Project Hail Mary (2026)

It's been already slightly more than a week since I've watched "Project Hail Mary", and my memory is not that helpful lately, so I said it might worth an entry while I still can write something. After all, finding something that's good in the SciFi classic niche is less likely these days than a"close encounter of the -bear- kind".

The movie is an adaptation of a novel by Andy Weir, which got on the list of Hugo awards nominations several years ago. The story is centered around a molecular biology professor, who wakes up somewhere in the deep dark space with a retrograde amnesia, as the sole survivor of a starship's crew. In brief, after some flashbacks, we find out that we're on a mission to save the Sun, which is in danger of being.. consumed, or more accurately said, our teacher should find out how can some culprit microorganism be stopped on doing that. Also in brief, the Earth is not the only planet with such issue, and our solitary astronaut makes first contact with some other solitary astronaut, from some other species, brought by the same reason in the deep dark space . Further than this, we're reaching spoilers ground, so let's leave the story for the movie teathre.

Visually the movie looks really good, but I can't say it's a masterpiece. The audio is ok. Ryan Gosling plays a part that seemed much more fitting than the one in "Blade Runner". But, by far, what keeps the bar high in the movie from beginning 'til the end is the script, with a solid support from the editing. I didn't read the book, but Drew Goddard ("The Cabin in the Woods", "World War Z", "Bad Times at the El Royale") managed to pull out a narrative that takes you smoothly from fun to action surrounded by a bit of drama. Taken separately, probably these would still be at an ok level, but the mixture resulted from the way these are put together, and especially the interleaving of the flashbacks with the current timeline, is the part that probably backs up most of the emotional build-up, and some particular resulting impact. That + the chemistry between the tow main characters, which is also an output of the script.

I must admit that I had limited expectations from this, the trailers pointing more towards a classic linear development and several scenes featuring the alien also add a slightly childish tone. Add to that the fact that "The Martian" (same author and same screenwriter) didn't leave me with the best opinion about it, considering that was directed by Ridley Scott. I still remember that the proportion of eye-rolling there was on par with the praise of being a very credible SciFi (on this my opinion is that "The Expanse" keeps the top position). However, here, this part, however it might be, doesn't feel the need to be analysed. Once more, it's the proof that a carefully executed script, with plenty of witty insertions to balance a subject that's dramatic after all, result in some effect for which I can't find the proper words right now. It was fresh :)

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

First Man (2018)

I never believed the conspiracy theories on fake Moon landing, but after "First Man" I'm almost starting to have doubts on that :) I'm mean, I know...

I'm not really into biopics, the one here being dedicated to Neil Armstrong, but I have to admit it's interesting as a documentary. Although it puts a bit too much weight on problems, and too less on solutions. That's the reason for what I was saying above. Considering the density of mishaps, with or without lucky ending, starting with the first scene, you might almost believe that what you've seen in "The Martian" might have more chances to succeed than the first Moon landing. If we add to that a consistent part of the movie that's centered on the dramas in Armstrong's private life, a lost child, colleagues frequently dying in accidents... Although, somehow, strangely enough this might explain the successful career at NASA = 1) you escape in your work, 2) karma compensates there.

I don't know how was Armstrong as a person, but Ryan Gosling offers a sort of "driver" in space here = maybe a bit too dry/bland. If I should pick somebody for the acting here, it would probably be Claire Foy as the wife. Moving to the technicalities, the camera work varies from excellent framing (pretty much everything that's about flights in outer space) to poorly shot scenes. Maybe it's a matter of taste, but I'll never understand a mix of close-ups and kinetic camera which I think it's excessive in "First Man" (steadicam was invented for a reason... ironically not far from the timeline of the movie). Leaving all these aside, "First Man" is not as boring as some reviews say, but it's neither "A Beautiful Mind", meaning that you shouldn't expect something very engaging. It's ok, the message of make the impossible possible is there but it's quiet, so I'd say the movie has actually some calming potential if your days are too stressful...

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

7 .. Interstellar .. 2014

When I heard for the first time about Interstellar", and that a guy named Kip Thorne (just Google if doesn't ring a bell) is a consultant for the script, I said "that's it" - Nolan can reach a higher peak than what he got with "The Prestige" and "Inception". After seeing the trailers my enthusiasm dropped dramatically, reaching a bottom of "Armageddon meets Gravity" in terms of expectations. After watching the movie I have to admit how wrong I was, and to acknowledge that there still are trailers that don't tell everything :)

There are 7 years since I started this blog, originally only in Romanian, and with each anniversary I'm trying to find an entry that does worth every second spent watching. In the last couple of years I started having problems with this. Either I don't have time to search, or the movies quality is constantly dropping compared to the number of releases. "Interstellar" is neither "Armageddon", nor "Gravity". It's simply in a different league compared to the 1st, and it's many levels above the 2nd. So you could say that I got a subject for this year. And still, I don't see it on top of "The Prestige" or "Inception". But neither much lower :)

I'll respect the amount of info given by the trailers, and I won't tell much besides what you get in these. After the terrestrial ecosystem starts collapsing, NASA, semi-anonymous organization in an of-the-future budget restricted US, sends a mission with the task to find another life supporting planet. And since we don't have anything like this in the galaxy, the trip is interstellar. The crew sent to find green grass and sparkling water is not coming back, and NASA has to send somebody else to check out if first team's sent signals are a real hope for the salvation of the human race. Karma ( and we could start here a philosophical debate about what karma means ;) or to be closer to the definition I prefer: "the kismet" ) is choosing as the "unlucky" pilot for the "recovery" mission a former engineer. The guy has two kids, lost his wife, and in the context of the global famine was forced to give up his "space, the final frontier" dream for farming corn. What's next .. would be simple to describe, but hard to explain :) so maybe it's best to get a personal view over the movie by watching it. What can I say it's that either you can consider what you see on screen as a disaster movie a la "Gravity"/"Armageddon" in which you can start searching for plot holes, or to view it as an imagination exercise for still unexplained theories with plenty of consequent "what if ?"s, to which you can hope there exists somewhere a response path ending optimistically. And if this is something you can hope for, to find that path (if it is there) should be something certain. The kismet is after all just your choice ;)

Production related, I guess that "Interstellar" is the most Spielbergish film that Nolan made. I don't think I have to say more. Oh .. yes. Once again, we have the proof that it's possible to have superb cinematography without 3D ;) I'm waiting a nomination for that. If it's not coming I think I'll boycott that section in next year's Oscars.

I wrote about "Interstellar", but not much about 7 - the full age of this blog .. or 2014. Well, it's already a good thing, considering that in 2014 there were many weeks when I didn't write about anything. I've honestly considered a final blog shutdown for today, meaning yesterday, because as it can be seen I wasn't able to finish the entry the day I wanted ( I have my cheap Blogspot trick to make it look like that for the Romanian version, but that's still a cheap trick :) ). I was thinking that 7 years were enough. Enough to not have the effect it did by motivating me to see at least one movie per week, enough to get to a phase where I tend to repeat myself quite often in what I write, enough to realize that I'm fooling myself with the perspective of someday finding time to "jump to the next level" = making this blog financially productive. Besides that, 2014 was a pretty tough year for reasons I don't want to discuss here ( and 2014 is not over yet ... ). Sufficiently tough to cut even my mood for watching a movie to allow my mind to run free for two hours. I've been trying to recover a bit the missing entries in the last couple months, but it's a forced recovery, and again in the end is just a number to fool myself that I'm back to the usual frequency. So, should I say stop then ? ...

Building suspense :) ... Well, I don't like giving up. I'm tired enough to accept a compromise, but I hope I won't be ever tired enough to give up completely. I just didn't think yet on what kind of compromise to do. No time. Maybe I'll start again taking periodical "vacations" (hopefully not a permanent one), maybe something else. Anyway, I would like that the final entry on this blog to be a 5 rated one :P. And in case of "Interstellar" ...

Rating: 4 out of 5 ;)

Gravity (2013)

I had high expectations for "Gravity". Probably too high, and probably that's what generated the final verdict. To which I want to get as fast as possible, so ...

What you see in the trailer is already something like a third of the movie. I'll try to refrain from telling the ending, but I cannot keep out the fact that the movie is not a SciFi. Or at least the Fi in SciFi is missing. It's a "disaster-movie", as "Volcano", "Daylight", "The Day After Tomorrow", etc, .. although I guess some of these are actually "SciFi" compared to "Gravity" (not in the good sense if the quotes aren't clear enough). What's ok in "Gravity" is that it has a very original idea for a disaster movie. What's not ok is that's not clear at all about what it is and that it wants to be more. Let's start with the not clear part. To be fair, the trailer doesn't promise anything extra besides an accident is space, with two surviving astronauts who (probably) will try to find a way back to Earth. But it definitely leaves you hope for more than that. If you also do a quick check-up on IMDb, you avoid to read the full plot when you notice the gigantic rating (because well .. you don't want a spoiler for the "best movie of the year") but you see by chance a character named Aningaaq, and obviously the genre listed as SciFi, you really get to expect something more than just "survive in space". Well, let's say that I'm just subjective and I shouldn't judge the movie based on getting frustrated for not receiving what I hoped for. Fair enough. But it was something more - the movie wants to be more than it is ...

Let's say that if it would have been somewhere close to the level it attempts, I could look at it as to "Life of Pi" in space. After all, "Life of Pi" is still sort of a disaster-movie if we strictly consider the topic. But it's impossible to look at it like this considering the depth and complexity of the story. Another "spoiler" - in "Gravity" we don't have a "tiger". I'll let this to be read between the lines, who's not able to get it probably was profoundly impressed by the depth of space thinking that's it's something else than just the depth of space. Because it's not, not in this movie. Everything's at the surface. I'm fine with a dumb action movie which doesn't try to seem intelligent and is just meant to relax your brain, I'm fine with a thriller or a well built drama which doesn't want to give birth to some existential questions but it's still clever enough to appreciate it, I'm fine with a SciFi that wants to be deep and manages to get there leaving you to find something in it that's outside the written script. I can appreciate a movie that fits anywhere in these areas and even more. What's annoying is a production that throws frequently in my face a message of "look what (else) I want to tell you; it's right here between these two lines; let me draw another line for you just to be sure you see it; the same color as the other two ? sorry I don't have another pen" - you get sacrifice, you get the desperation of solitude, the will to move forward, you get many others .. So what ? It has the same effect as the line that I've just written. Zero = a simple enumeration that I have in front of me, from which I can't choose something specifically because everything is on par with everything. You want to impress, let me discover something on my own, and not too many at once, otherwise it transforms into a soap bubble meant to generate a storm of feelings for somebody easily impressed. But who, after probably no more than a day, won't remember exactly what was so impressive.

Maybe I'm too harsh, but I'm really in the "right mood" for it. Let me try ending though in a positive note. The effects and the cinematography are gorgeous. It confirms me again, after "Tree of Life", that Emmanuel Lubezki is probably too under appreciated, being clearly in the range of the top cinematographers in Hollywood, with a pretty well defined style, after Richardson, Deakins, Kaminski and others. Again, the subject is an original one for this genre (where genre, again = "disaster-movie" and not SciFi), and for this genre it also has a proper length. It's short enough to avoid getting you bored, although it's a movie without much content (I'm afraid though that keeping you connected is also due to the wait to get something that doesn't come). The soundtrack is nice, though not very impressive. Something else .. I don't know. For a SciFi in the "lost in space" range, which is actually a SciFi, and also carries a more .. decided message, covered by a thriller nuance, to get your neurons working a bit to find it, I'll stick to "Sunshine" by Danny Boyle. Which I, warmly, recommend ;)

Rating: 3 out of 5