Ad Astra Review

I'm a bit late on this one. Usually when I review a new movie, I like to get the review out on opening weekend if possible, or shortly thereafter. Perhaps within the week. But "Ad Astra" got released on September 20, on the same weekend as "Downton Abbey" and "Rambo: Last Blood." Today while I'm typing this, it is October 2. So perhaps you no longer care about "Ad Astra." But oh well. I finally got around to seeing it and I want to say a thing or two. It's interesting looking at that weekend because I ended up getting none of those movies reviewed. The reasoning for the other two is that I've not seen any episodes of "Downton Abbey," nor have I watched any "Rambo" film. So I didn't feel qualified to give those a review because I have nothing to compare to, even though I was assured that knowledge of previous materials  wasn't necessarily required. But still. With "Ad Astra," I was interested in seeing it in IMAX, so I decided to wait for a Tuesday to see it since my local IMAX theater has a $5 Tuesday deal for all IMAX showings, so that's what I do for IMAX movies since I don't like paying the regular $10,000 ticket price for an IMAX ticket. But last Tuesday I ended up being super busy, so I postponed my "Ad Astra" experience for another week. Now here we are.

"Ad Astra" continues our tradition of going off into space at least once a year. This is something that Hollywood has not missed a year on since "Gravity" in 2013. After "Gravity," we had "Interstellar" in 2014, "The Martian" in 2015, "Passengers" in 2016, "Life" in 2017 and "First Man" in 2018. And when I talk about space movies, I'm not counting "Star Wars," "Star Trek" or "Guardians of the Galaxy." I'm talking about these movies that attempt a somewhat realistic portrayal of space travel, calling back to Stanley Kubrick's classic "2001: A Space Odyssey." The action/adventure franchises that happen to take place in a fictional version of space are a completely different thing in my books. Space travel is the central focus of these movies rather than space being simply the setting of the adventure, if that makes sense. Because we as human beings have always been obsessed with space travel, especially since it became a real possibility in the mid-20th Century. In regards to these movies, I've always really enjoyed. Granted, there's various levels of quality. "Passengers" is a straight-up bad movie and "Interstellar" has a final act that completely derails it. But I like the general concept. It's an excellent subgenre of film and thus I'm always down for our next space adventure.

The specific comparison for "Ad Astra" is a bit of a unique conversation. I've heard a lot of people saying it's a lot like "Interstellar." It's not. Unless you point to "Interstellar" as the pioneer of this subgenre. Which again... it's not. "2001: A Space Odyssey" is the pioneer here and "Ad Astra" definitely takes inspiration from that, as all of these movies do. We'll come back to "2001" here in a bit because that's a critical comparison, but "Ad Astra" is kind of its own thing. Brad Pitt stars as Major Roy McBride and he goes on an adventure to find his dad, famous astronaut H. Clifford McBride, who has been gone for 30 years and specifically been missing (and assumed dead by Roy and others) for a good majority of those years after arriving at Neptune. The reason that Roy accepts a mission to go find him is because there's been some power surges affecting the solar system and the government believes that they can be traced to Clifford McBride's Lima Project on Neptune, thus revealing that Clifford is actually alive, so they send Roy on a secret mission to figure out what's going on and to stop the Lima Project from threatening the solar system. So yeah, I'm having a hard time pinpointing exactly what that's closest to, which I think is a plus.

Even though this is a space movie that is grounded in reality, if you need your space physics to be perfectly accurate, take turn and run right now because this movie is set in the "near future" where they've made a lot of advancements. We've already made colonies on the Moon and Mars. There's even a Subway on the Moon. Travelling up to the Moon is like taking a plane cross country. It's a piece of cake and doesn't take much time. Politics, wars and scavenging have even began on the Moon's colonies. Travelling from the Moon to Mars isn't that much harder, either. When the astronauts are flying in their ships, there's something up with their suits that make it easy to navigate when they're outside the ships so they don't accidentally float off into oblivion. It's not a full-on Iron Man or Captain Marvel suit, but it's not too far from that, either. And here's the big kicker. It only takes 79 days to travel from Mars to Neptune. If all of this completely messes with your brain and you can't handle it, then just don't bother. It presents a Utopian society of sorts when it comes to space. One that we've always dreamed of being possible that the movie decides has become possible. I found that I really enjoyed myself being out in this futuristic, yet realistic atmosphere.

The movie also has a very mysterious element to it and that's where the movie grabbed my attention and never let go. It's not some sort of random, upbeat space adventure where disaster and tragedy happens halfway through. There's an immediate, imminent danger right from the very beginning that no one is certain about. The government thinks it's coming from Project Lima and they're confident in Roy's abilities to help them out. But nothing is certain. And even if it is Clifford turned completely rogue, which the government refuses to reveal since they've already deemed him a space hero after he went missing, the reasoning behind all of that is completely unknown. So Roy is traveling to what could be a very precarious situation, thus the atmosphere and tone reflect that. I spent the whole movie feeling quite uneasy at what was about to happen and there's certain events that take place in the first half of the movie that I won't spoil that makes this whole situation even more bizarre and uncomfortable. Thus when I hear from people that this movie is boring, slow and uneventful, I begin to wonder if I was shown a different copy of this movie because I was very interested in learning what the frack was going on and I thought the movie was paced very well.

But at the same time, I get it. And this is where I mentioned earlier that the comparison to "2001: A Space Odyssey" is a vital one. Last year was the 50th Anniversary of the movie and thus I was rather excited to get a group of my friends together to watch this masterpiece of a film when that anniversary took place. And while a few of my friends did appreciate the experience, most people there were bored to tears and hated the experience. It inspired a marathon of all of the "Sharknado" movies instead of sparking a conversation about the most influential sci-fi movie ever made. I don't want to sound all high and mighty by saying "2001" is a movie that only the true lovers of film will enjoy, but it is admittedly a bit of an acquired taste. It didn't receive unanimous praise by everyone when it came out in 1968, nor is it a movie that is universally praised today. Thus I can also understand a bit of a rift when it comes to a movie like "Ad Astra" that takes inspiration from "2001." Critics gave "Ad Astra" general high praise as it has an 83 percent, certified fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes, but the audience score is a pathetic 40 percent while the movie earned a fairly dismal B- on Cinemascore. It clearly isn't connecting with everyone.

My only conclusion to the matter that I can give is that if you are a fan of the slower, more methodical pace of something like "2001," then you should certainly give "Ad Astra" a shot because it has a similar. I hate to use the word slow because that always carries a negative connotation, but the movie is very careful and methodical. And if you watch it in a chair that is too comfortable or you watch it when you haven't had quite enough sleep or it's late at night, then you might be in danger of drifting off into a deep slumber. While I do feel it has a very uneasy tone that kept me paying attention, it's no "Star Wars" movie. There's no high-paced action sequences spread throughout to keep you awake. When I left the theater, I eavesdropped on a conversation where a certain gentleman clearly missed the finale of the movie as the person with him was describing exactly what had happened. Plot points that should've been easily picked up on had he been awake to see it. I'm very well aware that the movie might have that type of effect on you. If you're one of my friends who hated "2001: A Space Odyssey," skip "Ad Astra." It's not your movie. But if you're willing to be patient and you like a movie that makes you stop and think, then "Ad Astra" is very rewarding.

The unfortunate circumstances with this review, though, is that there's a lot more about this movie that I want to say, but my hands are tied and my lips are going to be zipped. While the first two acts are mysterious and intriguing, it's that third act that completely blew my mind, making me walk out of the theater in a very emotional, reflective state. There's a part of me that wants to clue you in a little bit about what I'm referring to since it's been two weeks that this movie has been out, but I'm not going to. All that I'll say is that there's some powerful acting on the part of Brad Pitt. He's able to express some very strong emotions while using a lot of restraint. And the people that are in the scene with him do a job that is equally as good. I won't name names. You can go check IMDb if you are overly curious. In regards to our recent space movies that I mentioned earlier in this review, I still think "Gravity" is the best of them all and that's followed closely behind by "The Martian." But I'll comfortably put "Ad Astra" there in third place. Just for fun, my ranking there will be rounded out by "First Man," "Life," "Interstellar" and "Passengers" in that exact order. This is a very rewarding film if you're prepared for the experience you're about to get. My grade for "Ad Astra" is a 9/10.