I won't give any spoilers...but this movie gave me the 'feel' of 2001: Space Odyssey...but with a fatal flaw.
The Main character is basically emotionless. Yes, Yes...I can understand, it's about his father, being abandoned and this is his coping method...except--He's EMOTIONLESS.
And so is everyone around him. So he moves thru the movie, stuff happens, people die around him...and he's utterly emotionless. Worse, Brad Pitt gives me the unchanging impression that he just 'damned tired' thru-out the entire movie.
So the average viewer STOPS CARING.
The Visuals are pretty good. The special effects are studied and consistent in giving me the same visual experience I remember when I first saw 2001 in the theatre all those years ago...and in many ways, Brad Pitt's character is very similar in temperament to David Bowman aboard the Discovery. And when I think about it-- that character was pretty emotionless, too.
But 2001 was the First of its kind all those years ago. And the STAR of the Movie was really HAL, Starry Vistas and the other the Special Effects of that time.
But 2001 was already Done. Ad Astra struck me as a thematic homage to that movie-- except nowadays, there needs to be some EMOTION...somewhere... for the current day viewers to side with and follow. Roy McBride needed to play his stoney stoic-ness off of someone else, side-kick, a fellow traveller, ANYONE...otherwise-- what's the point of watching?
Overall, compared to the Vision of an amazing Future that glowed from 2001, Ad Astra left me with the sense of a dry, colorless milieu where no-one really cared enough about anything even to smile.
The Scriptwriters could have done much better...
The Main character is basically emotionless. Yes, Yes...I can understand, it's about his father, being abandoned and this is his coping method...except--He's EMOTIONLESS.
And so is everyone around him. So he moves thru the movie, stuff happens, people die around him...and he's utterly emotionless. Worse, Brad Pitt gives me the unchanging impression that he just 'damned tired' thru-out the entire movie.
So the average viewer STOPS CARING.
The Visuals are pretty good. The special effects are studied and consistent in giving me the same visual experience I remember when I first saw 2001 in the theatre all those years ago...and in many ways, Brad Pitt's character is very similar in temperament to David Bowman aboard the Discovery. And when I think about it-- that character was pretty emotionless, too.
But 2001 was the First of its kind all those years ago. And the STAR of the Movie was really HAL, Starry Vistas and the other the Special Effects of that time.
But 2001 was already Done. Ad Astra struck me as a thematic homage to that movie-- except nowadays, there needs to be some EMOTION...somewhere... for the current day viewers to side with and follow. Roy McBride needed to play his stoney stoic-ness off of someone else, side-kick, a fellow traveller, ANYONE...otherwise-- what's the point of watching?
Overall, compared to the Vision of an amazing Future that glowed from 2001, Ad Astra left me with the sense of a dry, colorless milieu where no-one really cared enough about anything even to smile.
The Scriptwriters could have done much better...