Science Fiction | A Screenwriters Perspective: Current and Past Movies.

The new movie “Project Hail Mary” is one of the most unusual science fiction movies involving Space Travel, about a microscopic virus that is degrading all stars in our known universe, except for one, which is 11 light-years away. The science that follows implies that reaching this healthy star, which is 11 light-years away, is possible, but based on current technology, traveling at light speed is nowhere near possible. Due to this traveling at light speed issue, the plausibility of this story is reduced. Perhaps the screenwriter or director should have changed the timeline so that this story takes place fifty or one hundred years in the future – when maybe mankind can travel at the speed of light.

The majority of this story involves the science of Microbiology, which is the profession of the main character Ryland Grace, played very well by Ryan Gosling, and his unlikely addition to a mission with two other astronauts to reach this one star so far away. After some tragic events that happen when one of the “million things that can go wrong” with space travel, and putting the astronauts in long-term comas for the many years-long trip, Ryland becomes friends with an alien fellow astronaut, who is on the exact same mission for his species. Ryland calls his friend Rocky, and their interactions and humor are some of the best parts of this movie. The middle part of this movie does seem to have too much story filler, making this film too long at 2 hours, 36 minutes. Some of this filler is boring and slow at times, and this would be a better movie with some simple and obvious cuts.

German actor Sandra Hüller as commander Eva Stratt is very good in her role as the head of the NASA “Hail Mary” mission to save the world. She is always in a subdued and dire mood throughout this movie, realizing that the odds of success are so low. The contrast between her extremely serious character and her scenes with Gosling’s with his easy going humorous personality are very well done. She also has a very surprising Karaoke scene, in the middle of this story, showing off her singing skills.

The ending was more about fooling the audience with a conclusion that was not expected, rather than ending this story in a more logical way.

This is the second science fiction movie produced from a novel written by Andy Weir, the first The Martian was released in 2015 and was also a very good film. This movie is based on Weir’s second book Project Hail Mary.

The Rotten Tomatoes ratings for Project Hail Mary are extremely high at 95%, with my rating at 85% and a solid recommendation.

“Tron” is a science fiction movie franchise that started in 1982, starring Jeff Bridges and Bruce Boxleitner. The last Tron movie was released in 2010 “Tron Legacy”, starring Garrett Hedlund and Olivia Wilde, with below average IMDB ratings on a par with the first movie, 6.8 out of 10.

The new movie “Tron Ares” is yet another example of name recognition, fans of the old movies and TV series, where the producers in charge think that throwing special effects at an audience is more than enough to get people to see any science fiction movie. Forego the screenplay, which takes too long; just pay a special effects company, and all we need is some dialogue. This summarizes this movie perfectly, because there is no story, no continuity, and no understandable screenplay anywhere in this disaster of two hours.

This movie stars Jared Leto as Ares, who is a robot, Jodie Turner-Smith who is another Tron robot with an appearance late in the movie of Jeff Bridges who once again plays Kevin Flynn and Gillian Anderson, who plays an executive, Elisabeth Dillinger. For all who see this very bad movie I suggest getting on your cell phones before the film starts and ask ChatGPT what this movie is about, otherwise nobody will have any clue with what is going on in one scene, after another scene, with no connection or logic, anywhere. The synopsis from rom ChatGPT, says it all:

After the events of Tron: Legacy, companies ENCOM (run by Eve Kim) and Dillinger Systems (run by Julian Dillinger) are competing to integrate digital programs from the Grid into the real world.
They’re limited by a problem: the materialized “digital constructs” only last ~29 minutes in the real world before “deresolving” (they degrade and disappear).

Discovery of Flynn’s Permanence Code

ENCOM and Eve Kim believe Kevin Flynn left behind a hidden piece of code (the “Permanence Code”) in an old remote Arctic research station which might allow constructs to stay permanently in the real world.
Eve successfully uses the code to bring a digital orange tree into the real world — it lasts much longer, proving the code works.

Introduction of Ares

Julian Dillinger creates Ares, a super-intelligent digital Program, intended as an expendable weapon, to deal with ENCOM’s threat and exploit the real-world materialization tech.
Ares is sent into the real world, and once there he begins to observe, question, and — to some degree — develop a sense of self, especially when confronted with nature, suffering, and real human consequences.

Conflict and Betrayal

Eve and Ares eventually align, as Ares starts diverging from Dillinger’s control. This sets up conflict between creator (Julian Dillinger) and creation (Ares + Eve).
Eve becomes a target because she has knowledge of the Permanence Code and maybe because Dillinger wants control of it. The stakes include asking who has the right to “create life” or let digital beings live permanently in our reality.

As far as Rotten Tomatoes critics reviews, which are a very low 53%, one critic Kyle Logan from Chicago Reader wrote: “Ares is also saddled with a truly atrocious script. Awkward attempts at emotional and thematic heft are laughable”. My rating for this very bad movie is around 15% only for some special effects. Hopefully this is the last we ever see the word Tron, anywhere, ever again. Run from this special effects mess.