A man journeys across a lawless solar system to find his missing father -- a renegade scientist who poses a threat to humanity.
Since 20th Century Fox merged with Disney, the remaining titles that Fox had ready for release have come out with less than brilliant critic scores. X-Men: Dark Phoenix was widely panned, and Stuber was not received well (I still stand by my review that Stuber was a fun and highly enjoyable flick). Ad Astra is the latest film to add to that list of releases, but does it break the trend of poorly reviewed flicks to end 20th Century Fox's run? Actually, it does quite well.
What is immediately apparent is that Ad Astra is visually breath-taking. With gorgeous shots and overall spectacularly framed cinematography from Hoyte van Hoytema (best known for his work with Christopher Nolan on Interstellar and Dunkirk), Ad Astra manages to build convincing near-future worlds, with environments on Earth, The Moon, Mars, and beyond, all dressed in their own unique styles. The claustrophobic nature of underground bunkers, the cold, limitless expanse of space, or the black unknown of underwater caverns, each scene feels real.
The film is an absolute slow burn, however, and anyone wishing to see the film needs to be aware of this beforehand. This is no Gravity or Interstellar, Ad Astra is a combination of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey and Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now. With minimal dialogue from our main protagonist (portrayed by Brad Pitt), instead, making use of voiceover narration, and procedural processes to provide exposition and emotional explanations in the face of a character that has the range of facial expressions equal to that of a brick wall.
The whole film is not such a slow-paced film. Nearly every leg of the journey is interrupted by an out-of-place action scene. Out-of-place in such a manner that it feels as if the scenes come from a completely different style of movie. Scenes that also have no bearing on the remainder of the film and are most likely addendums added to each act in order to try and make the film appeal to a more mainstream audience. These scenes are well-shot and exciting to watch, but their inconsequential nature and lack of tonal consistency do reduce the impact of those scenes.
It is the deliberately measured pace of the remainder of the film that sets it apart from other space flicks. With a much stronger focus on the procedural aspects of space travel, the audience is treated to a much more realistic interpretation of life as an astronaut, with constant psychological tests, issues from zero gravity on the structure of the body, the use of feeding tubes, and a lot of political and bureaucratic hoops to go through to get anything done. Almost peaceful in its emphasis on the less desirable aspects of space travel.
While the style of the film makes it stand out compared to other modern releases, the story covers nothing new. A shiny-looking skin, but still a recycled plot that we have all seen before. For a film that seems to want to be an intellectual, contemplative piece, it fails to go deeper into any of the psychological elements that pop up during the films 123-minute runtime.
Still, this was quite an enjoyable film. Brad Pitt pulls off a Ryan Gosling-esque performance with similarities to the portrayals of Neil Armstrong and K from First Man and Blade Runner 2049 (respectively). Tommy Lee Jones is Tommy Lee Jones; that gruff, stubborn man that looks far too close to death for comfort. Ad Astra pulls off a slow burn, that despite the inconsistent tone and unoriginal plot beats, keeps you thoroughly engaged from start to finish.