I was extremely excited for this movie mostly due to the cinematographer Hoyte Van Hoytema. I've been a fan of his since he blew me away with the visuals in Spike Jones' Her. Spectre was a mess of a movie, but the cinematography was amazing. He then became Nolan's man after Wally Pfister left and he was a perfect replacement for him.
The director of this is one I wasn't familiar with, but the cinematographer and Brad Pitt had me intrigued. Sadly those two are the best aspects of the movie.
I did enjoy the world building of an Earth where commercial space travel to the Moon and Mars. The space travel was well realized.
Visually it is top notch. I rarely ever thought anything was CG as it looked phenomenal. The mood of being in space was captured like what I imagine the feeling is. Hoytema does what he does well and his visuals really are the star of the show.
Brad Pitt does well with the material and elevates it from the mediocrity it is. This movie is about isolation and he plays it well. The narration of his did drone a little. It's good at times, then others its just weird whispering. It reminds me of the tacked on original Blade Runner theatrical narration that just added nothing.
What really brings the movie down is the story beats they decide to add to the plot. It's a simple plot. Brad Pitt's character is sent ona mission to send a message to his father who has been missing for 30 years. On the way there are little bits of story added that try to add more going on, but they really just feel like filler. Especially a scene where during the flight to Mars they stop to attend to a distress signal of a research vessel with animals on board. It adds nothing to the plot and just felt like a filler.
Donald Sutherland's character felt like he was supposed to be more important, but he exits the movie 15 mins in, only giving Pitt a small bit of intel that was obvious to the viewer anyways.
Gravity did a fantastic job of making a simple story interesting and complex. Ad Astra seems like it's trying to do that, but they just add filler scenes to add more depth to the story that doesn't need it.
The ending just felt so rushed and really didn't get it's message across very well either. It's got a moment where you should have big emotions, but it just happens so quickly that there is no time to take it in.
This one was overall a disappointment. It's worth seeing for the visuals alone and a solid Pitt. The story just gets too convoluted for what should have been a simple story about a father and son with a lost relationship separated by light-years. Not an awful movie, just a misguided one that could have been so much better. I'm still a fan of Hoytema and I hope he keeps making movies as good looking as this, maybe hopefully just something on the level of Her or Dunkirk.
The director of this is one I wasn't familiar with, but the cinematographer and Brad Pitt had me intrigued. Sadly those two are the best aspects of the movie.
I did enjoy the world building of an Earth where commercial space travel to the Moon and Mars. The space travel was well realized.
Visually it is top notch. I rarely ever thought anything was CG as it looked phenomenal. The mood of being in space was captured like what I imagine the feeling is. Hoytema does what he does well and his visuals really are the star of the show.
Brad Pitt does well with the material and elevates it from the mediocrity it is. This movie is about isolation and he plays it well. The narration of his did drone a little. It's good at times, then others its just weird whispering. It reminds me of the tacked on original Blade Runner theatrical narration that just added nothing.
What really brings the movie down is the story beats they decide to add to the plot. It's a simple plot. Brad Pitt's character is sent ona mission to send a message to his father who has been missing for 30 years. On the way there are little bits of story added that try to add more going on, but they really just feel like filler. Especially a scene where during the flight to Mars they stop to attend to a distress signal of a research vessel with animals on board. It adds nothing to the plot and just felt like a filler.
Donald Sutherland's character felt like he was supposed to be more important, but he exits the movie 15 mins in, only giving Pitt a small bit of intel that was obvious to the viewer anyways.
Gravity did a fantastic job of making a simple story interesting and complex. Ad Astra seems like it's trying to do that, but they just add filler scenes to add more depth to the story that doesn't need it.
The ending just felt so rushed and really didn't get it's message across very well either. It's got a moment where you should have big emotions, but it just happens so quickly that there is no time to take it in.
This one was overall a disappointment. It's worth seeing for the visuals alone and a solid Pitt. The story just gets too convoluted for what should have been a simple story about a father and son with a lost relationship separated by light-years. Not an awful movie, just a misguided one that could have been so much better. I'm still a fan of Hoytema and I hope he keeps making movies as good looking as this, maybe hopefully just something on the level of Her or Dunkirk.