Ad Astra Review:

Brad Pitt heads to the stars in Ad Astra. Courtesy of 20th Century Fox.

Roy McBride: "I’m calm, steady. I slept well, eight point two hours, no bad dreams. I am ready to go, ready to do my job to the best of my ability. I am focused only on the essentials, to the exclusion of all else. I will make only pragmatic decisions. I will not allow myself to be distracted. I will not allow my mind to linger on that which isn’t important. I will not rely on anyone or anything. I will not be vulnerable to mistakes."

Upon my initial viewing, I had little to not much knowledge of this films narrative before going in. The marketing keeps it at a top secret level, not showing much detail to the audiences who may be interested in a film like this. However, this normally goes in one or two directions. And this element of marketing plays in an important factor for me as I review Ad Astra (2019). And since I want to tell people about this film, since it is a fairly large studio movie, I want to share this topic of discussion because we have been seeing it a lot more with films that are coming out today. I, personally, love the idea of not showing anything when it comes to the narrative for any film. However, it is essential to realize just how important marketing can be to someone else out there. I know a ton of my friends, and this element works for myself, but they love to be surprised and watching a film “completed blind,” as most would say. But back to the film at hand, Ad Astra is easily one of the most thought-provoking, yet puzzling in a way that may be deem bad, films I have seen this entire year. It is incredibly divisive, which I know people who have stated that this film was “trash” and “boring as hell.” But let’s get to the review before I wander off.

Ad Astra is about Roy McBride (aka Brad Pitt) who is assigned a mission to go to deep space to look for his father (aka Tommy Lee Jones), who is potentially linked to surgical power outages that have been scattered across the solar system. That is essentially the whole film, Pitt goes on a space quest, and the film is the space quest. This narrative can ultimately leave individuals unsatisfied and displeased because that is the narrative. The entire two hour runtime is Brad Pitt’s character traveling from planet to planet. And while the buildup, which is a hit or miss with most, will lead to a conclusion that had me scratching my mind. I was not on the spectrum of hate for the film, but I was also not head over heels with it either.

Brad Pitt in Ad Astra. Courtesy of 20th Century.

Some of the positives from Ad Astra, at least in my mind, is the performance from Brad Pitt and the cinematography, which was helmed by the same guy who did Interstellar (2014). So at least there is some visual similarities that can help with the experience. As for the performance by Brad Pitt, he is a character who is extremely bland, and his character is supposed to be a concrete individual and cannot let emotion get to him. He is an astronaut and having that profession means you have to be psychologically there. And Pitt gives a great performance from starting at this bland point to going through a huge range of emotions with searching for his father. And while the farther he goes into space, the crazier he seems to get due to the psychological state he encounters overtime from being away from home. And he experiences multiple traumatic incidents, which will be saved for later. Like I said, the cinematography is excellent. The camerawork I think is just astonishing. Difference I am making here is visuals and camerawork, visuals was a poor element of the film, camerawork and production was a highlight. There are many moments where I was just taken away by the fluently of the movement, along with much of the color pallet being on display. It is such a beautiful film in many ways, but that leads me to some of my issues.

It is easy to call a film boring if “nothing is happening” and that is a topic I should brush over. There is a two-way street that gets to me a lot when it comes to the films being released today, and that is the patience of the audience. Since Ad Astra is a space and sci fi film, we expect it to be glamoured filled with space craziness with action and philosophical questions that are raised, which makes us wonder about the stars. While Ad Astra has its moments, it is a boring film, but not entirely boring. There is stuff going on, and discussions worth noting, but that is where I make my distinction here. The film decides to take its time and have these noteworthy moments, however, when there are so many of them, you have to start giving answers away before the audience turns on the film.

Here I want to note that Ad Astra raises excellent questions about society changes and technology advances in the future. While also raising the questions about space travel and space science as well. However, the film decides to have a “be realistic approach” while also “not being realistic approach.” Those two ideas collide with each other so many times throughout the course of the runtime that I found it hard to actually understand what the film was trying to say at points. I understood the overall message (that’s pretty on the nose with that one) but as for these thought-provoking ideas, they only briefly touch on them and never circle back to them. I wouldn’t say its poor screenwriting nor direction, I would say it’s both to be quite frank. Like I said before, the film is a two-way street and it is colliding with one another.

Brad Pitt in Ad Astra. Courtesy of 20th Century Fox.

Some people can appreciate this entire film, and some of my favorite critics adored this film. And I mean ADORED it. One of my favorite professors even loved this film. But I also know some people who absolutely hated it too. And as I stated before, the film is either adored or hated. I think if you are a film nerd, you will love this. But for a regular moviegoer, I am going out on a limb and saying that most will hate this film. While crediting the best part being Brad Pitt. I think there is a discussion to be made here with people who watch the film regardless if they liked it or not. It does raise a discussion from individuals. I could talk Ad Astra for a longtime, but the problem here is that it will only lead nowhere. It tries to be 2001-like, but it ultimately falls short. And that part was disappointing. I didn’t hate this film like some people I know, but I was definitely not adoring it like my favorite critics. It is a filmlovers movie though.

Ad Astra is a prime example of two definitions, “slow burn” and “divisive”. The acting and cinematography are highlights of the film, the narrative becomes shady as we move farther into space. There are many unique stances the film displays, but ultimately leads it into the darkness and not the light like many were searching for. I can understand where people hate or love this film. I think if one approaches the film with that mindset, it may affect their viewing. Or maybe not? I am not quite sure how to pinpoint this film since it is so divided amongst people. It reminds me of mother! (2017) quite a bit. I am sure there is some bible and global warming theories in Ad Astra, but not to the level of mother!. However, mother! surely made me think in ways that Ad Astra didn’t. I landed in the in between mark with this film cause it made me think, but then made me question the entire interpretation. In a way, it felt extremely experimental, which take that approach with a fine grain, but I love that approach. Late 60’s experimental films were something to adore. However, those films, while shocking, incorporated story with avant-garde filmmaking. Here, avant-garde filmmaking is there, but the narrative is not strong enough to have that mix. We are definitely passed the point of having just experimental be a thing. Telling a full narrative is more significant with today's audiences. To circle back to the marketing, films like this hide information from audiences because they know it is a simplistic and yet, an analytic one as well. But after watching it, it wasn't really hiding anything, it just didn't have a lot to it that stood out from a story perspective. I really wanted to like this one, but it was just fine to me. I thought there was a lot of good stuff, but a lot of mediocre stuff to off set many of the positives. Ad Astra is truly shooting for the stars, but never quite reaches its destination, and gets lost in its own galaxy.

Rating: C+

Run Time: 2 Hours 3 minutes