Review: Ad Astra

Ad Astra, directed by James Gray, tells the tale of an astronaut named Roy McBride (Brad Pitt) who is given a mission to travel to the deepest reaches of our solar system in order to find his father (Tommy Lee Jones) and stop a cosmic anomaly that’s messing with humanity’s technology.

This is the latest film from director James Gray who also directed films like Two Lovers and The Lost City of Z. As far as I can tell this is perhaps his biggest film yet in terms of budget and scale, which is a bit of a ballsy move for the director seeing as how his films have not exactly been box office gold. Critics do seem to like his films though, and this is no exception. After giving it a watch I can say for sure that it’s a competently well made film technically, but that’s really all there is to it.

One of the first things you’ll notice about the film is its visuals, and they are beautiful. This is one of the best looking films of the year so far. The lighting and colors in each scene really gives the film a very other-worldly feel and are just mesmerizing to watch. The way this film portrays the future is incredibly interesting to say the least. The message the film is trying to portray is both fascinating and incredibly subtle. Brad Pitt’s performance is also pretty noteworthy in this film, and the rest of the cast does a pretty good job with the screen-time they have. And that’s all I can really say about the film.

The biggest issue I have with this film is its story. This is a very slow moving film, running at about two hours and forty minutes. Each scene goes on longer than I like, especially near the end of the film. The story itself is way too simple for its own good. The film tries to be epic and symbolic in scale, but the straight forward story makes it way too casual to take seriously. The film also has an annoying over-reliance of voice over narration, explaining things that are already made extremely obvious with the visuals and performances alone. There were also a few unintentionally hilarious moments throughout the film, normally involving how some characters die in certain scenes.

Overall this is about as pretentious of an Oscar-bait film as you can get. I can definitely see why some people would like this film but for me it was a slow moving film with a whole lot of nothing. IF this sounds like an interesting film then sure, check it out and see for yourself. But if you’re going into this film expecting a thought-provoking sci-fi epic in the likes of 2001: A Space Odyssey, then be prepared to be somewhat disappointed.

Final Verdict: 5/10