My initial thoughts upon seeing the ‘Ad Astra’ trailer a few months ago weren’t entirely positive. Whilst I loathe trailers that give the whole movie away (please see any Fast and Furious trailer) I got almost nothing from Ad Astra, apart from the fact that it was a Space flick with Brad Pitt. However, there was a sense of inevitability in going to watch it. Firstly, because Brad Pitt is insanely watchable, secondly because the lunar landing anniversary has led to a rise in incredibly moving documentaries on space and finally because its directed by James Gray. James Gray’s last work was ‘The Lost City of Z’, a film that I ended up watching on a plane back in 2017 and honestly was one of the most surprising and thoughtful films I had seen in a while. All in all, it added up to me trudging down to the local Cineworld for Ad Astra on the day of release.
The film is set in the ‘near future’ and follows Major Roy McBride (Brad Pitt) an accomplished military astronaut. When a series of power surges starting reverberating around the galaxy, Roy is selected on a mission to investigate the source of the disturbances as they pose ‘critical impact’ for life on Earth. The surges seem to be coming from Neptune and the site where Project Lima, a voyage captained by Roy’s father to find extra-terrestrial life, was destined. Until the surges no one had heard from Clifford McBride (Tommy Lee Jones) or any of the Lima project for 16 years and they are all presumed dead.
From the outside Ad Astra appears to be just another sci-fi space action flick such as ‘The Martian’ but it isn’t. It really is more of a character journey told through the medium of space travel akin to ‘Solaris’ and ‘2001: a space odyssey’. The unnerving nature of brad Pitts stoic resilience coupled with his insecure and almost sociopathic voice overs portray a man who is breaking inside and are quite moving throughout.
On the back of his brilliant acting in ‘Once upon a time in Hollywood’, Pitt is again extremely watchable and believable as Major McBride. He not only is able to portray the unshakable astronaut, but his actions coupled with the voice overs during the scenes when he is alone are very emotive and eerie.
Its also worth pointing out that the film looks brilliant and I am glad that I read somewhere before to go see it in as big a screen as possible. The visuals are not as completely mind bending as maybe ‘Gravity’ or ‘Interstellar’ were back in 2013/14 but they are still a marvel to watch and the film provides probably the most realistic insight into commercial space travel of the future.
My reservations about Ad Astra are that the film doesn’t feel overly inspiring. I was interested and captivated during the entire film but upon leaving the cinema felt a little underwhelmed and overall didn’t really enjoy the film. I am not saying I need a really happy ending to enjoy my time in the cinema, but the ending doesn’t feel particularly clean and is a little rushed resulting in little to no impact of the characters arc.
There also plot points which I think were added to the film to jazz up the trailer. The moon buggy chase/ fight sequence has little to no relevance during the entire film apart from to provide some impressive CGI and to show Roy McBride as an accomplished astronaut/ badass moon buggy driver. (I also can’t quite comprehend the motive of the moon pirates who I assume are after something but seem happy to kill the VIPs on board, who are seemingly the only valuable asset).
Overall whilst there is a lot to be taken from Ad Astra, most noticeably how brilliant Brad Pitt and the visuals are, the film is a hollow and a lot of time is invested into a character development that has little to no reprieve in the ending.
Hughes Reviews 