Nobody Cares about TV and Film

[Argent Stonecutter]

I didn’t read the book.

I read the book and that's why I didn't see the movie. Man, it was a huge slog. The backstory is incoherent in the extreme, and the science could have benefited from the web-forum of competent geeks he had for The Martian. I wanted to throw it against the wall every time he mentioned "Xenonite".

It wasn't as awful as Ready Player One but that's the only other recent book I can think of that took as much out of me.

 

[Noodles]

It wasn't as awful as Ready Player One but that's the only other recent book I can think of that took as much out of me.

I forgot they were the same author. Ready Player One was so terribly written. Let me list the 500 ways in a straight list for you. Then let me just give a long list of things that could be improved, then another list of the 500 things the author failed to reference, each with a 500 point list of why he should have referenced them.

My review of Ready Player one is pretty much just a novel sized piled of lists. NOSTALGIA!

 

[Argent Stonecutter]

Ernest Cline and Andy Weir are different people, but apparently and unsurprisingly Andy Weir is a huge fan of Ernest Cline.

 

[Lexxi]

Finally saw Project Hail Mary.

I found it...fine. I enjoyed it. They did a good job hitting the emotional points I was looking for, and Rocky both as a character and a creation was a delight. But there was a lot of Very Important plot from the book they had to trim or rejigger to make fit the length of a 156 minute film.

This is a movie where I think it helps to have read the book first, to make better sense of the story-compressed montages.

Spoiler

The end with Grace living on Erid worked better than I was expecting it to. I think I believed they'd see it as more of a perfunctory part of the story.

One thing I was a little disappointed by was the look back at Earth, with Eva Stratt reading Grace's message, and the shot of one of the Beatles opened up. This is not in the book, which had Rocky tell Grace that Erid scientists had detected the Sun's luminosity was increasing. That's all we need to know the Beatles had made it to Earth. Instead, they believe movie goers are idiots and need it spelled out for us.

Just saw it the other day. Looking at what I rated it, apparently I liked it well enough. It must have had some good qualities for me to overcome my rather high dislike for the main character, Grace. Though, I suspect we were supposed to mildly dislike him then find him redeemable. Considering the type of character he was. And how the story unfolded.

I didn't read the book though I bought it some point when it was on sale.

Spoiler

I have nothing to put here.

 

[Lexxi]

Ernest Cline and Andy Weir are different people, but apparently and unsurprisingly Andy Weir is a huge fan of Ernest Cline.

Yeah, the person behind Project Hail Mary is the guy behind The Martian. Not the guy behind Ready Player One.

 

[Free]

Yeah, the person behind Project Hail Mary is the guy behind The Martian. Not the guy behind Ready Player One.

And we can tell that by the fact they have completely different names.

 

[Noodles]

Ernest Cline and Andy Weir are different people, but apparently and unsurprisingly Andy Weir is a huge fan of Ernest Cline.

God I am losing it. I had even looked up who wrote both books because it didn't feel right.

 

[Lexxi]

And we can tell that by the fact they have completely different names.

I don't understand. Andy Weir wrote both The Martian and Project Hail Mary.

 

[Veritable Quandry]

I don't understand. Andy Weir wrote both The Martian and Project Hail Mary.

It's like Stephen King and Richard Bachman. Totally different names.

 

[Free]

I don't understand. Andy Weir wrote both The Martian and Project Hail Mary.

I hope you're joshing about, and not ignoring Ready Player One had also been discussed.

 

[Lexxi]

I hope you're joshing about, and not ignoring Ready Player One had also been discussed.

My post you replied to that had 'different names' in your response had Ready Player One in it.

 

[Free]

 

[Jopsy Pendragon]

Because asked for it or cares but because I want to be involved in this conversation because it's hot outside and I'm cooped up and bored:

The Martian: [Movie] it was alright. Would have cast it differently, Matt Damon still has space suit stank all over him from Interstellar. [Book] haven't read it.

Project Hail Mary: [Movie] enjoyable [Book] haven't read it

Ready Player One: [Movie] loved it, watched it several times. 'Comfort flick'. [Book] read it first, vaguely recall being turned off by the main character's stalkery behavior towards Artemis

Murderbot Diaries/Condition Red: [Show] Loved it. [Audio book] was fine, I guess.

 

[Ryanna Enfield]

I saw Project Hail Mary and loved it. I'll admit, I'm pretty easily entertained. I was sobbing at one point, but then remembered back to The Martian and held out hope. I did not read the book. Is it worth it to read the book now?

 

[Govi]

We watched Project Hail Mary a few nights ago. We thought it was excellent, though there were some holes in the background science that remained unexplained that probably could have been filled in a very few lines of dialogue: about the epidemiology of the astrophage infection. My husband has scoffed at my solution to the question of why in a galaxy of hundreds of millions of stars were only a very few stars relatively close to us infected? I speculated that they had been seeded by an ultra advanced interstellar civilization as fueling stations, the phages being the fuel, of course. We agreed that it would have forced a very different story upon Weir were something like that included in the story. Oh well. It was a good and very moving story!

 

[Noodles]

We watched Project Hail Mary tonight. Good movie.

Spoiler: Very Mild spoiler that was already spoiled I think by the preview but book people were upset even though its like 90% of the crux of the movie.

Its funny because my daughter hates spiders and based on the little Amazon preview, did not want to watch it, then when the rock spider shows up, she says "I am going to cry about this rock aren't I?"

Also later I was a terrible person for making her watch this (because it was sad for a bit).

 

[Free]

Holy crap. Who knew Jessica Chastain could be nightmare-inducing?

 

[Jopsy Pendragon]

I'm kind of annoyed they didn't go with "OTHER MOTHER", I mean seriously, it's right there.

 

[Free]

I'm kind of annoyed they didn't go with "OTHER MOTHER", I mean seriously, it's right there.

Sounds a bit adult. The POV seems to be mostly from the young girl's perspective, and no 8-year-old not living in the 19th century would call their maternal parent "mother."

 

[CronoCloud Creeggan]

I'm kind of annoyed they didn't go with "OTHER MOTHER", I mean seriously, it's right there.

That would probably make people think it's "Coraline" adjacent or something.