Project Hail Mary: Worth Watching, but I Prefer the Novel
I read Project Hail Mary and then watched the film. The film is well worth watching, but I still prefer the novel, especially the scientific discoveries and reasoning.
Spoiler warning: this post discusses key events in the novel and film, including the search for Rocky late in the story.
The Scientific Reasoning Is Where the Novel Shines
Honestly, I found the film a little less impressive than the novel. Many of the details and best moments do not come through fully, especially the scientific discoveries and reasoning. Some get only a few brief shots; others are left out altogether.
Take the struggle when Grace first wakes up, the gradual return of his memories, and his attempts to work out his situation. He measures the gravitational acceleration inside the ship, then observes the movement of starspots to work out the star’s rotation. From that, he realizes the star in front of him is not the Sun, and that he is no longer in our solar system.
The novel gives these steps room to unfold. The film simplifies the process of figuring out his location to looking at a map. It gets the answer across, but loses quite a bit of the pleasure of the reasoning.
Still, I understand that film is a different medium. It relies more on images and music, and cannot reproduce every step of the novel’s reasoning.
Turning Back to Find Rocky
Another wonderful sequence comes when Grace realizes that Astrophage’s predator can pass through xenonite, and turns back to find Rocky.
He uses the infrared light produced by his engines to look for light reflected off Rocky’s ship. The search is incredibly tense. He comes very close to not finding it.
The film does show the infrared part, but does not explain it in much detail. I think someone who has not read the novel might miss just how clever this is.
That is why the novel moved me much more deeply.
The Spectacle Did Not Quite Meet My Expectations
I had also hoped for large-scale visual effects along the lines of Interstellar, but the film did not entirely meet those expectations.
First, Rocky and his ship looked very different from what I had imagined. They did not have the alien, high-tech feel I had expected. Instead, they had an old-fashioned, almost ancient, stone-like quality.
Second, there is the expedition to collect samples from the planet. For me, this is one of the most exciting and suspenseful parts of the novel. The film’s effects and staging are tense too, but they did not fully satisfy my curiosity.
Judged on its pacing and as a film in its own right, I still think it is well worth watching. But I would recommend reading the novel first: it gives the scientific deductions and hard science-fiction elements much more room.
Book information: Andy Weir, Project Hail Mary