The fall movie season has always a heart for thrilling and mesmerizing space-related science-fiction. You named it: Gravity (2013), Interstellar (2014), The Martian (2015) and Arrival (2016). Now you can add Ad Astra at that list of movies, as one more movie of human’s space exploration as the effort to look deeper to humanity. This is not a movie with spaceship battles, alien invasions or even alien discovery, Nada. You have to wait for another Star Wars or Star Trek installments for those. Ad Astra is more like a movie where the farther you go to explore the space, the more you know about yourself.
Meet our hero: the walking Astra (Ad Astra means to the stars, in Latin) in our existing galaxy, Brad Pitt. Mr. Pitt here is Roy McBride, a cool, excellent man in spacesuits whose BPM is never above 80, even when he’s dropping down from outer space to the earth in the earliest scene of the movie. The reason of that “free-dive from heaven” is a power surge that devastates the entire planet, killing thousands of people. The authority of SPACECOM (some kind of US unit authorized for space exploration) traced the source of the surge back to a station near Neptune, which just happens to be the last location of the legendary mission called The Lima Project. The Lima Project was meant to go to the furthest reach of our solar system and look around to find intelligent life. Moreover, The Lima Project was captained by Roy’s father, Clifford McBride (Tommy Lee Jones).
For years, Roy has believed that his father was dead, and now he has to deal with the fact that he may not only be alive but behind an attack to Earth. Roy is then sent to Mars (the farthest location human has colonized) to attempt to communicate with his father, in the hope that a reply will allow them to pinpoint his exact location. Roy has to travel not only beyond his limit location farthest to earth, but also to beyond his belief that his thought-to-be-dead father might still be alive.
If you think that there might be a depiction of earth disaster caused by the surge, I tell you, there isn’t one. The focus is never be the disaster after all, so Director Grey decided he will not put extra effort to picture it and decided to focus on Roy’s discovery to the deeper meaning of his life. It’s a smart decision, since we will only be focused on how the journey will change a man. Fueled by one of Mr. Pitt’s stellar performances, Ad Astra put him to be a hero that human needs. Not the superhero with super ability that makes him less human, but a hero that walks among us and be with humanity touch. Mr. Pitt’s acting ability was never in doubt, but his interaction with supporting characters like Donald Sutherland’s Tom Pruitt and Ruth Negga’s Helen Lantos put him in a remarkable character more than just a pretty face on your screen.
For the whole 124 minutes, Mr. Pitt carried the whole emotional and physical burdens of the movie by himself through a graceful and emotional performance. While the camera could be lingering around to show the beauty of outer space, Director Grey decided to linger his camera around Mr. Pitt’s face, and therefore, he has to portray the character’s complex emotion perfectly. This movie used CGI, of course, but it’s no more than a tool. This made this movie a top-notch. Characters here are more stealing the screen than it’s surroundings, more vivid than its background.
Just like Director Grey’s last movie The Lost City of Z (2017), Ad Astra is a deep philosophical movie that have mesmerizing visual effects for your eyes’ pleasures. This is the journey that you can mirror to. People have to take the risk. People live and die. People makes mistakes, even the idolized person can be greedy, selfish and scared. And no matter what mistakes you made, your closest kin is still looking for you, still feel the hole in their heart when you left. There’s no man that ever be perfect, and our mistakes made us perfect.
Directed by: James Grey | Produced by: Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, James Grey, Anthony Katagas, Rodrigo Teixeira, Arnon Milchan | Written by: James Grey, Ethan Gross | Starring: Brad Pitt, Tommy Lee Jones, Liv Tyler, Donald Sutherland, Ruth Negga | Music by: Max Richter | Cinematography: Hoyte van Hoytema | Edited by: John Axelrad, Lee Haugen | Production Companies: 20th Century Fox, Regency Enterprises, Bona Film Group, New Regency, Plan B Entertainment, RT Features, Keep Your Head Production, MadRiver Pictures | Distributed by: Walt Disney Studios, Motion Pictures | Official Website
8.5/10
The Lady in Pink 