“Project Hail Mary” is bringing audiences to movie theaters in numbers the industry hasn’t seen for a non-franchise film since “Oppenheimer.” The science fiction epic starring Ryan Gosling earned around $80.5 million in ticket sales in its first weekend playing in North America, according to studio estimates Sunday. Box office tracker EntTelligence estimates that translates into about 5 million ticket buyers.

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[–] NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip 8 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) (2 children)

Makes sense. The book was really good and had a lot of the same energy that The Martian did. Weir very clearly grew up on Whedon/Tarantino and the constant self-quipping lines up with that. But, at its core, it is competency porn driven by a refusal to fail. The Martian was about Wattney's personal survival whereas PHM is more about the survival of a species. Of course it is going to be good.

That said: never read Artemis. That ALSO makes it very clear that Weir grew up on Tarantino an Whedon and why it is probably only a matter of time until "nobody could have seen this coming". Jesus fucking christ. Jim Butcher isn't even that creepy and there are a LOT of open secrets about who his characters are "inspired by".

[–] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 2 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Wait, what's the deal with Jim Butcher?

[–] NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip 0 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

He has always tended to spend multiple pages lingering on the bodies of any female character in his novels (... and I am intentionally not going to think about how old whatsherface was in Codex Alera) and they almost always have very "porn star" bodies. This is explained by Harry being a self-admitted chauvinist as though that is a good thing.

For years, the big "what the fuck" bits were Lara Raithe (who is literally a sex vampire so she kinda gets a pass) and... one of Harry's best friend's daughters (Molly) who literally stripped naked and tried to seduce Harry at least once. But his true love was his cop friend who was very clearly Butcher's wife.

Then Butcher got divorced. Then the cop friend got got. Then we continued to get stories about how Molly is possessed by a primal energy and almost fucks someone to death. And quite a bit of text that she still wants to bang Harry and how it might even be HIS responsibility because of the primal energy he is possessed by. Then Harry is randomly betrothed to the porn vampire but its cool because they are into each other.

And... people with connections to the publishing/convention world can very much tell you that it is barely even an open secret who Lara Raithe was "inspired" by. And it is NOT mutual and has caused a fair number of headaches for folk over the years. Which then raises the question... if Karrin was his wife and Lara is then who is Molly?

[–] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 0 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

I gotta be honest, that just sounds like a lot of very boring drama.

[–] SupraMario@lemmy.world 1 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

If you can get passed the weird shit, the books are pretty good, but yea a lot of the stuff in said books, are just pointless.

[–] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 1 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

I was referring to the personal drama, not the books. I've listened to several during road trips and have been fully entertained; my wife is also a big fan overall, and we even have a plan for me to cosplay as Harry; the only inaccuracy is that I'm only 6'5".

[–] SupraMario@lemmy.world 1 points 3 hours ago

Ah, I didn't know about any drama from him, just that the books do have some...neckbeard moments in them? Where I just skip the shit...

[–] Tilgare@lemmy.world 1 points 6 hours ago (2 children)

If you're looking for more competency porn like The Martian, they pivoted HARD away from that with this adaptation. They turned Grace into a bumbling idiot and a top to bottom coward. It was awful. Did the screenwriters even read this fucking book, or just the plot synopsis?

[–] SupraMario@lemmy.world 7 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

While Grace wasn't an idiot in the books, he was a self proclaimed coward. Like most of the book he's trying to get away from his problems.

[–] Tilgare@lemmy.world 2 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

He might have thought himself cowardly, but he was certainly not a coward. That same "coward" didn't sit on his ass and drink the second he woke up, he figured out what was going on and set his mind to solving the problem. Grace didn't scream bloody murder when he shut down the centrifuge, he... just did it I guess. (Like, wtf else did you think was about to happen, movie Grace?) He didn't scream and try and run away from Rocky, he was instantly excited and eagerly worked his ass off for a first contact with an intelligent alien race.

[–] SupraMario@lemmy.world 3 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

I haven't seen the movie yet so I can't make any comments on it, I was just saying that in the books gracy literally proclaimed he's a coward... it's kinda how he was put on the mission...

[–] Tilgare@lemmy.world 0 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

The word coward was used 5 times total in the novel, and it was Stratt accusing him of being a coward twice before he ever called himself one, denegrating himself AFTER recalling the memory of his selection for the mission.

Like I said, he did certainly have a cowardly act when faced with death. One act does not make a person a coward, and for the whole story up to AND after that point, he dives headlong into danger.

Maybe the literal word wasn't used - but I'm failing to think of a single other cowardly act from Grace in the whole novel. I'd be happy to reread any section that you think fits your narrative, but for now I really strongly disagree and had the opposite takeaway.

[–] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 3 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

A MAJOR point of the book was that he was forced onto the mission against his will. He was just a guy that liked what he was doing and didn't like being forced into things. This was very clear in the book, and was illustrated well in the film.

[–] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 1 points 4 hours ago

I guess you went to the bathroom during all the montages where he did Science™ ... at the exact times he did in the book.