Ad Astra
released 2019
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“Ad Astra” is an American, scifi, drama, adventure produced by Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, James Gray, Anthony Katagas, Rodrigo Teixeira and Amon Milchan. It was directed by James Gray who also co-wrote the screenplay with Ethan Gross. It stars a very talented cast which includes Brad Pitt, Tommy Lee Jones, Ruth Negga, Donald Sutherland, Liv Tyler, John Ortiz, Greg Bryk, Loren Dean, John Finn, Kimberly Elise, Bobby Nish, Lisa Gay Hamilton, Jamie Kennedy, Donnie Keshawarz, Nayasha Lyonne and many others. It was produced by 20th Century Fox and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.

Ad Astra IMDb webpage

“Ad Astra” is the story of Major Roy McBride, played by Brad Pitt, the son of the famous solar adventurer, hero H. Clifford McBride, played by Tommy Lee Jones. The story begins when Roy survives a serious accident outside the Earth´s atmosphere by sheer skill and luck but seems unphazed. Death brushes by him and he doesn´t even flinch. He is a hardworking, talented astronaut and engineer but is numb to nearly everything around him, including his wife, the loss of his farther.

Roy´s life takes an unexpected turn when powerful energy waves start to bombard the Earth. The origin of the of the anomily comes from a region in the solar system where H. Clifford McBride was last seen with his team working on a project to find intelligent life. So Roy sets out to find his father and stop the energy pulses from destroying the Earth.

“Ad Astra” is a very good film thatg sheds the superfluous and over the top, choreographed action and fight scenes. And I have to start by stating the obvious and saying that Brad Pitt did some fantastic acting. It is a realistic look at space travel using the current technology on the market. I liked the way the space industry was shown for the gargantuan machine it has to become where scientific and corporate interests come together. And of course the gathering of talented people across all disciplines. In my opinion this is what the push into space will become. I loved the scene where he sealed an astronauts visor with duct tape because, yes, duct tape will continue to be that important a necessity in the future. Movies like Ad Astra help to get people psychologically accustomed to the emerging space industry and that´s a good thing.

There´s so much to be said about “Ad Astra” but at the core it´s the story of a man reconnecting with the people in his life and humanity in general. He sees the path his father took and the road it led him down and chose, in my opinion, a better path.

I really loved “Ad Astra” and I highly recommend it as a good watch. So go check it out folks.

John

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