Read the book but have been out of the country and finally saw it today. They did a fantastic job of what to cut, what to speed up, etc. And Gosling was amazing. This one hit the feels a number of times, as early as his speech when he jettisoned the two astronauts. Also loved how they handled "he left one last message…" That timing and message got a little gasp.

If Interstellar, Arrival and Galaxy Quest got together and had a baby it would be Project Hail Mary.

Movie was good, not great. Too much cutesy humor injected everywhere, causing the big risk moments from the book to miss the emotional impact.

Not even close to interstellar's quality. Nor arrival

Mr.Milkshake said:

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Movie was good, not great. Too much cutesy humor injected everywhere, causing the big risk moments from the book to miss the emotional impact.

Not even close to interstellar's quality. Nor arrival

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Username checks out as he brings his opinions to the yard . . .

Took the kids to the IMAX showing last night, the second trip for all of us because I wanted to see the IMAX version. I think I enjoyed it more the second time. The last movie I saw twice in the theater was Star Wars in 1977.

Mr.Milkshake said:

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Movie was good, not great. Too much cutesy humor injected everywhere, causing the big risk moments from the book to miss the emotional impact.

Not even close to interstellar's quality. Nor arrival

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Thats all in the book

The book does a better job with the science,the stakes, and the decisions that need to be made.

The movie does a better job telling an emotional story and giving the viewer an experience.

boogieman said:

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The book does a better job with the science,the stakes, and the decisions that need to be made.

The movie does a better job telling an emotional story and giving the viewer an experience.

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Which at 2.5 hours, a choice had to be made. My wife was only thru the first portion of the book when we saw it, and she is still excited to read the rest when I described how the book does a ton to explain the science behind almost everything that was in the movie. I thought they chose wisely

BOX OFFICE: #ProjectHailMary grabs $54M in its second weekend. That is..
- Bigger than the 2nd weekends for SINNERS, OPPENHEIMER and DUNE 2.
- Only a 32% drop from last weekend.
- Highest grossing ever for Amazon/MGM since the merger.
- Its 2nd weekend is the 3rd highest grossing… pic.twitter.com/JVWiA7V1kd

— Erik Davis (@ErikDavis) March 29, 2026

boogieman said:

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The book does a better job with the science,the stakes, and the decisions that need to be made.

The movie does a better job telling an emotional story and giving the viewer an experience.

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That is exactly why I am so impressed by The Martian. To me, it really captured all those aspects that were in the book in a way we almost never see in movie adaptations.

I'd put The Martian in my top ten movies this century.

The Martian is awesome. One of my favorites.

Andy Weir is a considerably better author today than he was when he wrote The Martian but it's still great.

Much more a series of engineering problems than PHM. If you enjoy the nerd stuff in PHM then you'll like The Martian.

I read both books (The Martian and Project Hail Mary).

I've seen both movies.

Without overthinking it…

They are the same: science-heavy.

…and they are different:

- solo, unfortunate, accidental hero, with a few buddy hero(es) showing up late to help save the day = LESS buddy stuff

- lower stakes: save one guy while incurring high incremental risk for a few friends

- no flashbacks needed to explain what's happening

VS

- solo non-hero-turned-hero with a second a hero showing up earlier to help save the day = MORE buddy stuff.

- higher stakes: save billions of guys and gals without exposing any friends to incremental risk

- flashbacks needed to explain how this could possibly happen in the first place

I personally loved both books and both movies. I had already read / seen The Martian. I didn't need to see it again with the setting in a neighboring solar system. If you're a science nerd you'll probably prefer The Martian. If you're a buddy-movie nerd you'll probably prefer Project Hail Mary. If you just want to enjoy an afternoon or night out to enjoy a little escapism you'll probably find them equally interesting and entertaining.

There…

jokershady said:

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Decided to take the family to check this out. Going weekend after Easter.

Would be fine for an 8 year old? He's seen a good chunk of marvel and watched both seasons of Andor so I'm guessing it'd be alright.

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There isn't really any mature content that i can think of. It might be a little hard to follow the science behind the plot but there's enough "funny alien guy" to keep him entertained i think.

If he watched andor he can definitely watch this

Yea the book expounds on this in detail. It happens at much slower pace in the book from what I recall. Their communication starts off super brief and straightforward and builds from there.

The book also fills in a ton of the gaps on the science side.

Yep, the book covered the how. I thought the biggest shortcoming in the science they left out was explaining why and how they had to breed the taumoeba to be nitrogen resistant, then the unintended consequence of that process inadvertently breeding it to penetrate xenonite. I thought they handled it fine with time constraints, but I could see a non-reader getting a bit lost there. Another was how he found Rocky. My non-reader wife thought that was very convenient, but I was like "no, there was a whole process in how he did it".

For the most part, if there was a plot point where the movie seemed to quickly gloss over the science or it seemed extremely convenient, you can count on the book explaining it thoroughly. Again, the movie told the emotional story, the book is basically nerd porn

Wild that this was done practically

Lots of interest in the "astrophage shower" sequence:

Fraser shot on an altered Alexa LF with its infrared filter removed (a technique he used on Dune 2 and Zero Dark Thirty). Tiny LEDs were placed on chicken wire, while pouring water in front of the lens refracted the light. https://t.co/Mdt1J403dF pic.twitter.com/e9P7ina2uY

— animatedjen (@animated_jen) March 28, 2026

Here’s a video I took while we were shooting. You can see on the upper right Tomas pouring water into a tube that runs between 2 panes of glass in front of the handheld camera Greig operates, giving a smeary, drippy look. Ryan stands in a cage of blinking IR lights which are… https://t.co/9B1w540Zfa pic.twitter.com/hVfYEJzsMY

— Christopher Miller (@chrizmillr) March 30, 2026

That was one scene that made IMAX worth it

One Eyed Reveille said:

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I am also disappointed in myself for not realizing why he named the mate Adrian until I was driving home.

When I explained it my oldest goes " like Rocky XIII" which is a weird Al Song. Jeez we are nerds

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Really really enjoyed this movie.

I thought Gosling played the character well. He didn't come across as a stuffy astronaut, because he wasn't. He pulled off the humorous as well as the emotional seamlessly.

It leaves IMAX theaters tomorrow (for Mario) but will remain in regular theaters for at least another few weeks, and then will return to IMAX theaters after Mario's two-week exclusive IMAX run. So you should be good.

$8m-$8.25m today and given that @supermariomovie not nearly as big as the original and @michaelmovie not likely a phenomenon, @projecthailmary has a great shot at $350m domestic & $700m global. Performing well in places like India and likely will be a solid performer in China. https://t.co/T8HyiQ3y5F

— EmpireCity Box Office (@EmpireCityBO) April 1, 2026

HeardAboutPerio said:

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I haven't read the Martian but have read PHM and Artemis. Is the Martian worth reading in terms of limitations seen in PHM movie vs book? To me the Martian movie was hysterical and good science.

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Read The Martian…Absolutely worth it! The format is more of a diary / journal. They captured the spirit of this in the movie by his video entries - The book has much more. MW also faced more perilous challenges in the book.

I literally couldn't put the book down.

YESSS!!!!!! WE WILL BE SEATED!!!!!!! pic.twitter.com/2cHolCJvuj

— Gene (@SpaceBasedFox) April 1, 2026