caine acting in Muppet Christmas Carol all on his own with a bunch of puppets, and making all of the characters believable.) The science was glossed over in the movie where much more was made of it in the book, but again, there is only so much time in a movie and you have to keep it moving rather than doing lots of eg fuel calculations or discussing cell biology.

As others have said, it is an utterly charming movie, and I smiled the whole way through it. The choice of music throughout was awesome too - if this is not nominated for a raft of Oscars next year I’ll be amazed.

I’ve booked my ticket, Friday afternoon and at this time all seats except mine are empty 😆

Checked out the Odeon in town and their same day, similar time screening is about 50% sold.

A few of you have mentioned the music score so I’ve just checked out IMDb and it’s by a UK composer called Daniel Pemberton. I totally expected to see an American composer, possibly a graduated pupil (probably the wrong term) of one of the greats - Williams or Zimmer maybe. (I’m a big fan of both so would probably already know if it was either).

I’m now looking forward to being introduced to another great film score writer to love. While I recognise some of the films and TV shows DP has composed I have only see the two Black Mirror - USS Callister episodes, both of which were superb. I don’t recall the music from either so I’m going to rewatch both tomorrow.

Oh my gosh, I honestly can’t remember the last time I was this excited about something. Actually it was probably going to Bristol for a BSO performance of John Williams’ scores a few years ago.

I did a Firestick search for The Martian earlier and it is on BBC4 later this week or available to stream on iPlayer if anyone wants to watch/rewatch. I don’t have a TV licence so won’t watch there but I know Ive seen the DVD in plenty of charity shops so will pick it up soon.

I loved it too, hadn’t read the book, now I want to! I did read the Martian before the film was released though.

Purchased on Audible - about an hour in and it's really good. I want to see the film again!

And yes, the music throughout really works well - I'm going to check out the composer too.

I haven't read the thread because I haven't seen the movie.
But I read the book and LOVED it so im a bit wary of feeling disappointed.

Most of us were definitely not disappointed, we loved the film as much as the book!

I’m going against the grain here and say that while I liked the film, I definitely didn’t love it and the physical comedy by Ryan got tedious. The film felt really, really long and I kept seeing bits they could easily have been edited out. I kept thinking, “ When is this going to end?” I loved Rocky though.

I haven’t read or even heard of the book ☺️

I adored The Martian which I’ve watched several times

Glad it was such a hit with others though

It was so good. I was genuinely so moved by it that it brought me to tears. Wonderful film.

Saw it today and just loved it!

Amazing! I loved every single minute and didn’t feel it was too long at all.

In fact I was shocked to walk out exactly three hours after I’d walked in. I knew the film was 2.5 hours but it certainly didn’t feel like it.

There were only five of us in there, three singles and a couple at the back and we were all spread out so it was like a private screening. Which worked out well for me blowing my nose as I was emotional pretty much from 20 minutes in.

I’m totally mind blown and now even more glad that I hadn’t managed to find the book. And this morning I remembered that I had an old library account app in the cloud so I downloaded that and got the Ray Porter audiobook out for the next 45 days. A win for me not having to sign back up with Audible. I just finished my current book last night so I’m good to go and will start tonight.

I felt the whole film was incredible, cast, visuals, storytelling, the music was wonderful, the flashbacks worked so well, and I think I now have a crush on Ryan Gosling whereas I’ve never seen the appeal before 😊

Saw it today and loved it.
My one disappointment: Champagne Supernova isn’t in the film!

I have tickets for the weekend, looking forward to it and the Chilli Tofu Ramen I'm going to be devouring afterwards!

Loved The Martian book and was nervous that the film wouldn’t be able to touch it. But The Martian film was good in my eyes anyway. But the book was still much better.

So have been excitedly waiting for the release of the PHM as I LOVED the book.

I’m just back from the cinema and might even be tempted to say I enjoyed it more than the book!! Love, love LOVED it!!

Just didn’t want it to end.

If I was watching it at home, I would have watched it again straight away. And definitely have rewinded the last 5 minutes.

Edited to add - and the sound track was fantastic.

Enjoyed the audio book, except the comedy aspect was a bit overdone and unnecessary. Hope it's not the same in the film!

No it isn’t. Totally different tonally also.

Saw it today with DH and 13 yo DS. We all loved it. Best film I’ve seen in a long time.