Ad Astra (2019)

User Review

• 

  d_riptide

  7 / 10

  I thought I was gonna be in the minority here. I knew “Ad Astra” probably wasn’t gonna be a cinematic achievement but I honestly thought it was gonna end up as just another space movie. I am monstrously surprised at how much I kind of enjoyed this movie. The film is a surreal blend of a visually inventive science fiction odyssey and a rather generic scenario between the heart and bond between father and son. It’s luxurious cinematography, highly intriguing set-pieces and its attempts at telling us its plethora of lofty themes sets the baseline for a film that’s aesthetically vast, beautiful, mesmerizing and was bound to be somewhat thought provoking thanks to a very human story and with Brad Pitt’s gradually improving performance banter, it succeeds....for the most part.
  
  However, a majority of the characters come across as bland and forgettable due to the acting and normally, when you can’t find them interesting, you can’t find the movie interesting either. And even I am being generous when I say Roy and Clifford McBride were made interesting characters but Pitt and Jones carry the whole damn movie on their shoulders after the first hour. Granted, even with its thrills and investment, at the end of the day, it just leads to Roy endlessly cataloging the vast cosmos of space seeking life, discovery and the meaning of existence around glorified wallpapers, in which feels like a modern day sandbox game. And it is legitimate style over substance again, especially with its cliches. But there’s a lot to discover and find in this movie, no questions asked, as well as the ominous lesson that the farther you move away from life, the more desolate you become. The idea of continually looking outwards has its benefits but but sometimes the need to look out is more about trying to avoid looking inwards.
  
  
  It’s no masterpiece but it isn’t monotonous or tedious either.

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