Ad Astra

Ad Astra – In the near future a mysterious electrical surge coming from the edges of the solar system causes chaos and deaths on Earth. Astronaut Brad Pitt is assigned the mission of investigating the occurrence, which authorities think may be linked to the disappearance of his father, also an astronaut, on a mission to Neptune 16 years previously.

Ad Astra (2019) – Director: James Gray

By Source, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=61092966

Rating: 12

Running Length: 122 mins

Starring: Brad Pitt, Tommy Lee Jones, Donald Sutherland, Ruth Negga, Liv Tyler

Genre: Science Fiction, Drama

REVIEW: ‘AD ASTRA’

Ad Astra sets up a ‘long voyage into the unknown story’ with some family motivations thrown in for good measure. Some of the trailers may give the impression that the movie is a rollicking, action-packed space adventure. In fact it’s a relatively slow-paced, ruminative psychological drama about emotionally constipated men grappling with their own mortality in the face of an infinite and uncaring universe.

Sure, there are a handful of well staged action scenes, but they are bolted on to the main narrative rather than emerging organically from the drama and characters. They are like scenes from a slightly sillier, more pulpy and frankly more fun movie. Such sequences seem to exist solely to justify killing off secondary characters so that the protagonist can make the final stretch of his quest alone.

Brad Pitt gives a mature and subtle performance as a man whose immense composure and self control mask inner turmoil. A pity then that some clumsy dialogue makes him spell all this out in regular psych evaluation scenes, when in fact we can already see his conflicting feelings being expressed on his face and in his body language. When Tommy Lee Jones joins the cast his presence is impressive. He manages to suggest with the merest of glances the mental and emotional toll his experiences have taken on him. The rest of the group is less fortunate, as writer-director Gray doesn’t seem to be interested in any characters beyond the central family dynamic. Sadly, Liv Tyler as Pitt’s wife is especially poorly served.

It’s also frustrating that Ad Astra can’t seem to nail what it is about. The film opens with captions describing how humanity is looking to the stars in the hopes of finding other intelligent life out there and building a better future, but ultimately conflates the father’s dedication to finding extra-terrestrial intelligence with misanthropy and madness. Family and exploration are clashing priorities but Ad Astra has no point to make on either.

There’s some interesting and even witty world-building around the edges of the story, with both the colonies on the Moon and Mars depicted as slightly ramshackle, Wild West communities. The Moon in particular is an amusingly tacky tourist trap and the site of often violent conflict over competing territorial claims, and you end up disappointed that the film doesn’t spend more time there.

Overall this is a handsomely mounted film with some impressive sequences and performances, but it all boils down to a “Daddy didn’t love me!” emotional collapsing star. So if you’re expecting an exciting space exploration adventure you might be disappointed.

CONTENT: IS ‘AS ASTRA’ SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN?

In the opening vertigo-inducing action scene several technicians are working on a structure high above the earth. A series of explosions makes several of them fall to their deaths, and we follow one of them as he plummets and spins uncontrollably through the atmosphere. He is in great danger but remains calm.

During a chase scene across the moon’s surface bandits shoot at characters on another moon buggy. Several buggies crash, throwing people into the dust, and one character is shot dead through the head, although all we see is a cracked helmet, with no blood or injury visible.

Exploring an abandoned space station, one character is suddenly attacked by a baboon which was being used for animal experiments. We see an astronaut trembling as something attacks his head, and then the ape emerges, screaming and showing bloody fangs, and leaps towards the camera. After fighting it off, Pitt seals it in a compartment and then decompresses it, and blood spatters onto the door window as it dies. We then see some gory detail of the man who was attacked: one hand is bloody and mangled and his nose has been bitten off. The whole scene is quite intense and scary, and the facial injuries are clearly shown. The character is then declared to be dead.

One character stows away on a rocket. Once they realise the intruder is there, two astronauts attack him. During the struggle a poisonous gas is accidentally released, which suffocates and kills several characters, who are seen choking briefly before ceasing to struggle.

On another abandoned space station several corpses float around in zero gravity. One of them has a blood-spattered plastic bag over his head. There are bloody hand prints on the walls.

There is one brief use of the word “f***ing”, and one “son of a b****”.

CAN I SEE A CLIP?

VERDICT: IS ‘AD ASTRA’ FOR KIDS?

A lengthy and meditative space exploration film which may test younger viewers’ patience, despite the occasional tense action scene. Two uses of strong language and one scary and gory scene make this suitable for children over the age of 10.

• Violence: 2/5 (three fight scenes involving gunfire and death, although injuries are rarely shown. One very gory scene showing the effects of an animal attack)
• Emotional Distress: 1/5 (the protagonist emotionally confronts his estranged father)
• Fear Factor: 3/5 (several scenes of physical peril and threat)
• Sexual Content: 0/5
• Bad Language: 3/5 (One use of the F-word, one use of “son of a b****”)
• Dialogue: 1/5 (conversations about lingering emotional trauma following a parent’s death)
• Other notes: (madness, misanthropy and absent, emotionally distant fathers)

Words by Simon Litton