I don’t do a lot of reviews of movies or tv shows on my blog anymore, but I need to make an exception for this one.

Hollywood has been going through what I call a slow suffocation of capitalistic motivation; in other words, they care more about making the most money possible for the least amount of effort, and it’s leading to a lot of really bad, completely derivative movies. And I’m not talking about movies with original ideas that aren’t executed well. I’m talking about the Star Wars/MCU/DC to high-budget, low-quality movie pipeline.

**NOTE: Before you get mad, please understand that I am a massive Star Wars fan and was a massive MCU fan and am a kind of DCU fan. I don’t say any of what comes next because I don’t value these franchises.

A huge majority of movies that come out are now connected in some way to a popular franchise. And while this wasn’t at all a bad thing back in the first two phases of the MCU and when The Force Awakens was released, it has morphed into something that leaves huge portions of audiences completely dissatisfied. Almost every MCU movie since End Game has been awful, with the exception of Logan, Spider-Man: Far From Home, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse, and Spider-Man: Across the Spiderverse. And the Black Widow movie, but it pisses me off because Natasha deserved her own franchise, but that’s beside the point. I have been a major MCU fan for over a decade, and I have given up on all MCU projects at this point because the movies just aren’t good. And I don’t want to have to watch a hundred different shows on Disney+ to understand what’s happening in the movies, either.

The same is true for Star Wars. Rise of Skywalker was an outright embarrassment with so many plot holes and inconsistencies, it was clear J.J. Abrams couldn’t have cared less. I hated season three of Mandalorian and even though we have the first Star Wars movie in seven years in theaters right now, I won’t be going to see it, and I am a huge Star Wars fan. Because, once again, the execs at Disney care more about making money than they do releasing actually good Star Wars content.

And while some franchises have been doing well and seem to be well made (Dune, for example, and even Mission Impossible), it’s still exhausting when so many movies released each year are either part of a franchise, or are prequels, sequels, reboots, or remakes.

That’s why Project Hail Mary was such a phenomenal experience. Or, rather, is one of the many reasons. I have never read any of Andy Weir’s books, so I had absolutely no idea what this movie was about when I went to see it with my mother and brother. They had both already seen it and even though I didn’t have much interest (another space movie, yay), I went along.

It is now in my top 5 favorite films of all time. It’s a stunning movie with so many incredible details that you pick up on each time you watch it. It has a gorgeous score, amazing character development, incredible story of what it means to love someone, and I could go on. Ryan Gosling is incredible. The character of Rocky is right up there with Toothless in terms of non-human characters that I love an unreasonable amount. I cried for at least forty five minutes collectively (hyperventilated is more accurate and I’m pretty sure I pissed off the people sitting in front of me at the theater); I cried from fear, from sadness, from dread, from relief, from joy, from happiness. The movie devastated me in the best ways.

And here’s the thing: the people making this movie didn’t try to make it super fancy with loads of CGI just to be impressive. They used a lot of practical effects and stop motion and puppetry. The design is unique and different and surprising. The screenplay is downright hilarious. And did I mention the score? It’s the best score I’ve heard since Sinners, full stop. This movie is exactly what it needed to be. No frills. Nothing that could be construed as unnecessary. And for a doomsday kind of movie, it’s completely unique in that the doomsday aspect is the context around everything else.

Ryland Grace is sent to space because the earth’s sun is dying. He’s a scientist and is sent to try and figure out how to save the sun, otherwise everything on earth will die. Every sun in the galaxy is dying too, except for one. He needs to figure out why. And along the way, he meets Rocky, an alien trying to save his people’s sun. And even though this is what brings the two of them together and is the conflict that moves the plot along, the actual story is about the relationship between the human and the Eridian. It’s astonishing that while trying to save their respective planets, the true heart of the story, the thing that matters most, is the love between these two beings.

The only other movie I’ve seen in theaters that broke me the way Project Hail Mary did was the second How to Train Your Dragon, and honestly, this one was worse/better. (Iykyk) I can’t even watch the movie very much because I’m afraid I’ll burn myself out and I don’t want to. I want to hold onto it, cherish it.

And I swear to God, if Hollywood makes a sequel to this movie, I will lose my mind. Not everything needs a sequel or a prequel! Let really good standalone movies stay standalone movies!

If you haven’t watched it, watch it. It will change you. Or, at least, it should.