Ad Astra 2019
I didn’t see Ad Astra when it was in the theaters, though it definitely caught my interest. I was lucky to be given a digital copy of the movie and didn’t wait long to watch. I wasn’t sure what to expect, thinking it might be like The Martian or Interstellar (haven’t even seen the latter, but I have it). I was happy that it seems a little more like Solaris. It is funny that we have all of these space travel movies when it has been forty seven years since man last set foot on the moon. Forty seven years before then, Lindbergh hadn’t flown across the Atlantic. Anyway, this is a space movie, with a little bit of 2001 and even Apocalypse Now thrown in. Brad Pitt plays a really good astronaut, whose father was also an astronaut and was lost on a mission to Neptune sixteen years earlier. Now something bad is happening and it may have something to do with Pitt’s father’s mission, so Pitt is recruited. Despite a few pretty good action scenes, the movie is mostly slow and contemplative. I am not sure how much of it makes a lot of sense, but it certainly brings up some interesting issues. And it looks cool. It is a neat movie to watch if you are patient and has some good performances mainly by Brad Pitt, but also some supporting actors. At two hours, it isn’t overly self-indulgent (unlike Interstellar, which is almost three hours, the main reason I haven’t seen it yet), so it is definitely worth watching.
Written: 26 Dec 2019
Owned on: UHD, Blu-ray, Digital