I think Project Hail Mary is the first time I genuinely like both book and film as two separate entities so much to the point where I'm unsure which I prefer, and I'm normally a "book over movie" person. I may be slightly biased towards it as I watched the film first rather than reading the book first, for once, but I've been chewing over both for a week or two now and rereading and rewatching certain bits, and I just kind of want to ramble some thoughts out.
As an adaptation, the film is very good. Rather than being focused on getting every single thing from the book, it captures the overall spirit and message, and the things that are cut are filled with other things that add to rather than detract from the narrative. (I presume that having Weir on the team was a huge boon and thus everything in the movie has his approval.) I don't think I've seen such a respectful and accurate adaptation in a while, but then, I'm not a big movie watcher. In fact, I think this is the first movie I've seen this year, and one movie a year generally seems to be average for me. But, not to digress: it's a great adaptation.
The cut subplots don't really bother me too much. I don't think that much was lost by trimming the "taumoeba eats all the fuel on the Hail Mary" subplot. Grace cleaning out the fuel tanks and Rocky making replacements in between their breeding experiments is probably the slowest part of the book where nothing much happens (other than some funny back and forth snarking). Cutting that whole part out and just leaving the "taumoeba gets through xenonite" bit for the end as the final twist works fine. Some of the flashbacks with Stratt and the other things she did were trimmed, but there's only so much that could be included and the essentials are all there.
The biggest hitting swap is probably that Rocky drags Grace to the dorm and Grace doesn't carry him back to his own atmosphere. We're deprived of Grace setting himself on fire for Rocky right after Rocky does it for him, but given that we're never shown that Rocky even made an airlock in the Hail Mary, I kind of understand why. It probably would have been too complicated to show or explain visually, which is probably also why in the film he simply breaks through his tunnel in the control room rather than using the airlock. There's not as much detail about Rocky's atmospheric conditions shown other than ammonia, heat, and toxicity. It would have been nice to see that scene done, but I liked how nightmarish the sequence was with the flashing red cuts, like Grace is blinking in and out of consciousness and is completely helpless, and maybe in a way that was more realistic than Grace almost immediately hopping up as soon as he's free of his chair and getting the centrifuge on and carrying Rocky back to his airlock. Related, I did catch Rocky's scar on Grace's arm, but it's such a brief, blink-it-and-miss shot that I do kind of wish they had lingered on it a little longer.
On that note, I would have appreciated some throwaway lines here and there as little nods; for instance, Grace watching Rocky's ship flares as they part ways (and it being part of the reason why he knows Rocky's in trouble); more about Eridian culture and planet and species; a bit more of Stratt tearing into Grace (though she's a bit more sympathetic and slightly less grim in the film, too), why Rocky has so much astrophage, Rocky calling Grace a "leaky space blob" and Grace's heart surgery comment, Grace comparing Rocky's stuff to his ex-girlfriend, Statt pirating all of human history, things like that. In particular, it would have been nice to have some mention of how Grace is perfectly assured that he's going to starve to death on Erid, a nod to the testing of Rocky's food and Rocky's promise that the Eridian scientists will do their best for him and won't let him die, as well the fact that he arrives on Erid in very bad shape (and of course, the famous "meburgers"). I don't think that stuff would need to be fully filmed scenes, but just lines dropped here and there.
But I love that we got things like Grace going into Rocky's ship instead (itself a nod to Grace complaining in the book that he doesn't get to see Rocky's ship), Grace teaching Rocky about hugs, and Rocky's suit in Grace's biodome at the end, which I really love. It just hits a little different, in a good way. The way it shows that Rocky specifically went out of his way to be able to continue to spend time with Grace in his dome hits harder than them talking through a wall at the end of the book, especially how everything in that final scene ties together with the rest of the repeated beats throughout the film: Grace's love of the fog, Grace sitting on the beach, and of course Rocky telling him he can think about his decision for a long time. It better emphasizes the way Rocky accommodates and gives Grace the, well, grace that nobody else has before in his life.
The way their relationship and characters are handled in the film is also something I enjoy. I do love their book characters, and the way they were written, with Grace being curious and overly-excitable and figuring things out methodically, and with Rocky being equally curious and methodical and a little snarky, but it really has to be said that the film gives them a little something extra.
I think that is my primary criticism of the book, in fact: the prose is very workman-like and keeps the plot moving without ever stagnating, but I feel like it never really pauses to let the emotions breathe and to dwell on them. Grace says that he's upset and he cries, but most of the time, the narration spends 1-3 sentences on it and moves on, and doesn't take more than maybe half a page to talk about the more serious moments in Grace's returning memory. It never delves too deeply into his emotions or turmoil, and I'm sure it's just the style because this is science fiction, after all, and I'm used to reading gothic fiction where the characters' experiences of awe, dread, horror, agony, and sorrow are lavishly described and their emotional suffering itself is part of the narrative, so I almost got whiplash by how bare-bones PHM felt in comparison. I'm not saying that it's bad (hardly, I enjoyed it quite a lot), just a very stark difference and I felt that lack of emotional breathing room a little bit.
But the film not only gives plenty of emotional breathing room, but develops Grace's emotions much more. I think Grace's dorky awkward side being played up in the movie is a great way to expand his character. It adds so much to him and emphasizes how "unfitting" and out of place he is on the mission and his own resistance to it. Part of the story is about how heroism isn't something unique to certain people but more a matter of finding the right motivation ("someone to be brave for"), and leaning into his dorky side makes Grace feel more like someone who is "not a hero." He is absolutely dorky in the book, too, but he says "I'm a scientist" repeatedly, and despite his reluctance to be on the mission, he feels a lot more in his element compared to movie!Grace. Movie!Grace is smart and resourceful, but he stumbles and trips over himself much more, often literally. Movie!Grace feels like much more of a coward, someone who's fearful of his own potential and vulnerability than book!Grace, what with the way movie!Grace's reaction to waking up on the Hail Mary isn't to try to figure out where he is and explore but to simply have a breakdown and get drunk, and the way he's much more fearful of Rocky initially instead of excited like book!Grace. The fact that Grace is scared out of his wits a solid 40% of the time makes his acts of courage stand out more and we can see his journey growing into himself better. The reason his final sign-off message calling himself "Captain Doctor Ryland Grace" hits so hard is because he's finally accepted himself, his titles and mantle of responsibility, is comfortable with himself and his choices, which we know after seeing him run away and persevere through the challenges of the story. He's finally confident in himself and his decision and we can see it. The movie communicates much more effectively that Grace's problem isn't that he doesn't know what he's doing, but that he has no confidence or trust in himself. The revelation that he was forced into the mission also bites more when we see him more uncertain of himself, and he feels more affected by it compared to book!Grace, whose reaction in the end is more annoyance that Stratt was right about him and he gets over the realization that he's a coward pretty quickly. (See above what I said about the prose moving quickly past the emotions.)
For Rocky, I do understand the criticism that he was changed and is too simple, but I think the more excitable, bossy, cheeky version in the movie is still fairly true to his character. While much more polite regarding entering the Hail Mary, throughout the book, Rocky is quick to tease Grace and mock his human shortcomings once they get comfortable with each other, using sarcasm and at one point all but ordering Grace to go to bed. The way he talks to Grace in the epilogue also shows very clearly that he has a bit of an attitude, so giving him a pushy streak from the beginning doesn't feel out of place. Rocky being just as dorky as Grace in his own way also makes them feel like birds of a feather. They're equally scientifically-minded in the book, so it makes sense for Rocky to have been adjusted slightly alongside Grace. I also like the unstated, possibly unintended implication that Rocky's fifty years in space have left him a little disturbed; that he's so lonely and desperate that he'd throw himself at the first soul he meets even if it happens to be a leaky alien and he's running roughshod over rules of propriety. I very much vibe with the fandom explanation that movie!Rocky is just a freak of some sort to explain away his lack of clothes and disregard for Eridian eating customs. Book!Rocky is very somber about the deaths of his crew, and while movie!Rocky is as well, I like what his fast friendship with Grace says about him and the way he becomes fond of Grace almost faster than Grace becomes fond of him. The implication that Rocky finds Grace weird and a little dumb but also funny and cute comes across well and I like that. The little moments of Rocky's sonar vision and how he 'sees' the world were also really nice.
In conclusion, I really do understand why most people tend to mash the book and movie canons together into one and take elements from both. They're both good stories, just different tellings, and both of them have great points over the other. Cherrypicking the best from each and fitting them together into a cohesive whole really seems to be the best way to go about it.
I'm also immensely looking forward to those deleted scenes on the bluray.
