[Emergency Review] Project Hail Mary + Top 100 Lists

I went to see the movie yesterday. I HAD to, having read (and enjoyed) Andy Weir's book five years ago. The movie was quite faithful to the book, it didn't dumb down the science, and as a crowd-pleasing sci-fi blockbuster, it certainly checked all the boxes. Great special effects? CHECK. Cute aliens? CHECK. White knuckle escapes from peril? CHECK. Goofy humor? CHECK. And yet .... occasionally things got a bit TOO cute. There were a couple times I ended up rolling my eyes a bit. Critics and audiences have this movie in the mid-90s-percentile at Rotten Tomatoes. As for me, 7 out of 10 stars. Sorry.

A great movie, but I did like the book more. The hard science explained in the book gave the reader a better idea of the scientific rationale for some of the decisions that were made. It is very hard to explain science properly in a 2+ hours movie.

I did not really found the link in one of the latest YouTube episodes where you mentioned this list... but it was not hard to find it here after all using search. thanks!

I thought that the "glove" facet of the "hamster ball" was added after Rocky's heroic sacrifice, specifically because that was the feature he needed at the time but didn't have. I was a bit disappointed with how brief they kept most of the science in this film, compared to the way Mark Watney explained what he was doing and why direct to camera. Still a good movie, but not on the level of the Martian.

1. Do not include Anime in a film list. 1. It is a different medium 2. Personally, I dislike it and will remove it without further consideration. 2. If you list alphabetically, it makes ranking meaningless beyond “favorites“ classification. 3. If ranking, then a category would help (a place to put anime). 1. Great opportunity for feedback, discussion, and reranking. 2. Allows opportunity for zero sum game… add one drop one: stable total.

The books its better.... The mocks science with store bought aluminon foil paper to solve light escaping or entering ?

I really struggled with this book because it was sold has hard sci fi. It is not. You have Xmen level science. Astrophage isn't like antimatter, its about 5x times better than antimatter. Apparently DNA can change fundamental subatomic physics and the standard model. And why does AW always get radio wrong. Sci fi spaceship tropes like you always have suit up and go outside, calculate orbits manually etc. Looking forward to the movie. But hard Sci fi it's not. Can't be as bad interstellar at least. Which is nothing more than a collection of all the bad Sci fi tropes all in the same movie.

Aw man I can't listen to this, I haven't read or seen it yet

(posting before hearing this podcast) I've seen it this week. Close to the book, some science has been washed away / kept real short to make the movie accessible for a larger audience / avoid a 4-5 hours movie 😅 Highly entertaining, I loved it and think it's super accessible for non sci-fi fans imho

I really enjoyed the book. Glad to hear that the movie was enjoyable. Looking forward to it. I need to listen to these more. Good to hear Anton! Bangkok theaters are amazing.

Three Body Problem starts with a T, though… Is Fraser inputting his bias through the selective spelling? 🤔😁

Project Hail Mary is a "buddy" movie more than anything else. I think that is what made it more endearing and humorous than The Martian.

Fraser, as someone who just wants to know whether to go see the film but wants to avoid the spoilers, what's your verdict? Is it worth seeing?