Review Roundup: Phil Lord and Christopher Miller’s Project Hail Mary
In my review of Andy Weir’s Project Hail Mary, I noted that a movie adaptation was inevitable, especially given the success of 2015’s acclaimed adaptation of The Martian. And sure enough, here we are in 2026, and Weir’s Project Hail Mary is rocketing to the silver screen courtesy of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, the mad geniuses behind Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, The Lego Movie, and the Spider-Verse movies.
Needless to say, when Lord and Miller’s adaptation was announced, it immediately jumped to the top of my list of this year’s most anticipated movies, with Ryan Gosling stepping in as the unlikely astronaut who’s sent on a suicide mission to save the sun from a bizarre extraterrestrial threat — only to encounter something even stranger on his travels.
So, are Lord and Miller successful in translating Weir’s beloved sci-fi novel to the screen? Or does Project Hail Mary fail to lift off? Read on for a selection of critics’ reactions to the movie.
Gosling is an effortlessly charming screen player, and he keeps it watchable, though the film itself has moments of dullness and a sort of puppyish silliness, perhaps not surprising given the comedy track-record of directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller.
Project Hail Mary was never going to be a cerebral sci-fi movie, as many first-contact stories are, or even as many past Gosling sci-fi movies have been. But it is just content to be a crowdpleaser, and thankfully, it’s very good at that. All it takes to make the movie sing is Gosling befriending a little alien rock and being a little silly about it.
[E]ven with his magnetism set to hyperdrive, Gosling can’t make this wannabe-feel good film dazzle the way it wants to. It pains me — desperately pains me! — to say it, but in my eyes (sorry to rub it in, Rocky), Project Hail Mary is a well-intentioned miss.
There’s certainly an abstract commercial grandeur to it. I saw it on an IMAX screen (it will open on many of those), where it becomes the kind of bedazzling warm bath your eyeballs can sink right into. But here’s the rub. Project Hail Mary is way too long (two hours and 36 minutes), because there’s not much variation to it. It’s baggy and incredibly derivative of movies you’ve seen before.
Here’s a film that’s about as effervescently likeable as it can get. In it, Ryan Gosling becomes best buds with an alien, as they put aside all cultural and linguistic barriers to save their respective planets from a sun-gobbling threat. It’s an alchemically perfected blend of past sci-fi greats, with a good dose of Spielberg and Kubrick — familiar without feeling exhausted.
All of which is to say, if you’re in the vast majority that hasn’t read Project Hail Mary and doesn’t know all the story specifics, the movie is going to be even better for you. So take everything you read in the rest of this review, dip it in gold, and prepare yourselves. As much as I adored the movie, someone coming to it fresh is going to love it that much more.
The directing team has made a name for themselves with their ability to make seemingly impossible projects work, from turning 21 Jump Street into a meta delight to finding the essential human bricks of The LEGO Movie. It’s a filmography that speaks to a certain level of fearlessness and buckets of imagination, and Hail Mary benefits from both, especially as the movie tackles the challenge of depicting a truly alien species (including its technology).
Anyone capable of seeing the winsome, heartstring-pulling capabilities of an alien rock is already coming from a place of radical imagination, empathy, and daring. The filmmakers’ ability to step beyond that and see the appeal of an E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial riff where Elliott is E.T.’s lab partner and co-worker as well as his friend… well, let’s just say it took some odd minds and some odd tastes to get this book to the screen. But the adaptation is all the better for it.
Even if Project Hail Mary at times leans into the sentiment to an almost saccharine degree, the movie’s natural sweetness is disarming. And it’s impossible to imagine an actor more adept at striking that tricky balance than Gosling, whose low-key comic timing has never been better.
Project Hail Mary cycles through many phases, including a survival thriller, a buddy comedy, and a sci-fi adventure. Lord and Miller build appropriately toward this more serious pivot, even if there’s some herky-jerky motion amidst the transition. But that scrappy spirit of perseverance through imperfection feels in line with their hero’s own default operating mode.
Project Hail Mary, an earnest science-fiction novel from Andy Weir, author of the hit book-turned-movie The Martian, captured hearts when it came out in 2021. The film will do the same, with a wholesome story, pitch-perfect casting, and gorgeous effects. And it emphasizes exactly what many people need in this moment: the courage to forge true, sacrificial friendships.
The hard sci-fi elements of Project Hail Mary are core to the story, but never get so overwhelming that you forget about the human (and alien) elements that give the film its emotional weight. It’s a difficult balancing act that Project Hail Mary handles deftly. It manages to have an epic scale thanks to its incredible stakes — but it also has a lot of heart through its story about a pair of unlikely buddies.
Project Hail Mary arrives in theaters on March 20, 2026. Watch the trailer below.
