AD ASTRA (no spoilers)

[moviePig]

Some misanthropic angst bedevils Brad Pitt, a legacy astronaut on an
interplanetary mission to perhaps save humanity. Although AD ASTRA does
occasionally scrape the retaining wall of scientific plausibility, its
blend of grim space-drama and philosophy (and some resonance with
2001:aSO) manages to gel well enough throughout. Recommended.

[danny burstein]

Contrary opinion:

My two word review: Ad Astra => Ad Nauseum.



--
_____________________________________________________
Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key
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[william ahearn]

Not even close. Really bloated non-movie.

[alvey]

On Fri, 20 Dec 2019 23:34:13 -0500, moviePig wrote:


In space, no-one can hear you snore.




alvey

[TT]

Visually gorgeous, should be seen in cinema.

[TT]

It's something for art film and science fiction film aficionados.

If you're not somewhat into slow contemplative art films then it might
not be for you. However I feel that true science fiction fans love
intelligent slow films... for example 2001, Interstellar, Solaris. If
you love those, Ad Astra should be in your ballpark.

[william ahearn]

On Saturday, December 21, 2019 at 1:58:00 AM UTC-5, TT wrote:
>
> If you're not somewhat into slow contemplative art films then it might
> not be for you. However I feel that true science fiction fans love
> intelligent slow films... for example 2001, Interstellar, Solaris. If
> you love those, Ad Astra should be in your ballpark.

And yet it isn't. Aniara is. Go figure.

[moviePig]

I can buy that (at least enough to wonder what I might've missed).
Actually, it occurs to me that this flick may have set out to be a
quasi-redo of 2001:aSO, only with a diametrically opposite ending...

[william ahearn]

On Saturday, December 21, 2019 at 9:56:27 AM UTC-5, moviePig wrote:
>
> I can buy that (at least enough to wonder what I might've missed).
> Actually, it occurs to me that this flick may have set out to be a
> quasi-redo of 2001:aSO, only with a diametrically opposite ending...

Funny that Apocalypse Now is referenced more by critics than the Kubrick film.

[moviePig]

Maybe because we're moving closer to Coppola's vision than to Kubrick's.

Meanwhile, though, a further amendment re AD ASTRA's "resonance" with
2001:aSO. I've thought on it a bit more, and have now experienced
something of a "Duh!" moment: AA is *actually* a flagrant remake of the
earlier movie (...with a cheekiness that, at best, does nothing for AA's
"message"). You can almost make a drinking game of picking out the many
pointed and unmistakable analogies and similarities between the two...

[Michael OConnor]

It is sorta kinda "Apocalypse Now" set in outer space. I was thinking of the similarities, for example, instead of watching a cow being hacked to death, you get to see a baboon explode when exposed to zero atmosphere.

There are parts of the movie I just don't get. For example, there was the scene when the co-pilot was promoted to pilot and froze up during the landing on Mars (the one Pitt said in narration he could tell was scared about going into the animal research vessel) and Pitt had to land the spacecraft. Why would either of the two other people on the craft with them who witnessed the landing (the oriental guy and the dark-skinned lady) want to fly all the way to Neptune with this weak pilot again, and were so willing to terminate Pitt, especially since he saved their lives during the landing? Didn't it occur to the two of them that this co-pilot guy was probably going to get them killed on the way to Neptune?

Also, was the engine on the Cephus damaged by the surge so that Pitt needed the boost from the explosion to propel his rocket (which was pretty damn hokey) back to Earth, or did the powers that be intentionally not provide the Cephus with enough fuel for a return trip to Earth i.e. a one-way trip to Neptune, find the Lima Craft, and set off the bomb to destroy the Lima craft and sacrifice the crew of the Cephus to ensure the job was done? This was not made clear either.

Isn't there a commercial flight that goes to the dark side of the moon where they don't have to drive buggies thru no man's land? If it's so dangerous, why don't those buggies have some armor shielding on the side? Those looked no different than what the Apollo Astronauts used in the 1970's, hasn't the technology improved?

They never explained what happened to Donald Sutherland's character either; they said he went into emergency surgery, and you never heard another word about him.'

Don't they have security cameras around the launch sites that would have shown Brad Pitt climbing up the ladder of one of the rockets in the moments before a launch?

All in all, I liked it. I thought it was a cerebral movie with some cool action sequences. I was expecting Tommy Lee Jones to be a little more psycho once Brad Pitt finally confronted him in person.

[alvey]

Care to provide some support for that assertion?



alvey

[moviePig]

On 12/21/2019 1:44 PM, Michael OConnor wrote:
> It is sorta kinda "Apocalypse Now" set in outer space. I was thinking of the similarities, for example, instead of watching a cow being hacked to death, you get to see a baboon explode when exposed to zero atmosphere.
>
> There are parts of the movie I just don't get. For example, there was the scene when the co-pilot was promoted to pilot and froze up during the landing on Mars (the one Pitt said in narration he could tell was scared about going into the animal research vessel) and Pitt had to land the spacecraft. Why would either of the two other people on the craft with them who witnessed the landing (the oriental guy and the dark-skinned lady) want to fly all the way to Neptune with this weak pilot again, and were so willing to terminate Pitt, especially since he saved their lives during the landing? Didn't it occur to the two of them that this co-pilot guy was probably going to get them killed on the way to Neptune?

They are apes, who follow their genetic programming (i.e., orders).

> Also, was the engine on the Cephus damaged by the surge so that Pitt needed the boost from the explosion to propel his rocket (which was pretty damn hokey) back to Earth, or did the powers that be intentionally not provide the Cephus with enough fuel for a return trip to Earth i.e. a one-way trip to Neptune, find the Lima Craft, and set off the bomb to destroy the Lima craft and sacrifice the crew of the Cephus to ensure the job was done? This was not made clear either.

(Yes, pretty damn hokey ...but damn pretty hokey, fwiw.) The ostensible
plan was to radio Earth for a pickup mission. The actual plan was
closer to what you said. (Iirc.)

> Isn't there a commercial flight that goes to the dark side of the moon where they don't have to drive buggies thru no man's land? If it's so dangerous, why don't those buggies have some armor shielding on the side? Those looked no different than what the Apollo Astronauts used in the 1970's, hasn't the technology improved?

Moon-buggy development might reasonably be a field with low competitive
interest. (Note, btw, that there is no actual "dark side of the moon".)

> They never explained what happened to Donald Sutherland's character either; they said he went into emergency surgery, and you never heard another word about him.'

Hell, be glad he got lines...

> Don't they have security cameras around the launch sites that would have shown Brad Pitt climbing up the ladder of one of the rockets in the moments before a launch?

Especially in the desolation of Mars, the imminent blast from the rocket
lifting off above you might've been deemed sufficient security...

> All in all, I liked it. I thought it was a cerebral movie with some cool action sequences. I was expecting Tommy Lee Jones to be a little more psycho once Brad Pitt finally confronted him in person.

Though I did find TLJ's scenes to be affecting, I, too, was expecting
more of a scuffle...

[TT]

SPOILERS

I don't remember the film in fine detail since I saw it just about 3
months ago. But I understand that Sutherland's character died/was
dying... the pilot and the crew probably had no choice but to obey...and
perhaps there was enough fuel to launch the nukes and get back to Mars?

As for the buggy ride & other action sequence I thought they were a bit
unnecessary and there simply to please the action film generation.

I don't get the Apocalypse Now comparison. Rather 2001 and other scifi
films & perhaps some paranoid spy films.

There's a rough plot synopsis on Wikipedia.

[TT]

Oh and one more thing... I was positively surprised that Brad Pitt can
actually act!

(Was good in 'Once Upon a Time in Hollywood' as well)

[RichA]

The science is ridiculous.

[Michael OConnor]

> > Also, was the engine on the Cephus damaged by the surge so that Pitt needed the boost from the explosion to propel his rocket (which was pretty damn hokey) back to Earth, or did the powers that be intentionally not provide the Cephus with enough fuel for a return trip to Earth i.e. a one-way trip to Neptune, find the Lima Craft, and set off the bomb to destroy the Lima craft and sacrifice the crew of the Cephus to ensure the job was done? This was not made clear either.
>
> (Yes, pretty damn hokey ...but damn pretty hokey, fwiw.) The ostensible
> plan was to radio Earth for a pickup mission. The actual plan was
> closer to what you said. (Iirc.)

This still bothers me, a couple days after I rented it on PPV and watched it three times over two days. The whole concept of using a nuclear explosion, probably spiked by having antimatter simultaneously exploding, would cause an explosive blast that would propel a ship directly toward Earth, with no radiation-related issues for the astronaut on the spacecraft is ridiculous. Not to mention no damage to the spacecraft due to the tens of thousands of degrees of heat that the spacecraft would have to endure due to the being in such close proximity to the blast radii of the explosion. It was like those scenes in movies that irritate the hell out of me when people are outrunning fireballs in slow motion, where you might outrun the fireball itself, but not the searing heat of the fire, or the smoke generated by the fire that eats up all the available oxygen.

[moviePig]

Well, looking at it purely as a physics issue, it seems there'd be
*some* distance from the blast whereby the ship wouldn't be obliterated
but would be given some forward impetus ...so I guess I can't
wholeheartedly knock the writers on that score, despite having rolled my
eyes when I watched it. Also, remember that this whole flick is an
(incontrovertible!) parallel of 2001:aSO, where Kubrick's analogous
scene resorted to deep mysticism... where the heavens align just so...

[Michael OConnor]

> I don't get the Apocalypse Now comparison. Rather 2001 and other scifi
> films & perhaps some paranoid spy films.

There are differences between the two movies in plot (Pitt was not sent to Neptune to stop his father i.e. terminate his command with extreme prejudice, after the meeting with the lady on Mars, he realized he was the only person who could stop his father and took it upon himself to go to Neptune to confront him), but there were numerous similarities.

Pitt went on a long trip (three months or so) into a vast unknown, where much of it was carried by his narration, and along the way he had some bizarre adventures (the fight with the baboon in zero g, the moon buggy fight, sneaking onto a rocket moments before launch and having to fight the crew, emergency landing a rocket). And during the trip to Neptune, there was this buildup about what he would find when he got there, how would his father react and what how would he explain his behavior for the things he had done.

In "Apocalypse Now", Willard went on a long trip (several weeks IIRC) up a river thru mostly uninhabited jungle terrain, much of it was carried by his narration, and along the way he had some bizarre adventures along the way (the tiger, the Playboy Bunnies show, Kilgore, the bridge). And there was this buildup, where you learned more about Kurtz as the movie went on, his career, and how things started to go wrong for him, and there was the anticipation of what Willard would find when he got to him, and how Kurtz would explain his behavior.

He didn't go to Neptune to kill his father; he wasn't a killer, he was an Engineer, he just wanted to bring him back to Earth. On the other hand, Willard's job was to Kill Kurtz and take out his compound, that was clear all along, but Willard was trained to kill. Also, if Pitt had been sent to go to Neptune from the start, he would have taken off from Earth or Earth orbit I presume, and would never have stopped at the Moon or Mars although he might have slingshotted around them to gain speed, there would have been no stops.

I do think "Ad Astra" was inspired to a degree by "Apocalypse Now".

[danny burstein]

In <1cdf1fe8-366c-478b...@googlegroups.com> Michael OConnor <mpoco...@aol.com> writes:

[snniiiiippp... comparisons between Ad Nauseam and Apocolypse Now]

>In "Apocalypse Now", Willard went on a long trip (several weeks IIRC) up a =
>river thru mostly uninhabited jungle terrain, much of it was carried by his=
> narration, and along the way he had some bizarre adventures along the way=
> (the tiger, the Playboy Bunnies show, Kilgore, the bridge).i

The Playboy Bunnies sideshow was expanded dramatically
in the re-release of the film in 2001, under the title
"Apocolypse Now Resux".

[Michael OConnor]

> The Playboy Bunnies sideshow was expanded dramatically
> in the re-release of the film in 2001, under the title
> "Apocolypse Now Resux".

I know, I was just referring to the USO show itself. When watching the movie the first time, when I saw the lights up ahead, the last thing I expected it to be was a USO show featuring the Playboy Bunnies.

I for one prefer the original cut to the "Redux", although of the segments that were added for the "Redux" I wish they had added the scene of Kurtz reading the articles to Willard in the original cut. I thought that scene was good in that it was the only time we saw Kurtz in broad daylight, amongst his people, albeit children, and reading the articles, it was the only time he seemed truly coherent and almost sane. You get a sense of the man Kurtz must have been before he lost his marbles.