Astronutty

Conditions: Ominimbus

Film Review: Ad Astra

There are two kinds of people in this world, those who enjoy proper old-school science fiction films like Ad Astra, and everyone else.  Sadly, the world is dominated by the others these days, so the general opinion of the film has been that it's some kind of boring failure.  I expect those that were bored with the film are the kind of folks who prefer their science fiction with large doses of space wizards and pew-pew.  But for some of us special souls, Ad Astra is a terrific adventure.

Meet Brad Pitt.  An astronaut, he is uncannily cool under pressure, even for an astronaut.  He's a blunt, careful, thoughtful dude who doesn't crack when things get tough, or soft even.  So of course his wife leaves him because he doesn't talk to her.  Like come on, of course Brad Pitt's not going to talk to her, he's got too much Being Cool Under Pressure to do.  Anyway, Nasa want to speak to him because his dad's maybe accidentally trying to blow up the planet.

Here's the setup.  His father, Tommy Lee Jones, headed up a deep space mission many many years ago to go out to Neptune and fire off a high powered message to the stars, to see if there's any life out there.  Sadly, once they got out to Neptune nothing further was heard from Tommy or the crew of the Lima Project, so it's assumed they're all dead.  Until now.  Major power surges hitting the planet seem to be coming from some deep space emitter near Neptune.  Nasa needs someone to get on a radio and tell Tommy to knock it off, so they've asked Brad to take a quick flight to Mars, because that's where the deep space telephone is. 

When he gets there (skipping over a Donald Sutherland cameo, moon pirates action sequence, and a space monkey attack!) he sends his pre-written message, but it doesn't look like Dad's listening.  That's when things take a turn.  Brad figures out Mars control is sending out a spaceship to Neptune, but they don't want Brad to go.  Mostly because they're going to shut down Lima project using the standard movie Nasa space tool - a giant ass bomb.  Brad manages to force himself on board, which goes down badly with the crew who promptly set about accidentally killing themselves while trying to kill Brad.  I get that hand to hand combat is not big in the astronaut curriculum but sheesh, they had him outnumbered three to one.  So Brad settles in for a long voyage out to find and reconnect with his father.  And blow up the Lima project, because Mission.

What's refreshing is that when he finds him he finds that his dad is still a galaxy away even when they're in the same room.  Gone slightly mad, Tommy had to kill his crew in order to stop them trying to quit the mission and return.  Spouting religious passages, he laments that he's never got a reply from deep space, he couldn't connect.  Not just to aliens, but to anyone.  Not his wife or even his son.  Brad sets the charges and persuades his father to come with him but once cleared of the airlock Tommy launches himself into space.  Brad is forced to Let Him Go.  His eventual return to Earth dovetails with his realisation of how important it is to connect with all those who are around you.  It's a really nice, beautifully looking, gritty, interesting take on the idea of exploring space to find out about yourself.  Ad Astra means "Through hardships to the stars".  Four space monkeys out of five.

- Peace out