If you’re into watching trailers, you know that the good ones — especially the good ones — can lie. This is the case in Project Hail Mary, a film whose promotional campaign is all over the internet, and whose trailer didn’t really work for me.

Having recently sat through Spaceman — a film about a man and a spider-like alien — one could be forgiven for assuming that Project Hail Mary would tread familiar ground. Watching the film one realises, almost immediately, how wrong that assumption is.

Phil Lord and Christopher Miller — writers-producers of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and directors of The Lego Movie and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs — working from Drew Goddard’s tight adaptation of Andy Weir’s novel of the same name, deliver a far richer experience than one might have anticipated. A film with a brain and a heart, both beating in tandem.

In the Ryan Gosling-starrer Project Hail Mary’s best moments, one can see the texture of an old Steven Spielberg adventure underneath

Ryan Gosling — radiating old-school magnetism befitting a leading man — plays Dr Ryland Grace, a science teacher and former biologist who wakes up, disoriented, aboard a spacecraft a light-year from home. As the only surviving astronaut of his craft, his mission — one he did not choose to accept — has sent him on a one-way journey to Tau Ceti, a star system 12 light-years away. The sun, we find out, is slowly being consumed by a microorganism known as Astrophage and, in 30 years, the Earth will be no more.

The narrative shifts between the past, set on Earth, where Grace’s reluctant journey begins, and the present, at Tau Ceti. It is here, in the far reaches of space, that he encounters Rocky — a faceless, multi-limbed, spider-like alien realised through practical effects rather than AI or pixels. The visual effects (VFX) are, overall, as pristine as they come.

Like Grace, Rocky is a traveller on a desperate mission. At first, the two cannot understand one another but, when they do, Rocky reveals himself to be a mechanic and the sole survivor of his own failed attempt to stop the Astrophage. Together, they discover an organism that could be their salvation — though not without complications, the details of which I won’t spoil here.

Suffice it to say, the emotions crafted by Goddard, Lord and Miller feel genuine, and they help the viewer in looking past the film’s predictable trajectory.

Goddard, of course, has experience understanding and adapting Andy Weir’s works; he last adapted The Martian for Ridley Scott. As directors, Lord and Miller are no less assured or commercial. In the film’s best moments, one can see the texture of an old Steven Spielberg adventure underneath — and, if anything, that’s a major win.

However, at two hours and 36 minutes, the runtime may test some viewers’ patience. One need not fret, because the film moves with such nimble-footedness that one can look past the fatigue of sitting in a cinema chair for 156 minutes, and just enjoy the show.

Released by Amazon-MGM and HKC, Project Hail Mary is rated U and is suitable for everyone

The writer is Icon’s primary film reviewer

Published in Dawn, ICON, March 29th, 2026