Project Hail Mary: Is it worth your time? A Honest Review

F.B. Brookings
3 hours ago
3 min read

Project Hail Mary has been a massive success, it seems like a good watch but is it

actually worth your time and money? This review is designed to be as honest as possible about the good, the bad and the great aspects of Project Hail Mary. While avoiding major spoilers, but of course some will be disclosed.

The first thing that you notice in the movie are the visuals. The Hail Mary movie is stunning at times, with breathtaking visuals that take you on a ride into the world on the screen while at others it is painfully ordinary. Both of which contribute to the movie's motifs and themes wonderfully. There are scenes in the film packed with vibrant and explosive color while others are completely grey scale that manage to be equally enthralling. The one out of this world character blends seamlessly with the very grounded sets of the Hail Mary. These beautiful scenes are truly brought to life by our main characters Ryland Grace (portrayed by Ryan gosling) and Rocky the space alien (not portrayed by an actor).

The main characters are wonderfully written as is the rest of the cast, managing to switch between life threatening stakes and cruising disappointment to intense relief, with laughs from the audience, the movie walks the line of maintaining stakes while remaining painfully funny. The jokes always land with them at the least getting chuckles and on occasion full uncontrollable laughter, in stark contrast to the incredibly serious stakes which are built up realistically over the runtime of the movie, that manage to be intensely personal and existentially horrifying simultaneously is a feat in its own right. These writing choices manage to keep you enthralled for the full 2 hour and 36 minute runtime although you will feel it.

The main downside of Project Hail Mary is that its long, you don't want it to end but you feel it, especially if you had a soda or a drink, for me by the most tense moments of the movie I was distracted by the fact that I had just run out of popcorn, and really wanted more water (which had long ran out). These details distract from the viewing experience albeit mildly as the pacing is exquisite. While the pacing is at times a little slow it is quickly remedied either by a witty joke or change of scene, and occasionally by dragging things out makes them even more tense. As there are several scenes which evoke powerful emotions especially during the climax which almost had me in tears. The major story beat uses several elements established early on to make a wonderfully shot sequence feel even more heart wrenching than it would already appear to be while simultaneously giving you a plausible reason for hope in the void of despair. The event has massive effects on the tone of the movie from that point on.

My final appraisal of Project Hail Mary is that of a wonderfully crafted movie that is most definitely worth watching. The cinematic experience is first rate, while the humor is endlessly entertaining, and the emotion is baked deep within the style of storytelling. I would recommend it.

Work Cited

IMBD. “Project Hail Mary (2026).” IMDb, 2026, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12042730/. Accessed 10 April 2026.

This article was written by F.B. Brookings