MovieChat Forums > Ad Astra (2019) Discussion > Once again, critics are full of shit.

Once again, critics are full of shit.

posted 5 years ago by Drooch (5333)
28 replies | jump to latest

Just got back from seeing this and it was decidedly underwhelming.

It has the texture of a profound film - restrained, meditative, a focus on performance, drawing from great literature (Heart Of Darkness quest for a mysterious rogue lunatic) but it never got beyond the outline written on a café napkin. Nobody turned it into a movie.

(Spoilers ahead)

The characters lacked definition. Pitt has daddy issues but we never get a proper sense of them. He plays the emotional detachment well but what was his childhood actually like? I think the film needed to either show us explicitly, or go for broke and make it largely a silent film. The voiceover sounded like a last minute patch job to help a dumb audience out, like the first cut of Blade Runner.

Same goes for the ‘thriller’ aspects. The moon battle and baboon attack were simply not needed to tell this father-son space odyssey, they were action filler that didn’t connect to the theme.

Not only that, such scenes were ill thought out. Why the hell would the military escort crucial personnel in fully exposed moon buggies through pirate infested regions? Surely they would use military might to clear the area before taking such a risk? They got their own people killed needlessly.

Also, why does Pitt travel to Mars to send a recording? Why not record it from Earth then beam it over to Mars if necessary..?

And having Pitt kill the shuttle pilots before basically completing their mission. Sure, I’m glad he got to resolve his daddy issues but what about the families he’s just destroyed by slaughtering these innocents?

When he meets his dad, the guy is a stone cold bastard and flat out admits he despised his wife and kid. He’s a total villain with very little characterisation. There’s no meaningful exchange between them about events of the past. Part of me suspects TLJ is simply supposed to represent white patriarchy - fascinated with space exploration and with a pinch of religiosity - basically the devil as far as modern Hollywood is concerned.

The whole thing was just wafer thin and disappeared up its own plot holes, fancy Latin name and all.

[–] AtomicReturns (1252) 5 years ago

I went in wanting to like this but I was also disappointed. I don't outright hate it but it's a very flawed and weak film, with a few good moments.

I also agree with the OP's points about Brad's character not sketched out enough. If he's supposed to be the Gary Cooper 'everyman', I didn't get that sense (Pitt's character was very closed off and monotone the whole time, who barely talked about anything else...not very relatable).

Some reviewers have also noted how the moon buggy scene was an odd addition. You could literally take it out and it wouldn't have mattered to the film, and the fact there wasn't more military backup for someone as important as Pitt's character (who had to literally take the wheel and gun himself) seems absurd. It also bothered me how Pitt somehow knew everything about the rocket he took over. Every control, every launch sequence password (or whatever was needed to arm such a dangerous device). It wasn't his rocket and he was never part of the training, but no problem!

On the positives, I did like some of the details James Gray put into the materialism on Mars and on Pitt's commercial flight there. Some of the cinematography was nice at times (same cameraman as Interstellar). Although I found the look of Neptune rather fake and cheap looking compared to the rest of the film. I think one mistake was James Gray writing the entire story and dialogue himself. I don't believe he usually does, so this may be a case where the film may have benefited from a couple more outside minds helping out on the screenplay.

[–] TheArgentinian (7205) 5 years ago

Watched last night knowing that people found it boring. Now I can say that critics were RIGHT and audiences were WRONG. Props to Fox for investing in original, human stories without pew pew ( this movie still had action set pieces and people thought it was slow)

[–] Drooch (5333) 5 years ago

The problem isn’t the lack of action, it’s the lack of substance, as I explained in my original post.

[–] ATG6 (3000) 5 years ago

even the fancy Latin name was wrong. they didn't go to any stars.

[–] ILJtheFirst (2134) 5 years ago

There are no movie critics anymore. The era of Siskel & Ebert is long gone. All that remains are schills disguised as wannabe movie critics. Did you see some of the schills trying to explain this wasn't really a sci-fi movie?

[–] Drooch (5333) 5 years ago

I didn’t, what was their explanation?

[–] AckbarsRevenge (3800) 5 years ago

Agreed. Movie was shit.

[–] jriley555 (8391) 5 years ago

great take, Drooch. totally spot-on critique.

i thought the whole thing was just silly

they are on a mission to save the planet but 'protocol' demands they stop and service an 'sos' vessel when
other ships would have been available to take care of that errand....

when i heard the ship was 'biomedical', well... expect an animal attack - baboons were a nice touch, though.