PHM and why I give it a nine, a seven, or a five...

Project: Hail Mary (PHM) released last night with a Rotten Tomatoes critics’ score of 95% and a viewers’ score of 97%, which I agree with! I always score things on either a 0 to 5 scale or a 1 to 10 scale, with 5 and 10 being the best possible scores. Anything over 95% is awesome!

Let me explain my subject line thoughts.

If you have read the book, which I have now read five times, you will love this movie. Period. I enjoyed it, even though I really do not like going to movie theaters and being forced to be distracted by other moviegoers. I admit it, it annoys me. Talking, eating, moving stuff around, getting up, distracting everyone. This moron next to me was an idiot. I just said to myself, “I will ignore this ass-clown the entire time.” And I did. Go me!

I know the story very well now and was hooked on it from the very first read. It is just as good as The Martian.

The reason I give it a 9 is that the audio was just so-so. It could have been the theater’s speakers or the movie’s audio, but I am not sure. I knew what to expect the actors were going to say, but I still had trouble understanding most of the dialogue. The voices were not clear at all. Maybe my hearing is shot, but I do not think so. I had no trouble understanding the movie previews beforehand, so I think it is the soundtrack of PHM.

Now for the 7 above: If you have not read the book, you will be scratching your head, and it will not make sense. This is a very technical movie by most standards. I think the average person will not have a clue what is going on. The movie did a good job of explaining everything, but in order to really explain all that is happening, it would have had to be at least a three-hour movie. This is where books shine and movies just cannot compete. Using the movie "Apollo 13" as an example, remember how several times during that movie they had a broadcaster explaining what was going on in the mission? PHM lacked that kind of dialogue, and unless something like that was added, the average moviegoer would have no idea what just happened. This is a movie for geeks who like to read science fiction and enjoy science and space.

So if you are thinking of going to see the movie cold, think again. You will not enjoy it as much unless you read the book first.

The book is a 10. The movie is a 9. And movie theaters are a 5. On a positive note, my movie theater just installed new seating, and it was comfy. Plus, there was a food tray that swung around in front of you. I gotta get me one of those!

Rocky, from Planet Erid (40 Eridani star system).