“Project Hail Mary” is bringing audiences to movie theaters in numbers the industry hasn’t seen for a non-franchise film since “Oppenheimer.” The science fiction epic starring Ryan Gosling earned around $80.5 million in ticket sales in its first weekend playing in North America, according to studio estimates Sunday. Box office tracker EntTelligence estimates that translates into about 5 million ticket buyers.
It really sucks though. 2.5 hours of unbearably cringe “humor.”
I think you wandered into the wrong theatre, buddy.
What do you mean? Goofy slapsticks back to back for several hours. I didn’t expect a silly comedy.
I’m not even confident that we’re speaking the same language.
What was in that popcorn?
I’m not sure about unbearably cringe…
There was so much humor in the book, I found myself laughing constantly. But I do have to agree that for some reason, the humor of the film hardly ever landed for me. Some of the jokes that carried over from the novel worked fine for me still.
My theater was roughly half full and they were surprisingly quiet too, so I don’t think it was just me. It was the first showtime on my large format screen - maybe they were all enthusiasts who were just as angry as I was that the highly competent Grace of the book was turned into a bumbling, constantly terrified idiot in the film.
Those of us who aren’t bumbling, constantly terrified idiots are just liars.
My theatre was packed to the brim with people who were very vocal at appropriate moments. Where were you, Arkansas? For example, I remember seeing The Second City do an eerily quiet tour stop there, which I can only assume is because of the obvious reasons.
It’s the Marvel syndrome: making fun of your characters to bond with the audience. The result is that said audience is less engaged when the pace accelerates into dramatic moments. You end up mildly interested without any emotional bond with the characters. Hail Mary failed exactly where The Martian succeeded
Interesting comment. The Martian is often the film I think of when I see these big budget attempts at action comedy that fall flat. That film was funny without ever feeling tryhard, which seems to be quite a hard formula to get right.
What movie did you watch?
Agree. Super dark and serious situation, but Ryan Gosling is just goofing around.
Yes, please ignore all the boring science that his character explicitly did throughout the film, and just concentrate on the humorous presentation instead.
I have read the book, it was much more focused on the science.
Yes, that’s kind of the point of an adaptation