Ad Astra

I've been craving a good sci-fi film for a while, feels like it's been a while since there's been a good space focused movie like this one. Ad Astra is a movie that promises to be the same caliber as great space movies like "Gravity" and "Interstellar". The movie stars Brad Pitt and is directed by James Gray (Who made that good movie "Lost City of Z"). The story centers around Brad Pitt's character, an astronaut who is named Roy McBride, as he gets a special mission relating to his father. McBride's father has been missing for decades and was presumed to be dead after a failed project in Neptune. That presumption comes into question after strange activity coming directly from Neptune starts affecting the Earth and surrounding planets in catastrophic ways. Roy's father could still be alive and he could be the reason this is happening, which is why Roy is used to possibly find him as his only living family member.

Ad Astra is an interesting movie, to say the least. The thing about this movie is that it wasn't quite what I was expecting, but that's not a bad thing really. Brad Pitt's performance is a very quiet one, where his character actually doesn't say much in the movie. Instead, we get most of the story through his own thoughts narrating his feelings throughout the story. Through his thoughts, the movie shows you what kind of person he is and how he feels about the world around him, which is important to know as the story progresses and you see his change. The ultimate message of the movie/moral is one that I think is important, but perhaps a bit disappointing to me. The reason why it's disappointing is that throughout the movie, there's a lot of mystery about what exactly is going on in Neptune. I don't want to go into much detail about it because I don't want to spoil the movie, but I was kind of disappointed in the final act of the movie. It wasn't bad, but I guess I just wanted it to be something different, maybe a little more epic perhaps.

Where this movie truly shines though are it's visuals. This movie is a treat to the eyes and every second was a joy to watch. From the opening minutes, I was hooked by the great visuals and shots of space and the great effects mixed with built sets used for filming. It has a great atmosphere and along with the music really captured my attention throughout its entire runtime. Like I said before, this is a more quiet and slow-moving story, especially towards the latter parts. Though there are still some great action sequences that I thought were really well done. There's a lot of attention to detail used in the sets and of course, outer space looks great. My favorite thing about these kinds of movies is always the use of light in the shots and this movie uses light in a lot of interesting ways for some beautiful moments or intense moments. That alongside the more subtle/quieter performances made for a really interesting experience. Everything feels really grounded and believable in this future world (with small exceptions) and I felt like this could perhaps one day be the future of our world.

Ad Astra was a treat to my eyes on a visual level. The only thing keeping this movie from being great was a slower told story that I feel didn't have the best pay off at the end. It was still a satisfying one though, and I still enjoyed pretty much every minute of this movie. Any fan of Sci-fi or space movies should give this a watch. I think it's a movie that a lot of people might find boring, especially if you're looking for action or a lot of character development. I think it has a good message, fantastic visuals, good acting and a good mysterious tone for the first chunk of the movie. I really enjoyed it overall and I'd gladly watch it again at some point.