Close Encounters of a Hail Mary

 So the whole family went to see Project Hail Mary and we loved it. It was a darn near perfect movie (I know Rish, the book is better and it makes the movie a disappointment but as I haven't read it yet I cannot comment). It brought back the sense of wonder and awe into a movie and it really is one that deserves to be seen on the big screen. I encourage everyone to go see it! It's even more amazing to learn how little CGI and how much practical effects were used. The more I learn about the movie the more I appreciate it. Lord and Miller knocked it out of the park and Ryan Gosling is a much better actor than I thought.

9.5/10

Of course it made me think of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, even before the tip of the hat to the tune. So I had to rewatch that movie too and I finally saw the director's cut of it. While it has aged a bit, overall it holds up so well. I always preferred it to ET, and its probably more the ongoing sense of something wrong is going on that I like. I will say though that Richard Dreyfuss's Roy Neary is a total @$$. He only wants to play or have his kids do what he wants, not actually parent them, putting that on his wife. His irrational obsession on the aliens, whic
h isn't all his fault as shown by the others in the same obsessive state, further drives his wife from him, not that she needed much more of a push. Roy has much more of a connection with Jillian Guiler, a fellow alien experiencer and actually seems to care for her, unlike any emotion shown to his wife. At the end *SPOILER* Roy has no hesitation to join the aliens, and doesn't even think about HIS FAMILY AND CHILDREN!!! This is not just tied to the alien influence as Jillian does crave to go with the aliens as she is more about her child and being with him, you know, like a LOVING PARENT!! All this doesn't take away from an awesome story about contact with aliens, it's just too bad that this part of the movie hasn't aged well, although it's not a unique way to have a man view his family from this time period.

8/10

Both of these movies have such a sense of wonder, amazement and hope. It something that is finally returning to stories it feels like after the morally gray and dark stories we've had lately. I can go for more of this!!!