This movie accomplishes an impressive balancing act between many things.
First off, comedy with drama. It made me afraid at the beginning because it's very comedic and I know I can find it hard to take seriously dramatic aspects of movies that looses themselves in humor. But this ended up not being the case at all for Hail Mary. It somehow all works!
Second is montage. The movie starts off fast, with a fast-paced montage-like exposition of the characters and the stakes. Again, a small moment of fear. Am I being catapulted in a TikTok-like movie? And again, not at all. The movie knows where to land to let the scenes live, and when to lift off for fast-paced editing. In the end I found it to be perfectly paced overall.
Third is science. The screenplay doesn't dig super deep into the gory science details and goes relatively fast to introduce them, but it's just sufficient to be able to understand the stakes and to sense that this is a smart story.
The result of this delicate balancing act is no less than wonderful movie. It is funny, smart, exciting and heart-warming (heart-wrenching at times).
On the visuals and sounds, all top notch. Space sequences are fantastic and stunning (I should have watched it in IMAX), and I loved the music from Daniel Pemberton, which mirrors the balancing act of the movie by mixing some original sounds with a nice hopeful melody.
After all those soooo serious pieces of space science-fiction like Interstellar, Ad Astra, Passengers, etc, I found it incredibly refreshing to have a take on the genre that doesn't take itself seriously while still retaining full intelligence and cinematic raw power.
This movie accomplishes an impressive balancing act between many things.
First off, comedy with drama. It made me afraid at the beginning because it's very comedic and I know I can find it hard to take seriously dramatic aspects of movies that looses themselves in humor. But this ended up not being the case at all for Hail Mary. It somehow all works!
Second is montage. The movie starts off fast, with a fast-paced montage-like exposition of the characters and the stakes. Again, a small moment of fear. Am I being catapulted in a TikTok-like movie? And again, not at all. The movie knows where to land to let the scenes live, and when to lift off for fast-paced editing. In the end I found it to be perfectly paced overall.
Third is science. The screenplay doesn't dig super deep into the gory science details and goes relatively fast to introduce them, but it's just sufficient to be able to understand the stakes and to sense that this is a smart story.
The result of this delicate balancing act is no less than wonderful movie. It is funny, smart, exciting and heart-warming (heart-wrenching at times).
On the visuals and sounds, all top notch. Space sequences are fantastic and stunning (I should have watched it in IMAX), and I loved the music from Daniel Pemberton, which mirrors the balancing act of the movie by mixing some original sounds with a nice hopeful melody.
After all those soooo serious pieces of space science-fiction like Interstellar, Ad Astra, Passengers, etc, I found it incredibly refreshing to have a take on the genre that doesn't take itself seriously while still retaining full intelligence and cinematic raw power.
Amazing, amazing, amazing!