☆☆
Ponderous and pretentious, Ad Astra throws in murderous space monkeys and moon pirates yet still moves at a glacial pace with a a journey to the stars that is really a journey deep into the heart of one man.
Yes, like Interstellar and First Man before it, two equally overblown movies that seek philosophy in outer space, Ad Astra subordinates its most compelling story for its least compelling one, then, as if it realizes how dull and lugubrious its is, throws in those space monkeys and moon pirates. Yet it's still utterly lifeless.
I couldn't tell you why the space monkeys are there, except to inject a note of suspense where there otherwise is none. The moon pirates are part of this plodding film's attempt at social observation, I guess. It's set in "the near future," when Virgin operates daily trips to the moon, whose spaceport has been taken over by Subway and Applebee's. Roy McBride (Brad Pitt) is an astronaut whose father (Tommy Lee Jones) was a pioneer in interstellar exploration. When a series of catastrophic bursts of cosmic energy hit Earth, Roy is recruited to investigate because they might have come from a long-missing spaceship on which his father could still be alive.
Writing that summary, it seems Ad Astra couldn't go wrong, but it does, badly. Its dismal and pessimistic vision of the future is anchored by the non-revelation is that sometimes we have go to outside to look within. Or some such psychobabble nonsense. Ad nauseum.
Viewed Sept. 28, 2019 -- AMC Universal (IMAX)
1300
Yes, like Interstellar and First Man before it, two equally overblown movies that seek philosophy in outer space, Ad Astra subordinates its most compelling story for its least compelling one, then, as if it realizes how dull and lugubrious its is, throws in those space monkeys and moon pirates. Yet it's still utterly lifeless.
I couldn't tell you why the space monkeys are there, except to inject a note of suspense where there otherwise is none. The moon pirates are part of this plodding film's attempt at social observation, I guess. It's set in "the near future," when Virgin operates daily trips to the moon, whose spaceport has been taken over by Subway and Applebee's. Roy McBride (Brad Pitt) is an astronaut whose father (Tommy Lee Jones) was a pioneer in interstellar exploration. When a series of catastrophic bursts of cosmic energy hit Earth, Roy is recruited to investigate because they might have come from a long-missing spaceship on which his father could still be alive.
Writing that summary, it seems Ad Astra couldn't go wrong, but it does, badly. Its dismal and pessimistic vision of the future is anchored by the non-revelation is that sometimes we have go to outside to look within. Or some such psychobabble nonsense. Ad nauseum.
Viewed Sept. 28, 2019 -- AMC Universal (IMAX)
1300
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