Review: Ad Astra

Ad Astra (Spoilers in the footnotes)
Cert: 12A / 123 mins / Dir. James Gray / Trailer



"Y'know what, Terry?" said the HR assistant at Space Command Headquarters as he mused over a crumbling Hob-Nob, "I'm starting to think that blasting emotionally repressed people with clearly unresolved family issues into the unflinching void of space could be what's causing our problems, rather than solving them...". Alas, this ponderous scene was cut from the final theatrical presentation of James Gray's Ad Astra. All the other ponderous scenes were left firmly attached, but let's hold out for a director's-cut reinstatement on the Blu-ray, yeah?

MISSION

So. Brad Pitt plays Roy McBride, a near-future astronaut specially selected for a mission to contact The Lima Project, an exploration vessel which disappeared decades earlier carrying his astronaut father Clifford (Tommy Lee Jones). Donald Sutherland turns up for ten minutes in an attempt to add gravitas to a largely gravity-free environment. Liv Tyler plays Brad's wife Mrs McBride*¹ who stays on Earth looking sad and out of focus.

For better or worse, Ad Astra is almost exactly The Space Film™ you think it's going to be. There are deliberate and repeated nods to the world of 2001 of course*², as well as tonal references to First Man, Interstellar, The Martian, The Black Hole, Armageddon and Gravity. Hell, there are even notes of Alien*³ and Total Recall in this. All I'm saying is that since Brad has to go on a secret mission to Mars with overtones of conspiracy theory and unexpected combat, why not just make this a Doom sequel and have done with it*⁴?

SISTERS

While there's some stunning cinematography*⁵, the film spends so much time gazing out of the window and stroking its chin that it hopes the cracks in the story won't be visible*⁶. Those don't matter when held up to the emotional core of the film, but even that substance itself is slight given the wasted potential of the acting talent on board. The screenplay is not afraid to ask questions, but doesn't really have the vocabulary to ask them clearly, so no satisfying answers are forthcoming.

Ad Astra feels very on-the-nose and offers little that audiences won't have enjoyed elsewhere. That said, the film looks outstanding and is sure to be worth the uplift of an IMAX ticket. Only you can decide if that's a mission worth accepting...

Well I think we've covered that.



For the visuals, yes.



This is going to lose a lot on its way to the small screen (even if your telly's huge).



No.



Yes.



No.



Level 2: Liv Tyler is in this (just about), and she was in that Lord Of The Rings alongside Christopher 'Dooku' Lee and Andy 'Snoke' Serkis and Elijah 'Rucklin' Wood.





*¹ We don't hear her character say much but Liv is seen swigging from a 2-litre bottle of Irn Bru at one point, so it's safe to assume her name literally means "Scottish Wife". A disappointing lack of imagination, there. ^{[ BACK ]}

*² Although speaking of in-universe continuity, I haven't seen Space Cowboys but I know Tommy Lee Jones and Donald Sutherland are in that so I'm just assuming this is part of the same cinematic universe. Do not @ me to say Tommy or Donald die in that film or somesuch so that can't be the case, my mind is made up. I am still not going to watch Space Cowboys either way. ^{[ BACK ]}

*³ And it turns out Tommy Lee Jones was the monster all along! Gnawing his way through the scenery like an acid-bleeding Xenomorph to the barely concealed horror of anyone trapped in a room with him. You can dial it down mate, this isn't Event Horizon... ^{[ BACK ]}

*⁴ Angry Space Baboon™? FUCK YES. ^{[ BACK ]}

*⁵ Although there's so much lens-flare here that I expected to see JJ Abrams' Enterprise edging into the frame at any moment.
^{[ BACK ]}

*⁶ Why does Brad need to travel to Mars in the first place, though? They tell him it's so they can broadcast a clear signal out to the edge of the solar system, but they only send an audio recording. He could have made an mp3 on Earth and e-mailed that over to Mars for them to forward. I know they then try to detain Brad afterwards, but they could have just done that on Earth and saved the petrol. Who's in charge at Space Command? No wonder they're in trouble.

Also, what has Tommy Lee Jones been eating and drinking on that ship for the last three decades? It's not big enough to have its own garden or eco-system, and he'd be dead from vitamin deficiency if he'd tried to survive on packaged rations. Less of the science more of the fiction, I think. Which I suppose is fine, but y'know... ^{[ BACK ]}


DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.