Ad Astra

Released: 18th September 2019 (UK)
directed by: James Gray
BBFC Rating: 12
Cast: Brad Pitt, Tommy Lee Jones, Donald Sutherland, Ruth Negga, Liv Tyler
With the monstrous year for sci fi in 2019 with the release of Star Wars and Avengers do time travel it would be easy to overlook some of the smaller films in the genre which released in the same year. Ad Astra is one of those films, a beautifully shot wonderfully told story that takes science fiction back to its surrealist core. The film follows the journey of Roy McBride, an Astronaut who is brought back into active service after a satellite accident to find his long-lost father in deep space. When I say it follows the character of Roy - it really does. Very rarely do the audience get a break from Pitt's character, with the whole film playing out like his memory, with Brad narrating in the background for us. While in other movies this would seem annoying or ' Video-game like ' ( which for me can completely de-rail a movie ), this really did work for me, presenting a more spiritual journey for the character rather than just a space mission. For me the whole movie worked very well, I loved watching the character progression of Roy throughout the movie, all the twists and turns you experince as you learn stuff at the same time he does making the suspense that more real. I really liked this blend of present day with realistic future - making the whole exploration of space more of a reality than a far off hope, coupled with beautiful cinematography and you really do get a brilliant experience. There were some aspects I didn't like in the film, however to avoid spoiling any aspects I'll let you work out what they could have been. What I will say is this: in researching this film after watching it I learned that it had been panned and labelled overrated as a film, which really shocked me. I think you shouldn't walk into this as the next gravity or Interstellar, as it focuses less on the space aspect and more on the character of Roy Mcbride and his journey of realisation, not to say that takes away from the film in any way. I still think that it was a brilliant piece of work, emotionally attached while still being stunning to look at.
Contains Gore, moderate bad language and threat.
My rating:9/10 ( Incredible )

Image subject and copyright to Regency pictures. I do not own this image.

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