movie: Project Hail Mary

[mellowtigger]

I said last year that I wouldn't go see Project Hail Mary in the theater, even with a mask.

Unfortunately, I lied.

I did go see it with a mask today. It took much of the day. I walked out the front door about 1:35pm and walked back in at 6:45pm. It's a long bus ride to that Roseville theater, but at least there's a single route that goes directly there from near my house. Life without a car just doesn't have the convenience of life with a car, but that's perfectly fine. Maybe the world would be better off if humans couldn't indulge their whims so easily, requiring actual effort to do things, making choices about how to spend precious hours of their lives.

I was very right, at least, about this movie being a great influence for encouraging humans to being open to new experiences. I've been following the subreddit for the story, and it was people waxing poetic about the impact of the movie that made me decide to splurge and go see it on the big Imax screen while it's still here, after most of the crowds had already attended. It is indeed a powerful film for that effect.

Having read the story, however, I was still disappointed about so very much storytelling left out of the film. I've heard that there is footage for more than 4 hours of film, and like others I hope that we'll someday soon get the director's cut that includes everything. Some people are asking for that extended version to be released in theaters too. I'd be happy to watch this movie with an intermission. It was several decades ago that I saw "Gone With The Wind" at a theater in west Texas, with my mother and another relative. I don't even know if another movie has been released since then that included a break to allow people to move around and visit the restroom. I would gladly, though, watch a 4-hour version of Project Hail Mary.

For people who are interested in it beyond the movie, more than a few people have said that the audio book is an excellent experience, something in between the movie and the text book.

Comments

[armiphlage]

This could be released as a multi-season TV series, going into all the book details!

[mellowtigger]

Absolutely! Oh, it lends itself to so many different creative ideas!

As a tv series, I can see it playing out in linear time too. Follow Grace's life from the revelation of the Petrova line onward, no skipping for plot's sake. After the launch, then split between what's happening on the Hail Mary and all of the stuff that's happening on Earth at the same. It would help emphasize the time dilation too. There could be "new" stuff not in the book for that as well. Plus glimpses of the ship in flight, showing us the fate of other crew members as Grace remains blissfully unaware. When Grace wakes, the audience already knows the revelation in store for the main character. They could spend more time showing the complexity of building a shared vocabulary, more time explaining Rocky's role on his own ship, maybe even show us glimpses of Rocky's prior life on Erid. There's just sooooo much stuff they could put into a tv series.

Maybe even open the series on Erid? Let us hear and sonic-see their discovery of Petrova line and their decision to explore it, long before Earth is even aware. Then cut to Earth as we finally discover it too, then stay exclusively to the Earth story until Tau Ceti.