{"id":4480,"date":"2021-11-13T20:37:58","date_gmt":"2021-11-13T20:37:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=4480"},"modified":"2024-02-08T09:11:27","modified_gmt":"2024-02-08T09:11:27","slug":"film-ad-astra-20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=4480","title":{"rendered":"FiLM REViEW: Ad Astra, 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Hmmm!? Not sure about this film. The constant wibbly-pibbly soundtrack, and the near constant mumbling of the dialogue\u2026 These do not add up to the grandeur or gravitas that this movie seems to assume it has.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018I confess, it\u2019s wearing on me\u2026\u2019 says Roy McBride, Brad Pitt\u2019s character, at one point. This is about halfway through the film. An hour in to two hours. And boy do those hours feel long. Damn right, Roy. Me too!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Numerous elements really grate, such as the frequent references to Christian religion\/belief, the themes of relationships (all of which seem strangely neutered), and the total lack of credibility in the quantum leap from Mcbride\u2019s very believable getting digitally \u2018locked out\u2019 at one point, to the totally bizarre way in which he hijacks the Cepheus<\/em>, not long after. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Some good visual moments\u2026<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To me, even though there are some strong visual moments, this is a mess of a movie. And not a very compelling ness of a movie either. Something to be endured, rather than enjoyed. It has the feel of Christopher Nolan, i.e. pompously self-important whilst actually not very interesting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, Pitt finds Pops (Tommy Lee Jones). Dad\u2019s lost it, and killed all his crew. Dad then opines that he must not<\/em> fail, but must continue to seek\u2026 \u2018To find what science tells us doesn\u2019t exist\u2019.* Eugh\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It comes over like something written by a teenager. A cosmic tantrum dressed up as if it were deep. \u2018Why go on? Why keep trying?\u2019muses Pitt, as he drifts, lost in space. But then he quite literally \u2018sees the light\u2019. Uuuugh\u2026 spare us!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Martian manhole cover\u2026<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This film seems like a big budget reminder of how solipsistic modern culture is continuing to grow. Other characters drift in and out, including some played by Donald Sutherland and that rocker\u2019s daughter, who played Aragorn\u2019s elvish chick. Who are they? I simply don\u2019t care. That\u2019s modern cinema in a nutshell. A vacuum where one might hope for character or humanity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Best avoided, in my view. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

* This reminds me of that joke about the search for intelligent life in outer space\u2026 cause there\u2019s none here on Earth. Ba-dish!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hmmm!? Not sure about this film. The constant wibbly-pibbly soundtrack, and the near constant mumbling of the dialogue\u2026 These do not add up to the grandeur or gravitas that this movie seems to assume it has. \u2018I confess, it\u2019s wearing on me\u2026\u2019 says Roy McBride, Brad Pitt\u2019s character, at one point. This is about halfway … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “FiLM REViEW: Ad Astra, 2019”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paGwUa-1ag","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4480"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4480"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4480\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11463,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4480\/revisions\/11463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}