Author Topic: "Ad Astra": theatrical film with Brad Pitt and Tommy Lee Jones (Read 29580 times)

QuantumG · « **Reply #20 on:** 09/20/2019 10:25 pm »

I'll watch this next week and give y'all a review.

Warning: my review will be about human beings, so you might find it a bit 🥱

Markstark · « **Reply #21 on:** 09/20/2019 10:25 pm »

Really good wanted this movie to be good. It was not. Not just from a technical perspective either. The story was just not that great.

Eric Hedman · « **Reply #22 on:** 09/20/2019 10:40 pm »

Quote from: QuantumG on 09/20/2019 10:25 pm

I'll watch this next week and give y'all a review.

Warning: my review will be about human beings, so you might find it a bit 🥱

If you find any human beings acting like you would expect human beings to act in the situations they are in, let me know. There were some pointless side events that didn't add to the story. I suspect they were put in because the story itself was weak and allowed for some cool looking special effects.

QuantumG · « **Reply #23 on:** 09/20/2019 10:49 pm »

Quote from: Eric Hedman on 09/20/2019 10:40 pm

If you find any human beings acting like you would expect human beings to act in the situations they are in, let me know. There were some pointless side events that didn't add to the story. I suspect they were put in because the story itself was weak and allowed for some cool looking special effects.

Unfortunately, people watch these movies and form opinions about spaceflight.

Just like they have opinions about AI that they got from watching killer robot movies.

catdlr · « **Reply #24 on:** 09/21/2019 02:54 am »

Watch Brad Pitt in a Chase on the Moon in ‘Ad Astra’ | Anatomy of a Scene

Previous trailer scene discussed

KelvinZero · « **Reply #25 on:** 09/21/2019 03:29 am »

Quote from: catdlr on 09/21/2019 02:54 am

Watch Brad Pitt in a Chase on the Moon in ‘Ad Astra’ | Anatomy of a Scene
Previous trailer scene discussed

That didn't really look like lunar gravity to me. It didn't look that different to earth and I remember the actual apollo rovers looking a lot more bouncy with slow waves of dust thrown up.

One thing that shot suggests to me: You could easily do a pure hardSF mad-max style resource war type storyline on the moon. Im just mentioning it because hollywood seems almost totally incapable of doing a pure hardSF in space.. it _needs_ to throw in aliens or similar.. yet at the same time it can do storylines like Dredd, Mad Max, Ghost in the Shell on earth, and even James Bond with various space nonsense all without aliens.. but if it is a hardSF space movie.. must have aliens.

(sure, Dredd had psionics but that was canon, not something they had any reason to avoid)

su27k · « **Reply #26 on:** 09/21/2019 12:34 pm »

Brad Pitt’s ‘Ad Astra’ Is One Big, Shiny Ad for Lockheed Martin

LM did the design for the ships in the movie, I guess this would explain the peculiar aesthetic choice made.

Jeff Lerner · « **Reply #27 on:** 09/22/2019 02:48 am »

I saw the movie tonight....I didn’t like it at all...I usually treat any sci-fi movie or space TV show as pure entertainment...warp drives, transporters, light sabres, droids, etc ...sure, bring it on...I suspend belief and just enjoy....but with this movie, it was difficult for me as it’s deemed to take place in the very near future...the rocket and space technology is decidedly current state ( eg. space suits, rocket staging, etc...) or even retro looking ( lunar rovers

)...I won’t spoil the plot but I had a hard time getting past the technology and how the characters got from story point to the next point in the plot...lots of plot holes and things in the story line that seemed to just conveniently happen or be overlooked...

Lars-J · « **Reply #28 on:** 09/22/2019 06:35 am »

Just saw it... not great. Not terrible either. But disappointing overall, compared to what it could have been.

The whole movie can be read as a metaphor for Pitt’s character dealing with depression and letting go of a dying father who never loved him. An interesting story perhaps, so I’m not sure why decided to fluff it up with space scenes... most of them make little or no sense. And don’t feel that tightly integrated to the story.

But hey, the moon rover chase was cool at least. I wish the whole movie would have been about piracy and international tension on the moon. That would have been interesting at least.

HVM · « **Reply #29 on:** 09/22/2019 06:54 am »

So 3.6? _Roentgen

Michel Van · « **Reply #30 on:** 09/24/2019 01:24 am »

Quote from: HVM on 09/22/2019 06:54 am

So 3.6? _Roentgen

more total zero

That Movie is total waste of money and 123 minute of your life !
spend it otherwise...

Tywin · « **Reply #31 on:** 09/24/2019 02:01 am »

Quote from: Eric Hedman on 09/20/2019 09:53 pm

I went to see the movie today. Disappointed. No story spoilers.

I'll start with the positive. Okay done.

The negative. If you have an understanding of physics including orbital mechanics, you have to empty your brain of all knowledge first. There are also several things that happen in the story line for no apparent logical reason. The five star reviews have to be by people who don't understand a thing about spaceflight. The whole premise of the story is a fail. Why what they are doing at Neptune has to be done out by Neptune is beyond me.

What appears to be a rotating radar antenna at the station orbiting Neptune looks like a large version of rotating antennas you could see on older large yachts. I guess they forgot how to build phased array radar. What Brad Pitt rips off of that antenna and uses it for made me think of getting up and walking out before the movie was over.

The acting is two hours of Brad Pitt brooding. That's all I'll say on that topic.

Final conclusions: Can I get those two wasted hours back? Many years ago I went to a theater to see Jurassic Park which I didn't think was too bad. The next movie that finally lured me back into a theater was Apollo 11 which I think is one of the finest movies I've ever seen. Ad Astra will make me reluctant to go back. It might be another 30 years before I head out to see another movie.

Totally agree...

I watched yesterday, the movie, with a lot illusion, but is impossible defense this...

The mistakes in the spaceflight rules are huge...better turn off the brain...

The history, is losting interest every minute, and don't have too much coherence, and the final, is one of the most anticlimactics that I remember...don't have sense..

A really big lost opportunity with this movie, for the good actors, the budget, the fotografy, even the initial idea, etc...but all was throw away...

dwheeler · « **Reply #32 on:** 09/24/2019 02:09 am »

I saw it this past weekend. I was disappointed. I thought the plot didn't really hold together well. Several tangent scenes/plot lines that didn't seem to matter. Space scenes and tech weren't believable, at least for me. And definitely not enough Liv.

jcopella · « **Reply #33 on:** 09/24/2019 02:27 am »

Quote from: Tywin on 09/24/2019 02:01 am

Quote from: Eric Hedman on 09/20/2019 09:53 pm
I went to see the movie today. Disappointed. No story spoilers.

I'll start with the positive. Okay done.

The negative. If you have an understanding of physics including orbital mechanics, you have to empty your brain of all knowledge first. There are also several things that happen in the story line for no apparent logical reason. The five star reviews have to be by people who don't understand a thing about spaceflight. The whole premise of the story is a fail. Why what they are doing at Neptune has to be done out by Neptune is beyond me.

What appears to be a rotating radar antenna at the station orbiting Neptune looks like a large version of rotating antennas you could see on older large yachts. I guess they forgot how to build phased array radar. What Brad Pitt rips off of that antenna and uses it for made me think of getting up and walking out before the movie was over.

The acting is two hours of Brad Pitt brooding. That's all I'll say on that topic.

Final conclusions: Can I get those two wasted hours back? Many years ago I went to a theater to see Jurassic Park which I didn't think was too bad. The next movie that finally lured me back into a theater was Apollo 11 which I think is one of the finest movies I've ever seen. Ad Astra will make me reluctant to go back. It might be another 30 years before I head out to see another movie.

Totally agree...

I watched yesterday, the movie, with a lot illusion, but is impossible defense this...

The mistakes in the spaceflight rules are huge...better turn off the brain...

The history, is losting interest every minute, and don't have too much coherence, and the final, is one of the most anticlimactics that I remember...don't have sense..

A really big lost opportunity with this movie, for the good actors, the budget, the fotografy, even the initial idea, etc...but all was throw away...

Every word of both of these.

This movie was gawd-awful. Painfully bad. It's a message movie, the message is "toxic masculinity is bad" (as if we needed to be told), and all of the sci-fi and spaceflight trappings are just excess baggage. There is nothing remotely thoughtful about any of the science fictional elements of this film -- it's all garbage.

The one thing I will give the movie credit for is it has smart production design and the spacecraft interiors are plausibly depicted. In fact, that's one of the maddening things about it -- you're seeing plausibility with your eyes (at least when you're seeing the inside of the spacecraft) while at the same time your ears and brain are hearing blatant stupidity from the script.

I'm no fan of Interstellar, by a long shot, but it was leagues better than this.

Gotta run -- need to throw on my 2001 DVD to wash this horrible film out of my memory.

Eric Hedman · « **Reply #34 on:** 09/24/2019 05:59 am »

I'm not surprised that as more reviews are coming in that people are disappointed. What is sad is that some of the special effects were so good and they were wasted on such a bad movie. Neptune and its rings were well done. The lunar surface was very well done. I did like how well they did the pointless buggy chase on the Moon.

If you do go see this movie be prepared to be disappointed.

Lars-J · « **Reply #35 on:** 09/25/2019 05:13 am »

Quote from: jcopella on 09/24/2019 02:27 am

This movie was gawd-awful. Painfully bad. It's a message movie, the message is "toxic masculinity is bad" (as if we needed to be told), and all of the sci-fi and spaceflight trappings are just excess baggage.

If you really think this movie was about "toxic masculinity", you cannot have paid attention. I'm not defending the movie, but that is so far off-track.

QuantumG · « **Reply #36 on:** 09/25/2019 02:17 pm »

Quote from: Lars-J on 09/25/2019 05:13 am

If you really think this movie was about "toxic masculinity", you cannot have paid attention. I'm not defending the movie, but that is so far off-track.

Hey, an actual discussion about the movie! What would you say it's about?

Eric Hedman · « **Reply #37 on:** 09/25/2019 03:12 pm »

Quote from: QuantumG on 09/25/2019 02:17 pm

Quote from: Lars-J on 09/25/2019 05:13 am
If you really think this movie was about "toxic masculinity", you cannot have paid attention. I'm not defending the movie, but that is so far off-track.

Hey, an actual discussion about the movie! What would you say it's about?

My two cents. We can't have a real discussion about the movie without spoilers. Do you want that here before you see the movie?

sanman · « **Reply #38 on:** 09/25/2019 07:05 pm »

Just from the comments of the director made in video above - he mentions Space Pirates. How do you have space pirates in the next 50-100 years? I'm not making a rhetorical remark ignoring suspension of disbelief to knock what's obviously a sci-fi movie. But what would be the basis for space pirates in this movie universe? Would they be smuggling something of value? How would they operate unseen by sovereign states?

QuantumG · « **Reply #39 on:** 09/26/2019 11:41 am »

Quote from: Eric Hedman on 09/25/2019 03:12 pm

My two cents. We can't have a real discussion about the movie without spoilers. Do you want that here before you see the movie?

I'm fine with it.

Spoiler: Here's how to post spoilers.

Or something.