Spoiler-Free Review:

Ad Astra is an epic space movie, taking place in the near future. An astronaut, Roy McBride (Brad Pitt) is pulled out of his regular duties, for a special mission. Years ago, his father was on a mission, and his ship disappeared. Things are happening on Earth, and it’s unclear if it’s related to the disappearance. It’s never simple, is it?

This is a great story about the hard science of space travel in the near future hammers home some of the more specific details that get glossed over in other space epics, and it appears to remind us not everything is warp speeds and force fields. While it may seem to follow the gist of the film, the pacing of the film is it’s downfall. If you enjoy the nitty gritty of the science fiction genre (aka Hard Science), you will enjoy the film, however, if you’re more a fan of plot and exposition, there’s a good chance you won’t.

Standard Review (with minor plot spoilers):

Roy is a cool-as-a-cucumber kind of guy. Go out, get the job done, or work at it until you can’t. Nothing fazes him. That’s good, because all astronauts are constantly evaluated for their mental state by computer – are you ok, how is your stress level, etc. Roy is focused on his job, so much so that his wife (Liv Tyler) has divorced him and it barely registers. He plays videos of her, and it’s like he isn’t even participating in his own life. He is extremely detached from it.

Something happens to the space platform/elevator he’s working on. It’s destroyed, but he survives, after falling into the atmosphere from space. He shrugs it off and wants to get back to work, but is pulled into a special secret project that he is to discuss with no one. Funny thing is that he has no one to discuss it with.

He’s sent on a mission to Mars. The space platform that was destroyed is shown to be the victim of some cosmic energy discharge, and that somehow, is coming from the vicinity of where his father’s ship was lost. He is expected to send a message to his father and get him to respond, because their efforts have failed. His handler for this, Pruitt (Donald Sutherland) implies that there’s more to this than he’s been told, and that he should figure it out.

All of the space sequences are incredibly done and shot. As I mentioned, there’s a lot of hard science in this movie, and they make every effort to make it all seem plausible. Zero G activities look right. It was all quite convincing. The problem is with Pitt’s character. He’s pretty cold and unfeeling. It’s really difficult to relate to, or sympathize with someone like that. I also mentioned that the plot drags. Some of it was definitely related to the slowness and isolation of space travel in the foreseeable future, but there were times where I wondered when they would just get on with the story as it was laid out before us, and go go go. That moment never really happened.

There are two scenes in the film that just don’t seem to fit, yet they are there, perhaps at some producer’s insistence. One just seems out of place, and the other is not resolved to anyone’s satisfaction that I know.

After viewing the film, there are two words that came to mind, which would definitely “spoil” the whole thing, but I will not mention them here. After you see it, I suspect you’ll know them, too.

As a fan of the hard science aspects of the story, I rather enjoyed it from that standpoint. The main story could probably be told in a fraction of the time, but then, how would we get to see all the cool space stuff? I recommend it with a caveat that it’s not for people expecting a great story. If you’re one of those people, stay away. Otherwise, Enjoy!