[International Space Station, Photo Credit to Pxhere]

The movie ‘Project Hail Mary’ surpassed 2 million cumulative viewers in just 26 days since its release, which is 3 days faster than ‘F1 The Movie’.

The original novel of the movie ‘Project Hail Mary’ has risen to bestseller status, as well as worldwide popularity of the movie, with most audiences reacting highly positively, while a smaller portion of viewers have critical opinions.

Along with the rapid increase in cumulative viewers, the movie, even now, 4 weeks after the release, received highly positive reviews, such as 9.5 on Lotte Cinema, 9.1 on Megabox, and 97 percent on CGV. 

Audience feedback includes glowing testimonials such as, “The universe I imagined while reading the book was unfolded through the movie, so I was completely moved that I cried”, “I was a person who didn’t like science fiction movies, but I changed my mind after watching this movie”, “Fans of the original novel should go to the theater no matter what”.

The movie is centered on the story of Grace, who was lost in the middle of the universe without any memory, accomplishing the final mission to save humanity from the threat of extinction.

In the film adaptation, one of the most recognizable actors, Ryan Gosling, played the lead role of Grace.

Ryan Gosling encouraged millions of viewers to read the original novel by emphasizing the distinctiveness between the novel from the movie.

Consequently, the digital news platform, ‘The Hollywood Reporter,’ reported that sales of the novel have increased dramatically after the release of the film adaptation in international markets.

The Korean translation of the novel also experienced tremendous popularity among movie viewers.

With strong support from science fiction readers, Yes24 reported that the novel topped the bestseller charts for the entire month of April.

The popularity of the film drew science fiction fans to the writer of the original novel.

The writer of the original novel, Andy Weir, is a popular science fiction author best known for ‘The Martian,’ which rose to the top of Amazon Kindle bestseller charts, and later became a New York Times bestseller, as well as ‘Artemis,’ another New York Times bestselling novel.

Through an emotionally well-expressed narrative, literary critics argue that the novel offers a more nuanced portrayal of Grace’s internal conflicts and emotional states compared to the movie.

Meanwhile, the movie received negative feedback regarding the conflict part, such as “Difficulty while encountering conflict is solved too easily compared to the original one, and it’s not realistic”, and this shows the movie did not fully depict the depth of internal struggles as much as the novel.

Comments such as “It feels like a Cliché American Sci-Fi film,” and “The Martian movie had better adaptation” also show that some viewers found the film less engaging compared to the original work.

These criticisms suggest that the novel better portrays the emotional depth of Grace’s internal struggles while encountering difficulty more naturally and convincingly than the movie.

Readers also argued that the novel better conveyed advanced astrophysical concepts with a more detailed scientific explanation, making it more accessible to general audiences.

A viewer's review of “Some unfamiliar words appeared without any explanation, so I was kinda confused” on the movie shows that the movie needed extended explanation for audiences who aren’t familiar with scientific concepts.

Although some viewers criticized the movie compared with the novel, the film ultimately succeeded in drawing global attention to both the original novel and the movie and attracted more audiences to the science fiction genre.