Ad Astra

Ad Astra (2019)

Image From IMDB

This was my first time watching Ad Astra and I was left with mixed feelings. The film largely looked fantastic, and I enjoyed the world building from the giant structure at the beginning, to the moon and mars bases, and the ships, but I also felt like I didn’t need certain things… namely the non-stop voice over and over-the-top action sequences.

The story follows Brad Pitt as he travels to Mars to make contact with his famous astronaut dad who could potentially be involved with something which could wipe out the human race. His dad (Tommy Lee Jones) is considered a hero by many, but his last voyage to Neptune has left a few questioned unanswered, the most important one now being why is Neptune sending electrical (kinda) surges to Earth and causing mayhem?

My main enjoyment of this film was the space travel aspect. Watching Brad travel from planet to moon to ship etc. All that stuff looks and feels great, although I could have massively done without the constant voice-over, but that’s just a bit of a pet-hate of mine. The travel feels almost real, and is probably a good representation of what future space travel could be like. Loved the super expensive pillow and blanket during the moon trip lol. Spot on.

His arc as an almost emotionless son, to someone who has to come to terms with his dad not being the hero he perceived, and the space agency he works for not being as forthcoming as they should be, was decent. I liked seeing him figure shit out, I just wish he wasn’t telling me about it at the same time.

Both Brad Pitt and Tommy Lee Jones are great––although the latter more excels when you see him in person rather than the video messages. I enjoyed their scenes together and the final resolution of their father son relationship. Again, another stronger point of the film.

What I didn’t really like was the action sequences. The buggy chase on the moon, the whole thing with the wild chimp (yes you read that correctly), the fight when he left Mars. It turned what could have been a good hard sci-fi into something a little more… Hollywoody. I guess that was the point, and maybe the majority will like that, but to me it felt like two separate movies squashed together. You could have lost half an hour of action sequences and it wouldn’t have worsened the movie in the slightest, in fact it would have bettered it.

Also, that whole Surge thing was one of the biggest Macguffins i’ve seen in a long old while.

Ad Astra was ok. I enjoyed half of it, and wasn’t fussed about the other half. It just felt a little empty when all was said and done, but again, that may be more due to my own preferences. But, worth a watch for that opening fall sequence alone, and the trippy trip from Mars to Neptune.