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By Jonathan Klotz
| Published
The fate of humanity is at stake, and only Brad Pitt, in one of his rare sci-fi roles, can save the known universe. On paper, Ad Astra sounds amazing; it was directed by James Gray, the award-winner responsible for We Own the Night a The Lost City of Zand it features Tommy Lee Jones and Donald Sutherland in the extended cast, so all the parts were in place to become a hit. Instead, the film is too well-made to be a good-bad film and too boring to be a crowd-pleaser, leaving it stuck in the middle where no film wants to be: having competently made, well acted, beautiful shots, but met with a collective shrug of indifference.
An Amazing Journey into Space
Ad Astra with humanity on the verge of collapse due to strange power surges from the depths of the solar system rocking the planet. There isn’t alienshowever, as it is a floating space station in Neptune’s orbit that is responsible for the surges. Brad Pitt, astronaut Roy McBride is sent to take care of a team to find out if anyone is still alive on the space station, “Project Lima,” which should include his father, the project manager, Clifford McBride, and played by Tommy Lee Jones.
Getting from point A to point B proves difficult, thanks, in part, to wild lab monkeys, space pirates, more power surges that hit their ship at the worst possible moment, and a series of double crosses . Ad Astra manages to get a lot under cover, but at the same time, very little of consequence. Escaped monkeys have nothing to do with the fate of the galaxy, so by the time the film gets to the real themes of the story, the bond between father and son, and humanity’s hopes for space exploration, it’s most viewers have tuned out.
Ad Astra Does Too Much
When a film is described as “slow,” that’s usually a reviewer’s code word for “boring” or “plodding,” and yes, Ad Astra is a slow film, but that’s because it’s the rare modern contemplative piece of big budget cinematography sci-fi. More 2001: A Space Odyssey than there is Star Wars, there is a potential genre classic hiding in the script and behind the beautiful shots of outer space, but the focus is too broad to encourage it to hide.
Ad Astra’s the transition to the third act occurs with a great moment of zeroing in on Roy, his relationships, what got him to this point, and what he hopes to achieve. That’s what the film excels at, and if there were more moments like that and less with escaped monkeys or space pirates, it could have reached the heights of other science fiction films like Solaris or Arrive.
Brad Pitt he doesn’t usually dabble in genre films, but when he does, he brings his A-game, oh Interview with the Vampire i 12 Monkeysa Ad Astra is an exception. With a running time of 124 minutes, shaving 10 or even 15 could have tightened the pace to produce something more memorable and thought-provoking instead of a film that tries to do too much and loses itself in the process.
Ad Astra is currently streaming on Hulu.
