Liz’s Reviews > Project Hail Mary > Status Update

okay, i think rocky telling grace about the earth's sun returning back to normal is the only scene from the book i'm kind of missing in the movie

the movie had been more or less faithful to the plot progression of the book. up until now: not only do the taumeoba manage to empty the hail mary's entire fuel tanks before grace notices, it also happens after rocky wakes up and is still on board. which means grace doesn't sacrifice his life on earth to save rocky. they never parted ways in the first place! every single change in the movie is just so much better!!

andy weir is not a good fiction writer. it's very obvious that he is more interested in the science of it all than the interpersonal aspect. his writing is simply too matter-of-fact. i can't believe he couldn't even make me feel anything during what is supposed to be one of the most emotional moments of the story.

this book has the emotional depth of a small puddle. wdym grace immediately tells rocky that he's not gonna return home? it doesn't even feel like they've developed a proper friendship yet. that's one of the most emotional scenes in the movie because you can tell how much the thought of grace dying hurts rocky, he sacrifices years of his time for him, the book makes it sound like he'd have some leftover fuel anyway.

also, in the book rocky asks for permission to enter grace's ship and grace even has time to clean up. whoever decided to let rocky show up unannounced, invite himself in and then proceed to complain about the mess in the movie deserves all the awards!

the book has gotten a lot better since rocky appeared! their dynamic is a little different to the movie though. in the movie grace is more apprehensive and careful. he tries to flee from rocky's ship, he is hesitant about taking his helmet off and they bicker about letting rocky watch him sleep. book grace doesn't gaf, he's just happy he gets to do science with an alien.

literally none of the funny scenes from the movie are in the book. he immediately realizes that rocky is pointing, no ridiculous back-and-forth. the writers should be given an oscar for best original screenplay with the way they added on to and improved the source material.

"he waves to me with a free arm. he knows one human greeting and by golly he plans to use it. i wave back. he waves again. i shake my head. no more waving." oh rocky, cute as ever!

okay, at this point i'm convinced people who say the book is better than the movie are just biased because they read the book first. literally none of the charm and humour of the movie is actually in the book. i keep waiting for all of my favourite scenes and they're just... not there. even grace is not nearly as likeable and dorky as he is in the movie.

wow, the burial scene is SO much more emotional in the movie. so far, book grace has been crying at least thrice as much as movie grace had at this point in the story and yet it just kind of fails to build any sort of emotional tension.