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By: Dylan Frazier
Email: frazierd@findlay.edu
Twitter: @dylanfrazier44
In a shocking turn of events, I liked a movie about strippers stealing money from Wall Street guys more than a movie about astronauts exploring the solar system. Coming off of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, I was totally ready to see another movie starring Brad Pitt, but I was seriously disappointed in Ad Astra. While it was beautifully shot and had some intense scenes, especially early on, it doesn’t quite land like I hoped it would.
Our story follows Major Roy McBride (Brad Pitt), of Space Command, getting ready to head to Neptune to save the world from global catastrophe, the Lima Project. What Roy soon finds out is that his father, Clifford McBride (Tommy Lee Jones), is on Neptune. So, Roy must get to Neptune to see his father, but also save the world from the Lima Project.
Out of the very few good things I can say about this movie, the first one that comes to mind was how gorgeous this movie was. It certainly has its shortcomings as a movie, but from a technical standpoint, there are only a few movies I have seen this year better than Ad Astra in that regard. It was a spectacle to watch and the visuals in the movie were incredible. The scenes in outer space were breathtakingly beautiful, it felt real.
One other good thing I can say about this movie was Brad Pitt. While I didn’t like his character in this movie or the movie itself, he played his role very well. Roy never really had anyone who loved him in his life but that’s because he didn’t know how to love. His father had been on the Lima Project for a very long time and you could tell it impacted Roy in a negative way. Pitt played Roy very well. Again, I didn’t really like the movie, but I can acknowledge that Pitt was pretty good in this movie.
With that being said, the negatives in this movie outweighed the positives for me. The glaring issue I had with it was the story felt really long and drawn out. It took forever to get to the point, and it made me very disinterested in the movie. This was very noticeable in the last act and it probably made me like it a little less because the first hour and twenty minutes wasn’t completely terrible. This movie could have benefited greatly if it were about 20 minutes shorter and it was only a two-hour movie, but it felt so much longer than that.
The other major issue for me was how boring and forgettable the dialogue was. Many characters had tragic event happen to them, but I couldn’t find myself caring at all because of how boring it was.
I have to say, I never thought I would not like this movie. Brad Pitt was coming into this movie on a hot streak and I loved him in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, but I couldn’t not be any more disappointed in this movie than I was. Maybe I just don’t like space movies because I felt the same way about First Man last year.
