Ad Astra Review :: Ad Astra sends Brad Pitt to infinity and beyond

20th Century Fox

Seems like all of the leads from the Ocean’s 11 franchise are getting their own introspective space movies. George Clooney had Solaris, Matt Damon had The Martian and now Brad Pitt has Ad Astra which is sort of a blend of the other two. (Ben Affleck’s Armageddon doesn’t count because that was pre-Ocean’s 11, as was Sandra Bullock’s pre-Ocean’s 8 space movie Gravity).

Pitt stars as Roy McBride, an astronaut who is following in his father’s footsteps. After working on some kind of ground to space antenna which suffers a massive, catastrophic accident in the upper atmosphere that nearly kills McBride (good thing his suit was equipped with a parachute), he is called in by the military bigwigs after a bit of recovery time. But they don’t want to talk to him about the accident. It seems there have been bursts of anti-matter from the vicinity of Neptune, and they believe it is from the Project Lima ship which McBride’s father was on, the leader of the mission. McBride has believed two things about his father who disappeared while he was still a child: (1) he’s a hero and (2) he’s long dead. It comes as a bit of a shock to hear these people suggest McBride Sr. is still alive and the cause of the bursts which threaten the very fabric of the solar system. Would Roy be willing and able to go on a little trip to Mars, to a secure base there, and send an encrypted signal to the area of space near Neptune where they believe Clifford McBride is? They assume that hearing his son’s voice will get him to stop what he’s doing and come home.

Roy agrees and heads off first to the moon, a now popular tourist destination that also has its section of badlands patrolled by moon pirates, where he will launch to Mars from a military facility on the dark side. The trip to Mars isn’t an easy one, and there is tragedy on the way, and Mars is no picnic either, with McBride basically being told nothing after he sends the message to space. When he suspects they got a response, he barely manages to get back on the ship that brought him to the Red Planet (with the help of disgruntled employee Helen Lantos, played by Ruth Negga, whose parents were also on the Lima Project and are presumable dead), and after more tragedy ends up being the lone surviving crew member making the long trip to Neptune, giving Roy — and the audience — a lot of time with his thoughts before reaching his destination. But will he like what he finds?

Ad Astra, which means ‘to the stars’, is an admirable film but is it a good one? A movie that ends up becoming, for a long chunk of the running time, a one-man show is hard to pull off, trying to keep the audience engaged more with cinematic trickery than any actual action. Once Roy is alone on his journey, we just watch as he goes about his business through a series of overlapping visuals, suggesting Roy is losing his mind, while listening to Pitt’s voice over trying to retain his grasp on sanity. There really is a vast nothing between the planets and keeping your own sanity during this part of the film is also a bit of a struggle. But Pitt does give a good performance.

Speaking of performances, some of the big names in the cast have very little to do. Donald Sutherland is supposed to accompany Roy to Mars but is unable once they reach the moon. Ruth Negga is on screen for probably less than ten minutes during the Mars scene. Liv Tyler has not a line of dialogue in her few minutes of screen time, and Tommy Lee Jones doesn’t show up until Roy gets to Neptune. And for some reason there is a bizarre cameo by Natasha Lyonne where you go ‘what was Natasha Lyonne doing there?’ This is Brad Pitt’s movie (as it should be since he’s a producer).

And I’m no scientists, so I’m not sure how accurate the film’s science is. What I do know, and what was probably one of the most laughably egregious scientific moments in the movie (and I cant’ wait to see what Neill DeGrasse Tyson has to say about this), is that in the vacuum of space, you can’t just push off of nothing and turn your body around and come to a stop. But Roy does just that. Yes, the space suits to have little boosters on them to maneuver around but it doesn’t appear Roy does that. He just seems to push off of an invisible wall to make a 180 degree turn. I wasn’t the only one at the screening who noticed that.

The movie does look spectacular though, especially in a Dolby Cinema where the blackness of space is black and the seats rumble every time there’s a rocket engine lighting up. It certainly is an experience to see the film, but with those lush reclining seats, you may also have a problem staying awake. In space, no one can hear you snore … but that’s not the case in a theater full of people.

Ad Astra has a run time of 2 hours 2 minutes and is rated PG-13 for some violence and bloody images, and for brief strong language.