Ad Astra (2019)
For what seems like years Ad Astra has been on the verge of being released but whenever we would near a scheduled release date the film would be pushed back. Due to this, the film became somewhat a running joke with many even doubting that it would ever even stick to a release date. This also made it extremely hard to judge what this movie was quality-wise. With switching between different release dates at various points of the year it was unclear if this film would be a serious awards contender, summer blockbuster, or total flop that they were simply waiting for the right time to drop. Finally, Ad Astra got a release date early into the awards season and finally made its premiere at the Venice International Film Festival where it got a good amount of acclaim. Still, though going to the theater to finally see the movie I was a bit hesitant, traditionally a film being pushed back how this film was is far from a good thing and early hype does very little for me as time and time again I have been burned by false praise from the first audiences to view a project. It also was hard for me to get too engaged with this film before viewing it due to avoiding most marketing for the film, I try to go into most films as blind as possible and didn't end up seeing the trailer for Ad Astra so I didn't know what to expect. What I got really shocked me, this film was not simply good but rather out of this world. It was nearly perfectly crafted and touched me on a deeper level than nearly any other film this year. It was to the point where it even got a clear stream of tears from me which is almost never seen.
Ad Astra follows Major Roy McBride (Brad Pitt), an astronaut who was inspired to pursue his career path from his father (Tommy Lee Jones) who became known as a national hero for his dedication and drive to find life outside of our planet. Years ago he joined the Lima Project which set out to search far planets for life by getting far enough away from the sun to where it will have no gravitation effect on their research tools. The mission is presumed to have ended in tragedy when they lose all communication with the craft and crew on board. One day though the earth is hit with a serious of powerful power surges causing mass death. These surges keep hitting and it is found out that they are coming from Neptune and are made using antimatter, the same material that fueled the Lima Project. In fear of the power these surges could have on the world, they decide to send Roy to Mars to directly try and speak with his father who they believe are launching these attacks for an unknown reason.
Ad Astra follows Major Roy McBride (Brad Pitt), an astronaut who was inspired to pursue his career path from his father (Tommy Lee Jones) who became known as a national hero for his dedication and drive to find life outside of our planet. Years ago he joined the Lima Project which set out to search far planets for life by getting far enough away from the sun to where it will have no gravitation effect on their research tools. The mission is presumed to have ended in tragedy when they lose all communication with the craft and crew on board. One day though the earth is hit with a serious of powerful power surges causing mass death. These surges keep hitting and it is found out that they are coming from Neptune and are made using antimatter, the same material that fueled the Lima Project. In fear of the power these surges could have on the world, they decide to send Roy to Mars to directly try and speak with his father who they believe are launching these attacks for an unknown reason.
First, I want to address the characters and acting in the film as this is the main area where I have heard complaints about the movie brought up. This movie overall has a really solid cast, actors like Ruth Negga, Liv Tyler, Natasha Lyonne, and Jamie Kennedy all have parts in this film and all are giving really solid performances (Ruth Negga especially stands out here) but are very much so side characters. They are never given anything substantial to chew on performance-wise and don't have any real impact on the story. Some have been quite critical of this calling them a waste of talent which I agree with to a point, it is clear to me that these actors could really impress if given more to do and some even have interesting characters that start to get set up again going back to Ruth Negga's character of Helen. Though I don't think that expanding these roles would have been such a good idea either, first the runtime is already at about 2 hours long not leaving a ton of room to add new characters and narratives. Just looking logistically at how the movie is put together adding more characters would almost certainly lead to uninteresting and unsatisfying side plots that have no place which is already seen in the film with Donald Sutherland's character Colonel Pruitt. This is a side character which they try to do more with but end up having to cut out of the picture before he really could even get going and ended up feeling like the one part of the film that could have been trimmed. Not only would adding more characters affect the film negatively from a runtime perspective but also from a narrative perspective. This movie is focused on the journey that Roy is going on which is deeply personal and emotional, it wouldn't work nearly as well if it got mixed in with someone else tagging along and overall the strong focus that the film has is one of it's biggest strengths in my opinion.
It also does help that Roy's story is so impactful and engaging at least with me personally. Roy had closed the chapter of his life involving his dad beliving like everyone else that he had died so to have those emotions rip open and used how they are in this film is tough. Even when directly sending his father messages Roy has to read prepared statements not allowing him to say anything that he is holding deep down. This look at his emotions is perfectly explored in both multiple mental evaluations the character has to go through and nearly poetic narration that reminded me a lot of the narration from The Tree of Life (and not just because that was another film which Brad Pitt starred in). These devices to explore these deeper emotions which are hard to bring to life in a film I found to be smart and effective. The actual story here and where they go with this relationship is also a big positive for me, I kept worrying that it would fall into some boring and dull cliche and without giving anything away I will say that it didn't thankfully. Overall it is this grounded and emotional story that made this film connect with me so strongly and made it easily one of my favorite films of the year to this point. Brad Pitt also is just marvelous here, where I am worried his performance is going to get lost especially in contrast to his work as Cliff Booth in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood earlier this year due to not only the film being bigger but the performance being much flashier but his performance here is honestly one of the best of his career in my opinion. Sure it is, for the most part, quiet and subtle but it is also extremely effective and builds so nicely to the more dramatic and bigger emotional scenes.
It also does help that Roy's story is so impactful and engaging at least with me personally. Roy had closed the chapter of his life involving his dad beliving like everyone else that he had died so to have those emotions rip open and used how they are in this film is tough. Even when directly sending his father messages Roy has to read prepared statements not allowing him to say anything that he is holding deep down. This look at his emotions is perfectly explored in both multiple mental evaluations the character has to go through and nearly poetic narration that reminded me a lot of the narration from The Tree of Life (and not just because that was another film which Brad Pitt starred in). These devices to explore these deeper emotions which are hard to bring to life in a film I found to be smart and effective. The actual story here and where they go with this relationship is also a big positive for me, I kept worrying that it would fall into some boring and dull cliche and without giving anything away I will say that it didn't thankfully. Overall it is this grounded and emotional story that made this film connect with me so strongly and made it easily one of my favorite films of the year to this point. Brad Pitt also is just marvelous here, where I am worried his performance is going to get lost especially in contrast to his work as Cliff Booth in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood earlier this year due to not only the film being bigger but the performance being much flashier but his performance here is honestly one of the best of his career in my opinion. Sure it is, for the most part, quiet and subtle but it is also extremely effective and builds so nicely to the more dramatic and bigger emotional scenes.
The other main point I hear complaints about is the few more action-based scenes that are at a few points in the movie. Some have said these scenes feel out of place and even like the studio simply wanted some more action scenes to market the film with. Where this could be true I really failed to have issues with these scenes for a couple of reasons. First, they are just really cool and well done, this is easily some of the best space-combat I have ever seen on film. They do so much not just in terms of playing with the unique physics and logistics that come with fighting in space but also widen that to things like the sound design. This movie is so wonderfully mixed especially in these action scenes, it will go from silence to sounds of huge impacts as the sound waves hit the characters. It is so unique and helps make this movie stand out greatly. Second, it does add something to this environment. James Gray once said that this movie would show the brutality of space and it definitely does accomplish that. Through simple realistic situations, they show conflict in space and how that could be in the near future which is something that has not really been discussed anywhere else. It constantly feels like anything and everything can and will go wrong which sure doesn't directly add to the emotional journey Brad Pitt is going on does create a really powerful environment without being distracting.
The cinematography and score are also just incredible. I mean this has to be some of my favorite visuals I have ever seen in a movie, not only do they use really great visual effects but they are so smart with their shot composition and overall aesthetics. Very similar to Blade Runner 2049 (though admittedly nowhere near that level) this movie has such a wonderful eye behind its lense and creates just some spectacular environments. The score from Max Richter is also really wonderful, it is a bit more subtle than most scores that will stand out to me but it was so perfectly used and is so beautiful on its own. As I mentioned before this movie is so masterfully put together, this is a great example at a film that kept being pushed back and changed to make it as clean and perfect as possible and they nearly achieved perfection in my opinion which can clearly be seen with how they use these elements like cinematography and score. Way past the digital elements the actual physical portion of the film is also really well done from a production perspective. This has easily some of my favorite production design of the year not only building some really wonderful spaceships but the sets in the stations on the various planets are also really well put together. They all have drastically unique aesthetics and really just impressed me with how creative they were. They stood out, especially when put in comparison to other space movies and similar to Blade Runner 2049 just created a world I got sucked completely into. The costume designs were also all solid, they do stand out a bit less due to being just spacesuits but I still thought they looked good and stood out enough to feel unique and fresh.
Overall if it wasn't clear enough from this review so far I absolutely loved Ad Astra. Out of nowhere, this film has become one of my favorite films of the year and dare I say that after a few rewatches might become one of my favorite films of the decade. It is so masterfully put together and crafted that the only flaw I can find in it is the small side plot with Donald Sutherland. Still, though that is just a small side plot that doesn't really lead anywhere and is abandoned in the first third of the film, most films would kill for something that small to be the biggest issue that they faced. I beg of you to go see Ad Astra on the big screen, not only is this one of those movies that need to be seen in a theatre on a big screen to truly appreciate its visuals and scope of the film but also the box office is huge for a movie like this. It has been said time and time again that Disney has been apprehensive about continuing to make decently sized budget films like this which are directed towards mature audiences and if these films underperform at the box office there is no doubt in my mind that they will get harder and harder to come by. I am legitimately worried about the future for these types of films and the only way we can help their future is by going to the theatre and supporting them financially. So if you decide to go to Ad Astra know that you are supporting an important part of cinema that is at risk. Ad Astra is the perfect way to begin the 2019 awards season, where I don't think it is going to find a lot of success when it comes to the major award shows this year it is absolute to the level that you would expect films coming in this time period to be and really just blew me away in just about every way.
The cinematography and score are also just incredible. I mean this has to be some of my favorite visuals I have ever seen in a movie, not only do they use really great visual effects but they are so smart with their shot composition and overall aesthetics. Very similar to Blade Runner 2049 (though admittedly nowhere near that level) this movie has such a wonderful eye behind its lense and creates just some spectacular environments. The score from Max Richter is also really wonderful, it is a bit more subtle than most scores that will stand out to me but it was so perfectly used and is so beautiful on its own. As I mentioned before this movie is so masterfully put together, this is a great example at a film that kept being pushed back and changed to make it as clean and perfect as possible and they nearly achieved perfection in my opinion which can clearly be seen with how they use these elements like cinematography and score. Way past the digital elements the actual physical portion of the film is also really well done from a production perspective. This has easily some of my favorite production design of the year not only building some really wonderful spaceships but the sets in the stations on the various planets are also really well put together. They all have drastically unique aesthetics and really just impressed me with how creative they were. They stood out, especially when put in comparison to other space movies and similar to Blade Runner 2049 just created a world I got sucked completely into. The costume designs were also all solid, they do stand out a bit less due to being just spacesuits but I still thought they looked good and stood out enough to feel unique and fresh.
Overall if it wasn't clear enough from this review so far I absolutely loved Ad Astra. Out of nowhere, this film has become one of my favorite films of the year and dare I say that after a few rewatches might become one of my favorite films of the decade. It is so masterfully put together and crafted that the only flaw I can find in it is the small side plot with Donald Sutherland. Still, though that is just a small side plot that doesn't really lead anywhere and is abandoned in the first third of the film, most films would kill for something that small to be the biggest issue that they faced. I beg of you to go see Ad Astra on the big screen, not only is this one of those movies that need to be seen in a theatre on a big screen to truly appreciate its visuals and scope of the film but also the box office is huge for a movie like this. It has been said time and time again that Disney has been apprehensive about continuing to make decently sized budget films like this which are directed towards mature audiences and if these films underperform at the box office there is no doubt in my mind that they will get harder and harder to come by. I am legitimately worried about the future for these types of films and the only way we can help their future is by going to the theatre and supporting them financially. So if you decide to go to Ad Astra know that you are supporting an important part of cinema that is at risk. Ad Astra is the perfect way to begin the 2019 awards season, where I don't think it is going to find a lot of success when it comes to the major award shows this year it is absolute to the level that you would expect films coming in this time period to be and really just blew me away in just about every way.