If I could give three words to describe how I felt about the new Project Hail Mary movie: amaze, amaze, amaze.

Project Hail Mary was released on March 20, based on the book of the same title by Andy Weir, the creator of The Martian.

The plot follows a middle-school teacher, Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling), as he is sent into space to investigate a star unaffected by a mysterious alien substance that’s eating the sun and slowly killing the Earth. He partners up with an alien, Rocky, who is looking for the same answers.

The movie was directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller, who previously directed well-received feature films such as The LEGO Movie and all 3 Spider-Verse films. Project Hail Mary has been well-received since its release in theaters. IMDB gave the film an 8.4 out of 10, while Letterboxd users gave it a 4.3 out of 5.

The movie, without knowing the book, is an interesting and fun sci-fi experience. The humor is funny and on time. Visuals are stunning, recorded for IMAX, and during editing, the movie’s team converted the digital footage to a tape reel, then re-digitized it, creating a softer, analog feel.

Grace and Rocky are great main characters, with great chemistry, and the later addition of Rocky’s voice feels realistic to how I imagined he would sound. Throughout the movie, Grace remains a strong, likable character, despite his flaws; he feels realistic, even though he’s in the middle of another galaxy with a rock spider.

Some flaws I found in the movie were its lack of connection to the book, which wouldn’t be an issue for viewers who hadn’t read it beforehand. The movie barely develops certain characters, primarily in flashbacks. Also, there were some important notes in the book that they left out, which would have made the story more entertaining.

I feel the movie is a great adaptation of the original book, and so I give it a 9/10. I would recommend watching it in IMAX, as it was designed to be seen in IMAX.