Movie Reaction: Ad Astra

The Pitch: (The Lord of the Rings / 3) + Space

I can't be the only one who fully had no idea what Ad Astra was going in. I've seen trailers for it: many times, in fact. I know the component parts - starring Brad Pitt, Tommy Lee Jones, directed by James Gray (The Lost City of Z). I was aware that is a space movie. It has something to do with Pitt rescuing his dad (Jones). But really, I had no idea what the movie was. Mystery, action, thriller, horror, SciFi? It looked like one of those movies where the trailer is made entirely out of the first 15 minutes of the movie, and it ends up being about something completely different. As far as I was concerned, everything from vampires to screwball comedy was still on the table when I bought my ticket.

So, let me clarify things for you. Ad Astra is mostly the movie they advertised. It's sort of an adventure movie minus the thrills. It's set in a slightly distant future where space travel is common enough that the moon has become a vacation destination, but you need a military clearance to get to Mars. Roy McBride (Pitt) is a decorated astronaut: the son of a legendary astronaut (Jones) who disappeared on a mission to Neptune many years earlier. The universe starts getting hit by electrical flairs that are causing mayhem and killing thousands, potentially billions. The flairs appear to be coming from the same area that Roy's father disappeared to. Roy is then called to make his way to Mars to get a message out to his now presumed-alive father, which eventually takes him all the way to Neptune.

That's the plot, at least. Tonally, this movie is a lot like the director's last movie: The Lost City of Z. It's about Pitt as a laconic protagonist being driven to go on this long, dangerous journey. Everything is very quiet and sterile. Pitt drops all of his movie star charisma. His character is known for never letting anything bother him. Even in the most extreme circumstances, he never loses his cool. His heart rate has never hit above 86 in any situation. As a result, Pitt is a passenger in the movie, even when he's actively participating. The story drives forward and Pitt does exactly what he needs to to keep up. In a way, this is a "People doing their damn jobs" movie, except Pitt's job is Space Ranger.

I'm having a hard time figuring out how I feel about this movie. I liked it, I think. Pitt is in his Benjamin Button and Assassination of Jesse James mode but playing a role that would generally look more like Troy or World War Z. It's weird to see such a disinterested action movie lead. Normally, movies that are this plot-driven annoy me, however, the plot only drives the story because Pitt's character lets it. It's a date with destiny. An inevitability. The movie left me cold, and that was by design.

Pitt has the only significant character in the movie. Tommy Lee Jones isn't in it as much as he hangs over it. When he does finally show up, he's asked to catch the audience up on decades of character development in a very small amount of time. It doesn't really work. Ruth Negga, Donald Sutherland, and Donnie Keshawarz all takes turns as Pitt's interplanetary Sherpas. Negga in particular feels underutilized, even though it wouldn't make sense for her to be in it more. Natasha Lyonne has a lone scene that sticks out as one of the only moments of levity in the movie.

I'm a fan of the world-building of the movie. It doesn't try too hard or pat itself on the back for every detail. Many futuristic movies love to prove how much they thought everything through (I'm looking at you, Downsizing). The filmmakers make the mistake of thinking that because they thought about how, say, the highway system works in this world, they need to find an excuse to mention it. However, audiences don't care about that unless there's a car chase in the movie. Ad Astra has plenty of future theorism in it, but it's happy to leave it in the background. It doesn't over explain which ends up making it all more believable.

It's probably safe to lump Ad Astra in with all the other space movies from the last decade. It's less poetic than Interstellar. More esoteric than Gravity. Less distant than First Man. It appeals to nearly the same audience as those. I think...I liked it. It's certainly a more engaging movie than I expected. The length (only a little over 2 hours) wore on me, but I think that was international. How about I leave it with this? In a year when Brad Pitt's Oscar discussion will rightfully center around Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, it's a shame that Ad Astra won't get mentioned more.

Verdict: Weakly Recommend