Image (Credit): Ryan Gosling in Project Hail Mary. (Amazon MGM Studios)
“I think that’s what’s so special about this film, and why people are having such an emotional connection to it … it’s like we’ve been so saturated with dystopia in future narratives for the last decade to the point where it feels almost inevitable at this point. Then you have Andy sort of reminding us through his work that human beings are always making the impossible possible.”
-Statement by Ryan Gosling, star of the upcoming film Project Hail Mary, in an interview with Scary Mommy. He was interviewed along with author Andy Weir.
The long-awaited second feature film of a book by author Andy Weir is almost here. After enjoying both the book and later movie-version of The Martian back in 2015 (yes, more than a decade ago), we are ready for his next film based on his 2021 book ProjectHailMary. Now you only have to wait until March 20th
Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission—and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish.
Except that right now, he doesn’t know that. He can’t even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it.
All he knows is that he’s been asleep for a very, very long time. And he’s just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company.
His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, Ryland realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Hurtling through space on this tiny ship, it’s up to him to puzzle out an impossible scientific mystery—and conquer an extinction-level threat to our species.
And with the clock ticking down and the nearest human being light-years away, he’s got to do it all alone.
Or does he?
Basically, this story is about a lone astronaut that survives his peers on a long journey to save Earth only to encounter a sole-survivor, spider-like creature that can help him save Earth. This story might remind you of a 2024 film called Spaceman with Adam Sandler about a lone cosmonaut who travels far from Earth to meet with a spider-like creature. This creature is the sole survivor of a sickness but still able to find a way for Adam Sandler’s character to save Earth.
I’m not saying you have seen this movie before, but..
If you are interested in the story and science behind it, you might want to listen to an interview with the author on the Planetary Radio podcast.Andy Weir probably goes too far into the science, but it’s a good chance to dig a little deeper into the background of his book.
I am happy to say that the creators of Star Trek have done it again with the latest series Star Trek: StarfleetAcademy. It is a worthy addition to that ongoing saga.
The first six episodes of the first season form a good story arc that starts with Nahla Ake (Holly Hunter) and Nus Braka (Paul Giamatti) coming together in the initial episode, then leaves aside their drama for four episodes, and finally brings them back together for a memorable sixth episode. In the meantime, we watch the new cadets grow together at the academy under the tutelage of Nahla Ake, chancellor of Starfleet Academy.
In terms of what works versus what needs more work, let’s start with the positives:
Nahla Ake is a very likable and long-living character (half-Lanthanite) who becomes the mother-like figure overseeing cadet Caleb Mir. She has a cat-like way of sitting and a dog-like loyalty to the academy mission that make her the glue of the show.
The mix of instructors and cadets keep the show interesting, be it our well known Doctor from Star Trek: Voyager or the transformative Khionian cadet Darem Reymi. We have time to learn many of the character’s origin stories, including why a holographic doctor ages. This gives the show greater depth as we uncover the diversity of the academy.
The show has a light touch with plenty of humor. My favorite character is probably Lura Thok, who is a Klingon/Jem’Hadar serving as first officer of the starship Athena. She is married to Tig Notaro’s Jett Reno. Lura Thok is that ever-present drill sergeant who seems to terrorize the cadets while amusing the chancellor. She adds the perfect amount of levity to the show.
In terms of the negatives, there are quite a few, but none of them permanently hurt my overall impression of the show:
In the first episode, Paul Giamatti’s Nus Braka, part-Klingon and part-Tellarite, was a little over the top. I know the first episode has to capture the viewer’s attention, but Giamatti was chewing the scenery with his performance. He may have been having fun, but he was channeling Jack Nicholson from The Shining. It was good that he disappeared for a while to let the other characters shine.
Starfleet Academy looks more like a Miami mall than a Federation facility. And when you add in the annoying robots scurrying around the corridors as well as the floating traffic jams that reminded me of the Star Wars planet of Coruscant, it was all a little overwhelming as well as silly.
The fact that language has not changed in 1,000 years is odd. The cadets still say “bite me” while Nus Braka is stating “payback is a bitch.” Maybe this is how you attract new viewers, but does Star Trek really need to sound like every other teenage show?
Overall, it is a well done and expensive-appearing television series that breathes life back into Star Trek, thereby hopefully creating new Trekkies. This is something that the Star Wars franchise has tried as well, but almost all of the spin-offs leaned too heavily on key characters from the past or did a horrible job representing teens of the future (think of that Boba Fett series). That may be why Star Trek has two strong television series on the air this year and Star Wars apparently has only the second season of Ahsoka, which is a weak imitation of the original movies, and that’s saying a lot given that the last three Star Wars movies were a weak imitation of the first three movies.
I am glad we have at least one more season of Starfleet Academy ahead of us, and I expect many more it the creators can maintain the quality (and resolve some of the bumps) that we see in the first six episodes.
On February 27th, a new movie called In the Blink of an Eye premieres on Hulu. It sounds like an interesting story told in three parts over thousands of years from primitive human life all the way to travel to a new planet. You can see the outline for yourself in this trailer.
While I did not see many movies showing up for 2026 in this realm, they tend to pop up like mushrooms when they are ready. That is fine with me. It also has the same director as WALL-E, which gives me hope.
At just around 90 minutes, it often feels like the Cliffs Notes version of a 500-page novel.
And Rotten Tomatoeshas the TomatoReader at 16 percent based on 19 reviews. Richard Lawson with The Hollywood Reporter states:
There is so little texture to these character arcs that the actors are mostly just working in service of a blandly uplifting message. It’s as if they’ve all been commissioned by a well-funded science museum.
I still want to judge the film for myself. Plus, I like the cast that includes Kate McKinnon, Rashida Jones, and Daveed Diggs.
You can wait for the perfect film, or simply take what is offered at the moment.
Image (Credit): A scene from the film In the Blink of an Eye. (Hulu)
It seems two movies covering Philip K. Dick’s novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? was not enough, so an entire television series is being readied by Amazon Prime for release this year.
Of course, Amazon Prime has been talking about this series since at least 2022, with the Motion Picture Association stating back then:
Blade Runner 2099 will no doubt continue these storylines, but considering it’s set a full 50 years after Villeneuve’s film, you can expect entirely new characters, plot points, and environments. Amazon has now proven itself successful working on a massively scaled genre series with the current success of its most ambitious project to date, Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. Blade Runner 2099 will provide the streamer with another major opportunity to continue the story of an already hugely popular franchise, with a fan base no less fervent than those who love Lord of the Rings.
I am not so sure that Amazon Prime’s Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is a good comparison since it was not a great success. Forbes magazine called it a flop, noting that:
Just under two-thirds of all Rings Of Power viewers quit watching the show before the finale, missing out on some truly ghastly television in the process. The big question I have is: Out of all the viewers who did stick around for all eight episodes, how many were hate-watching?
It also doesn’t help that (1) Blade Runner 2049 was a flop at movie theaters and (1) the main star in this new television series, Michelle Yeoh, was part of an already discussed movie flop last year with Star Trek: Section 31. Given that Oscar-winner Michelle Yeoh did well in the series Star Trek: Discovery, I blame the film creators more than the actors.
The good news is that Ridley Scott will be back at the helm on this new series. Denis Villeneuve gave us the Blade Runner 2049 film. While he was brilliant with the two Dune movies he crafted from the books, for some reason he could not make it work when expanding on another director’s work.
I am not seeing any specific premiere date, but the industry noise seems to be pretty upbeat about a 2026 release.
The odds are not in Amazon Prime’s favor, yet I am rooting as much as anyone else that this series is successful.
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