Project Hail Mary (2026)

The storytelling structure is brilliant: the lone survivor of a deep space mission awakes without memories, so we're learning along with him what needs to be done and how he got there. The earth scenes are full of information and tension, but also a lot of collaborative fun. Seeing all of these people from different nations working on a common goal while understanding the gravity and urgency of their task -- that's the stuff.

Less successful, for me, were the actual space scenes. Everything up there felt borderline cartoony and dumbed-down. Sure, I laughed at "fist my bump" and I understand that a cute animated sidekick opens it up to family viewing, but we spent too much time in silly-mode.

C+