Project Hail Mary
It's rare that the hype for a movie matches the enjoyability and this is one of those instances.
On a scale of 1-10, 1 being Starfleet Academy and 10 being Interstellar, I give this an 8. Interstellar is one of the greatest movies that will ever be so 8 is damn good in my book.
It's from a book by Andy Weir who wrote The Martian. Having read that book he only writes books to make them into movies. But it's still a good one.
The story is a blend of your favorite buddy movie with a bit of Interstellar, Contact, 2001, The Martian and some other movies yet it somehow feels really original. Ryan Gosling plays a chatty Scientist named Grace, who suddenly becomes mission essential on a project to save the sun which is infected with something which will result in extinction of life on earth.
The movie starts in media res with Grace waking up and the rest of the crew is dead. He has amnesia and has no idea where he is or why he is there. This is one of those dual narrative movies where you see the present and there are flashbacks to before the trip on earth.
When he gets to where he is going light years away, he meets an alien buddy who just so happens to be there for the same exact reason. And this is the best part, because instead of acting on a green screen, they use a real puppet to be the alien instead of awful Marvelesque CGI. The alien occupies a physical space and it makes a huge difference.
Gosling and the puppet have to carry the whole movie and it works perfectly. My only issue is that the most unbelievable storyline is that the Grace and Rocky end up in the same system at the same time. Also the movie is a bit long and not in the good Christopher Nolan long movie way.
