“Work hard, play later.”

Once a year ever since ‘Gravity’ was released, we seem to get new stories about the voyage of space where certain characters “do not go gentle into that good night.”

I wasn’t wowed over the trailers for Ad Astra, because when you work at a cinema and spent most of your day watching trailers, well trust me when I say this didn’t stand out from the rest. I originally thought it was about saving the world or something like that. For what it didn’t advertise was a slow burn sci-fi movie that’s on the same level as ‘Blade Runner 2049’ and the emotional side as ‘First Man’. A personal story told through a first person narrative about unresolved issues from past relationship.

Basically an art house movie with a huge budget.

‘Ad Astra’ was pretty good. After only seeing it once, I feel that this will grow on me overtime and so far it has. A mixture of both ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ and Terrence Malick movies. While not as great as those two comparisons, but while watching I couldn’t help to be reminded of those two.

There's some beautiful and impressive shots through out the movie, especially when the movie constantly shows you the entire scale of space and planets through the characters journey. The colors adds to environment that oozes with style and has a tranquil feel to it. I think that’s where the Blade Runner vibes really come in. Brilliant cinematography by Hoyte Van Hoytema.

Brad Pitt was terrific as the silent astronaut with tangled mood swings. It’s not an explosive performance, just simple enough for it to be effective. Any other actor would’ve gone big for no other reasons than being overly dramatic and it makes sense for his character to be closed off; similar to Ryan Gosling in ‘First Man’, where his emotional health comes last. You learn very little about his character, as most of his backstory is only in the background for you to piece together the puzzle.

The score was mystical and often eerie at times which helped ties in with the unknown aspects of space. The visual effects are excellent and nearly photorealistic at times - something you come to expect by now with space movies.

I wasn’t too sure about the narration at first, because it was very off putting and a cheap way for the character to express himself. However it sorta grew on me after awhile and some of it was almost rambling with Roy questioning every decision he made.

Now for the issues:

I have no idea why Liv Tyler was in this movie, because she literally does nothing and could have easily been cut out. It felt like a reshoot for some reason.

Remember when I said the visual effects are photorealistic ‘at times’, but that isn’t always the case with certain scenes. There’s a deranged chimpanzee that pops up and it looks really phoney. I think that entire scene could been cut out. I’ve brought up twice about cutting scenes, because I believe if this movie went back to the editing room one more time, then my score would be a lot higher.

There’s a ridiculously and almost laughable scene where Roy (Brad Pitt) steaks into a spaceship that he’s not suppose to be on, and all the astronauts onboard go into a frenzy and accidentally start kill themselves while trying to cease Roy. No joke. Roy doesn't even do anything as he never intended to hurt them. It was cheap way of making Roy isolated for the rest of the movie. A few years ago I remember reading a horrifying incident that happened to astronaut Luca Parmitano where he reported water inside of his space suit helmet, and nearly become the first astronaut to drown in space. However, Luca remained calm throughout the whole incident despite the odds of him dying being high, but in the end he survived. So it’s really strange seeing these trained astronauts freaking out because came on board.

Overall rating: Out of the whole spectacle, I find the meaning of the movie the most striking. The themes of family, love and abandonment plays a major role in the story. The whole idea of “working hard and playing later” comes with a cost, which is the less time we spend with our loved ones and abandoning everything to pursuit something better out there when in reality the best things in life are right here. When you discover nothing there’s no turning back and no finding your way back. I’ve been thinking about it for awhile now after seeing the movie.

Never underestimate James Gray as a storyteller.

The visuals are great but the movie not so much.

At first you have to scratch science out of science-fiction because there is none. This claims to be "in the near future" but the technology is probably centuries away. Well, maybe not the tech but what they achieved at this point would take that long. The movie left many questions unanswered instead it gives us moon-pirates and killer apes for no reason whatsoever but to have an action and a horror sequence for the trailer, I guess.

If the movie would have been even close to that description above it could have been great. Instead we get a story about a son who wants to connect with his father and finds out things about himself along the way. Yah, thanks, but you could have told this on earth as well because none of the scifi elements bear any meaning.

Oh wait - there was a message. There is no intelligent life in the universe so we should love ourselves and the people close. Even without taking position one way or the other one thing does not influence the other. And we shouldn't look in the distance for we might miss what's in front of us. Who payed for this movie ? The Church ?!

That's three writing credits by James Gray in a row that earns a solid "5"

Firstly I absolutely LOVED writing this - only because of the person who came on here to complain these little ditties were too long. I am going to use the word count in full every time from now on. It made me laugh so much. I mean who cares what I write?!

First Man, The First (TV), Interstellar, even Moon and dropping back further Solaris, The Right Stuff these and many more are the extended and distant family of Ad Astra. Unfortunately when your family is as interesting and as compelling as these movies then you are already standing in some particularly big and dark shadows and there needs to be a lot in you to get out into the light.

Ad Astra tries hard, it really tries hard. After all it has Brad Pitt and Tommy Lee Jones, although he now looks craggy enough to be a bonafide cliff face and throws in Donald Sutherland as the world’s oldest security detail plus a fleeting Liv Tyler because, well because it can I think?

With the unlimited potential of near-future space-travel and indeed colonisation at their feet the director/writers came up with a singularly strange and somehow uninvolving tale. Pitt is just a future Neil Armstrong, so dedicated, so single-minded, he bombs his wife out and then has to go on a frankly unlikely and long-winded trip/adventure to see his long-lost and feared dead father.

I’m not a science expert I was more on the art side of the coin at school so I do not profess to know the ins and outs of space travel and the mathematics and the physics involved but saying this even I could see the silliness inherent in the story.

Visuals of the huge antenna on the edge of space over the Earth was great, the terrible power surge and the ultimate investigation into it was the high point. From then on the trip was downhill. Much like Harrison Ford in the first cinematic outing of Blade Runner I was not a fan of the voiceover and to be honest, either make an audiobook or make a film. For a serious, adult, science-future film the logic-busting moments far outweighed any acting or visual thrills.

Without listing them there are some very silly moments. Do you know what the makers annoyed me with them, so here are a few.

The moment you have to travel to Mars to send a message to Neptune means that technology has gone backward in the future. The sneaking aboard the ship to Neptune in particular seemed to have been written and plotted by an over-excitable twelve-year-old that had a lot of sugary snacks. The hugely implausible incident that was there purely to give Brad Pitt an action hero moment later was frankly pathetic and insulting. The mystery of the power-surge was not explained and Tommy Lee Jones’ motivations seemed extreme to say the least. Without trying to sound superior or clever there was much on the screen that was somewhat childish.

The casting of the movie was strange, honestly tell me why Liv Tyler and Donald Sutherland were in the film and it was criminal to use Ruth Negga so briefly and then somehow make her look as if she had wandered in from another film set, she looked pissed-off through most of her scenes, hopefully it was acting but I would not be surprised if it is how she actually felt. There were some very poor supporting actors during the run time and if anyone can’t spot the worst one let’s just say computers should have replaced receptionists on the moon.

Now some very clever types will tell you this is not actually a science-fiction tale but a story of loss, redemption, regret and complicated dynamic behind driven people, well macho-men actually, and the never-ending conflict and confusion between fathers and their sons. All very good and actually not the first time and filmmaker has used a specific genre as a suit of clothes for the real story they want to take. Sorry but that is no excuse to ignore widely known science and facts and more or less abandon logic to drive home your story. In my view that is very lazy indeed.

All in all Ad Astra was a mess with just a few good moments. Science-fiction may seem to many to not be a serious topic and for nerds and kids but Ad Astra just shows how difficult it is. There was not even any monsters or aliens in this.

Watch the TV show The First at least the music is more atmospheric and exciting than this film.

I was actually looking forward to this film and felt let down by this poor lazy effort.

I should have stayed away when I heard some of the interviews about it... but I didn't.

If they had dropped the budget and not taken it so seriously, it actually would have been a fun albeit ridiculous space adventure. It really had all the makings for campy Science Fiction fun. The potential was there.

But, instead, the film took itself too seriously... so seriously that kind of lost the fun element behind it. And it took itself seriously because of the political message attached to it, and unfortunately it's kind of directed towards the "everything has to be political all the time" crowd and they take everything so seriously that nothing can be fun.

But the potential was there. It wasn't dark enough to be Sci-Fi Horror ala Alien... and the plot lends itself to campy Sci-Fi adventure, or at least a Sci-Fi adventure... and even there politics are integral to the plot. Science Fiction is a satire of some element of culture, but it's done in a way that is entertaining.

Had they toned it down a bit, had they not thought they were making Chinatown, it would have been much better.

Instead what you have is pretentious, heavy handed, and boring.

“Ad Astra” is one of the most cerebral sci-fi films I’ve ever seen. The original story from writer / director James Gray gives an intimate look at the emotional toll that comes from being just one man lost among the stars in the vastness of space. It’s like a more existential version of Terrence Malik’s “Tree of Life,” but set in the outer reaches of our galaxy.

Roy McBride (Brad Pitt), an astronaut with nerves of steel, travels to Neptune to find his missing hero astronaut father (Tommy Lee Jones). As part of a top secret mission, Roy begins to unravel a mystery and uncover truths that may threaten the survival of Earth. This may sound like a blockbuster action thriller, but it’s not. Instead, the film is an emotionally complex introspective about a man burdened with the sins of his father.

Pitt gives a stunning, understated performance as a man struggling with the psychological toll of isolation and regret. It’s one of his best to date, and it’s nearly impossible not to have a deep emotional connection as you share his character’s established sadness. The father and son dynamic shapes Roy’s life, and he’s never quite gotten over the abandonment issues he’s felt since he was a child. The scenes where Roy and Cliff finally reunite are brief but come from a heartfelt place of forgiveness that grows with the passage of time. It’s the perfect analysis of our own humanity, as we all continue searching with a blind hope to find our footing in the cosmos.

The film relies heavily on voiceover narration from Roy, something I normally hate because it feels like lazy storytelling. That isn’t the case here. It works well and is a very effective method that complements the director’s vision. In fact, everything about this film is a success, from Max Richter‘s haunting original score to the special effects and striking cinematography (by Hoyte Van Hoytema), tight direction, and detailed sound design. Gray achieves what he’s going for when every element of the film works together as a whole, and it all is executed in a stunning fashion.

“Ad Astra” is highly intelligent and melancholy science fiction that will leave a lasting impression on those who can appreciate its sadness and beauty.