'Ad Astra' A Review

Ad Astra is a science fiction film set in the near future where space exploration has been expanded to the moon, Mars, and beyond. The Earth is bombarded with anti-matter power surges causing major black outs and SpaceCom Major Roy McBride(Brad Pitt) is sent to communicate with the source who they believe to be his father(Tommy Lee Jones) previously presumed dead.

Pitt is ok as the extremely reserved and restrained stoic spaceman who only occasionally shows disquiet or contentment. Pitt does very little, the character as written is very passive, and is unable to replicate the zen-like but still charismatic tightrope of Once Upon A Time In Hollywood. Writer/director James Gray asks a very specific thing from his leads and this outing is not nearly as successful as Charlie Hunnam minimal but evocative performance in Gray's previous film The Lost City of Z. Pitt is serviceable but in doing so little the result is boring rather than contemplative, his moments of emotion comparatively so big they ring false. His monotone voiceover doesn't contribute it only hinders. Pitt is also virtually the only character with any screen time, we see Jones almost exclusively in old video messages that Pitt's character watches and the various stars who have cameos - Ruth Negga, Donald Sutherland, Liv Tyler- are given little time and virtually no dimension to balance Pitt's monastic non-performance.

The production design succeeds in virtually every aspect. Visually the film is breathtaking. Rich eerie colors and bizarre sets, with seemingly little CGI, evoke an alien quality we don't necessarily associate with out own solar system. The score is melodic and minimal with moments of silence punctuating both action and isolation. There's a couple of exceptionally striking sequences- a moon shoot-out, a rescue mission, stowing away- but the sum doesn't quite live up to it's parts.

Aesthetically astounding but lacking emotional punch or intellectual epiphany.

See It.