Ad Astra



Films that feature protagonists who go into space to investigate are a hit-and-miss business, and the reason is probably that the hit is called 2001 A Space Odyssey. That film was followed by its novel, by Arthur C Clarke of course, which was followed by several sequels—but only 2010 was filmed and is a niche film rather than a cult hit. These films are exploring people, and space is simply the setting because… well we’ve discovered the surface of the planet and travelling around it is not much of a challenge. As a civilisation we have reached the point where stirring films about exploring space—from The Right Stuff to Apollo 13 have said all that needs to be said, and First Man has turned the Apollo 11 mission into an exploration of a man and his family. So Ad Astra is in a crowded space, a space that’s clearly not infinite.
In Ad Astra there’s the family stuff: Roy McBride (Brad Pitt) confronts the loss of contact with his father, Clifford, who’s far away from Earth at the frontier of human space exploration. All contact has been lost and Roy must travel out there to find out the truth for himself. Roy, who is a member of the space part of the US military, is subjected to endless psychological tests which make the film feel a bit Blade Runner 2049. Later on it goes into more of an Event Horizon territory—only a little bit, all the time keeping the look and feel of a ‘contemporary’ space-movie.

The design of the spacecraft, the cockpits, and the suits all seems familiar to anyone who’s spent any time looking at the International Space Station or the Shuttle. The physics of space, which was got so right in 2001, seems a bit hit-and-miss here: they just about get away with sound in space, and at one point pull off that trick of cutting to total silence. At this point it must be difficult to come up with anything thoroughly original if the plot confines you to avoid mysticism in any way, which is what’s going on here.

The effects and the characters might suggest a film that’s faster-moving and more exciting than Ad Astra is. Brad Pitt is actually pretty good at the wariness, and he needs to be because there’s very little for him to do other than emotionally react—and Astronauts are chosen and trained to be unemotional. This he does very well, because there’s a clash between needing to be calm and methodical and the resistance he finds from people in charge: his world is locked down and information isn’t freely available if someone doesn’t want you to find it out. 

Ad Astra is an experience, and sometimes an interesting one, but it is profoundly unexciting.

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