Justin Chang

That isn't easy, since Rocky and Grace don't speak the same language.

But Grace devises a clever communication system using laptop voice translation software.

In this scene, Rocky, that's the gifted puppeteer James Ortiz doing the voice and movements, encases himself in a protective airtight ball and comes aboard Grace's ship.

Like The Martian, Project Hail Mary was adapted by the screenwriter Drew Goddard from a novel by Andy Weir.

But any comparison between the two only makes The Martian look better.

In that 2015 film, the director Ridley Scott let the comedy rise naturally from an inherently tense and suspenseful story.

But Project Hail Mary was directed by the duo of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, who specialize in zippy irreverence.

I've loved many of their earlier comedies, from 21 Jump Street to The Lego Movie, and also their work as producers on the mind-bending Spider-Verse films.

Here, they've made a buddy comedy about saving the world.

And although Rocky and Grace's bond has a lot of charm and moments of deeper connection, it's also more than a little exhausting.

The tone of the story is so flippant and the emotional beats so preordained that the larger stakes pretty much evaporate.

It's as if the filmmakers had cooked up an elaborate, world-threatening scenario just so that our protagonist could go off and have a close encounter of the therapeutic kind.

You could say something similar about Interstellar, but Christopher Nolan's film had an operatic power and a crazy conviction that compelled you to believe in it.

Project Hail Mary feels glib and earthbound by comparison.

It has a couple of strikingly shot set pieces, including a harrowing visit to another planet that might hold the key to survival.

But the movie, for all its wondrous production design, doesn't have the hypnotic visual power of the best space epics.

It never clues you in to what Grace must surely, on some level, be experiencing.

The terrifying vastness of outer space, and the fear of never being able to find your way home.

Last year, while accepting a Screen Actors Guild Award for A Complete Unknown, Timothee Chalamet told the audience, Many criticized him for his immodesty, but I found it refreshing.

After all, Chalamet has never made a secret of his ambition in his interviews or his choice of material.