Ad Astra Review

In recent years there has been a trend to release a sci-fi film that combines big effects and big ideas in the September/October window. Interstellar, Arrival and Blade Runner 2047 have all done this and 2019 sees the release of the Brad Pitt produced Ad Astra.

In the near future humanity has started to travel beyond Earth’s orbit. They have colonised the Moon and Mars and attempting to communicate with aliens. However, a failed mission to Neptune 30 years ago has prevented humans from attempting further deep space travel.

Major Roy McBride (Brad Bird) is an astronaut and the son of the celebrated H. Clifford McBride (Tommy Lee Jones), the captain of the ill-fated mission to Neptune. When Earth suffers from an event known as The Surge, US Space Command has evidence that the source was from Neptune. Roy is asked by Space Command to travel to Mars and send a message to his lost father.

Ad Astra is an old-fashioned sci-fi film. The director/co-writer, James Gray, wanted to make a film in the vein of sci-fi classics like 2001: A Space Odyssey, Solaris, and Silent Running.

2001: A Space Odyssey was about humanity making contact with their possible creators – they find a Monolith on the Moon which sends a message to Jupiter which a space crew has to follow. Ad Astra has a similar space hopping mission so a message can be sent.

There were ideas in Ad Astra that were used in other sci-fi films. Throughout the film Roy must undergo tests to evaluate his psychological state, like K in Blade Runner 2047. There was an unexpected connection – the horror film Event Horizon – a film where spacecraft tried to open a wormhole near Neptune.

Ad Astra does have a more down-to-Earth inspiration: Joseph Conrad’s The Heart of Darkness, the novel that influenced Apocalypse Now. Ad Astra’s story is pretty much The Heart of Darkness in space – the main characters go into the great unknown to find someone who has gone rogue. Along the way they face many perils. In Ad Astra’s case there were space bandits, abandoned spacecraft, and the risk that small rocks can pose. Like Captain Willard in Apocalypse Now, Roy has a voiceover where he muses about his mission.

At times Ad Astra plays like a Terrance Malick movie due to the whispery voiceover. Roy muses about what drives astronauts to keep going into space and do something so dangerous. Roy also reflects on his relationship with his father through his voiceover. There were flashbacks to Roy’s marriage with his ex-wife (Liv Tyler) and when Roy has to travel alone he thinks back to his childhood and his marriage.

Gray’s stated aim was to make a realistic film about space travel and on that level it was a success. The film opens with a terrific sequence where there was a disaster just above the Earth’s atmosphere. Space travel was dangerous – only the bravest people can travel beyond the Moon. Even if a mission goes smoothly a journey to Mars or Neptune it would take months. Ad Astra was given a 12A rating in the UK and it pushed that rating to it’s limited – there were some surprisingly brutally violent moments.

Gray and his co-writer, Ethan Gross did create an interesting world that the film only gives a small slice of. Even though the film states it’s set in the near future – it must be set at least 50 years into the future. This was a world where there are colonies on the Moon and Mars and people have lived on Mars for so long that there’s an adult generation who were born there. It was a world where there the nations of the Earth have divided the Moon and Mars into zones and safe zone on the Moon that is a tourist trap – it was like the Futurama episode “The Series Has Landed” if it was serious. It’s a world I would like to see more.

Whilst Ad Astra is a film about space travel it was a personal story. It was a father-and-son story – a comment on IMDB said it was a 2.7-billion-mile story of daddy issues. Ad Astra was also a film about the toxic effects of obsession.

Ad Astra was a cold and slow film. Many of the actors had to speak in a professional manner and showed little emotion. It required subtle acting which Pitt succeeded with. But this slow approach has turned some audience members off because they found it boring. The way the voiceover was written was up itself at times like when Roy stated that humanity was still fighting over resources.

Ad Astra was a big and bold film. It was an art-house film disguised as a big-budget sci-fi flick. It’s great for film aficionados but people looking for a mainstream offering will feel they were misled.