Ad Astra: Rumo às Estrelas
星际探索
Ad Astra
Ad Astra
Ad Astra
Reżyseria:
James GrayZdjęcia:
Hoyte van HoytemaMuzyka:
Max RichterObsada:
Brad Pitt, Tommy Lee Jones, Ruth Negga, Donald Sutherland, Liv Tyler, Kimberly Elise, Loren Dean, Donnie Keshawarz, Sean Blakemore, Bobby Nish, John Finn (więcej)VOD (5)
Opisy(1)
Astronauta Roy McBride (Brad Pitt) wyrusza na wyprawę poza granice Układu Słonecznego, aby odnaleźć swojego zaginionego ojca i odkryć tajemnicę, która zagraża przetrwaniu naszej planety. W trakcie podróży odkryje sekrety, które postawią pod znakiem zapytania sens ludzkiej egzystencji i nasze miejsce we wszechświecie. (Imperial Cinepix)
Recenzje (15)
Ad Astra is a psychological analysis of the mind of an astronaut who has to sort out his relationship with his dead (?) father. This is no spectacular sci-fi hit, but a cleverly written, self-reflective monologue of Brad Pitt’s character about inner doubts regarding the sense of absolute devotion to his work at the cost of deviating from the path where his heart is telling him to go. Space travel, though nicely conceived, makes the film “only” visually more attractive and adds a magical philosophical dimension. The climax may even disappoint some hardcore sci-fi fans expecting something big to happen. The film is akin to Chazelle’s First Man, which was, however, more emotional and fragile.
()
Gray further develops the theme of dysfunctional communication between immediate family members. They are unable to establish a dialogue because they escape into their own individual worlds and stay in their usual models of existence. Though Gray remains thematically and stylistically consistent, his view is more ambitious from film to film, while the protagonists’ ambitions grow accordingly. The distance that they had to overcome in an effort to find common ground was previously insurmountable only in a figurative sense. In Ad Astra, the distances between the protagonists are literally astronomical. This brought about a reinforcement of the main idea of Gray’s filmography – regardless of how far we roam, a place that gives meaning to our existence will always be in reach. ___ Recurring reservations about Gray’s latest work have a paradoxical nature. Critics admonish the film for not eliciting a stronger emotional response because of its monotonousness and ponderousness, while also saying that it is too literal, too obviously predictable and banal in its message. It’s as if they couldn’t see that the tension between the emotional distance on the one hand and the effort to share as much as possible on the other hand is the driving force of the film as well as its crucial distinguishing element. This duality is reflected as early as in the introductory action scene. The impression of vertigo evoked by the sight of a falling body and the POV shots contrasts with the icy calm of McBride, who matter-of-factly informs his commanders how he intends to handle the situation. The fact that he reacts to a lethally hazardous situation as if he has nothing to lose offers a relatively precise image of the main protagonist. ___ The uncertainty under whose influence the protagonist deviates from the mission’s objective is initially reflected in the words, actions and facial expressions of the supporting characters and later in Roy’s voiceover. The spectacular expedition to obtain knowledge gradually transforms into intimate family therapy. The film increasingly shifts from action to introspection, from broad strokes to details. This stylistic development corresponds to the growing scepticism with which Ad Astra frames heroic deeds. Acts of heroism performed only to satisfy one’s own ego or as a means of avoiding seemingly banal relationship commitments are, from the film’s viewpoint, a path to loneliness and social isolation. During the protagonist’s odyssey, people and animals die for no reason and, in the end, the main benefit of Roy’s mission is not finding the lost patriarch. He must go through this in order to reveal the reality concealed behind the myth that has been created around his father. ___ Roy uses an idealised image of himself based on his father’s upbringing as a shield against reality. Therefore, it is important that we have access to his concept of himself and can see or, as the case may be, hear how he gradually becomes disturbed by facts that do not correspond to the mythologised image of his father. Due to the pathological introversion of the protagonist, Gray decided to use a voiceover, which reflects Roy’s feelings in the present tense, not retrospectively, and thus continuously takes his character development into account. However, Roy’s detached tone of voice and the lack of passion in the sentences he utters do not primarily indicate strict work discipline, but rather his emotionally anesthetised state. He is incapable of openly communicating with others and talks to himself as if to the computer terminal in front of which he has to undergo regular psychological evaluations. He is inspected both internally and externally. ___ A certain warmth is present only in brief flashes of memories of his mother and former partner, for whom Roy was never fully present because he clung too tightly to his father’s legacy. Also, when questioned about his father’s disappearance during a work briefing, he symptomatically recalls not how he reacted to the event, but how his mother reacted. The fleeting presence of women in the narrative is legitimised by the filtering of all events through the perspective of a man who is unable to connect with his own emotions, let alone those of his loved ones. Roy mistakenly seeks understanding from his father, whom he admires for his career successes. In Roy’s voice-over, the two men merge from the beginning, when he derives his own worth from doing his own job well. However, the person who anchors him in the present, who defines the beginning and end of his story, is a woman, who represents his future, as she brings him back to life. ___ The way the film is constructed does not in fact needlessly double the message that it conveys. We do not hear offscreen what we see, but we see what Roy sees and perceives. Together with flashbacks, the parallel narration of various stories layers the seemingly straightforward monomyth about the protagonist’s journey, thus making it diverse and stimulating. The structure sets the text and the subtext against each other by maintaining distance from the hero and letting him comment on his changing position in the heroic narrative. Gray did not make a film that was spiritual or poetic, but one that is especially intellectual, particularly by revitalising the basic building blocks of adventure stories. Layer by layer, the film unmasks the heroic myth in order to show, based on the example of one flawed hero, how unstable the myth’s foundations are and thus it has to work on a different principle than that of traditional Hollywood genre movies, which merely recycle the myth. Ad Astra offers an emotionally powerful experience not in spite of its subdued nature, but precisely because of it. 90%
()
(mniej)
(więcej)
I don’t like very much films that want to look deeply smart, but then pull out a scene that looks like something out of a B-movie. Bugger! There are films where the hero jumps at the last second into a rocket taking off, or builds a shield out of a solar panel and flies through the rings of Neptune from one spaceship to another and then there are films that philosophise about human existence, but they should not be mixed. I must admit that Ad Astra looks and sounds amazing, that it has several scenes with great atmosphere and that in the first half I was quite excited. But then the annoying bits of nonsense start piling up to the point that they fundamentally distract from the experience and become impossible to ignore. Everything is underlined by Brad Pitt's voiceover, which is just too much. The film would make a lot more sense if the inner monologues weren’t there, because the actions of the hero would’ve explained things more convincingly. But as it is, it’s like an averagely intelligent person who wants to give the impression they are a genius. They can say a few smart sounding words, but the message as a whole lacks a deeper coherent meaning, and in the end all we are left with is a banal YOLO. A film that tries very hard, but can’t make it.
()
If the movie consisted only of the shots of the Universe and those from outside the Earth with the grandiose music, it would make the most beautiful documentary about the Universe that has ever been made with that unbelievably beautifully filmed moon-action which was at the top level. But as it is now, the movie has a story with Brad Pitt in it and neither of those things add to its quality. It might captivate you with its visual, for example, in iMax but from the screenplay point of view you can’t wait for it to end.
()
It looks beautiful. Hoyte Van Hoytema deserves an Oscar, the vastness and grandeur of space is literally palpable. It's beautiful to look at, the sound design its great, and in that respect Ad Astra can easily stand alongside both Interstellar and 2001: A Space Odyssey. Unfortunately, though, the film is tripped up by its story, or rather its delivery. The plot itself, with its search for a father and other motifs, is not uninteresting, but neither is it fundamentally new or revelatory. That wouldn't be a problem, there are some questions that people will probably always ask, but James Gray seems to have no confidence in his audience and leads them by the hand unnecessarily. Instead of letting me meditate on life in the middle of infinity, he tried to serve me answers right under my nose. It was uncomfortable. It's as if Gray knew he had made an interesting and clever film, but didn't trust his audience to interpret it for themselves, so he tried to make it easy and, for my taste, unnecessarily too easy. Which, for me personally, ended up spoiling the overall experience.
()
A beautifully filmed show of tasteful gibberish and persistent utterance of everything. In addition, culminating in a B-movie, which fully reveals how, despite the burden of beauty, Ad Astra is actually an internally simple movie that ostentatiously wears the robe of spiritual science fiction. I would have made it all about the monkeys. Space Baboons.
()
I regret that Ad Astra is one of the few films I missed in the cinema this year, because the trailer was deceiving. It is definitely not a boring sci-fi drama, but a pretty action-packed and intense space thriller, the kind we haven’t seen in a long time. Brad Pitt is excellent in his role and I was very impressed by the colonization on Mars and the Moon, where there are even pirates already (Mad Max in space) – I wouldn't be angry at all if the whole plot was set only there – but the search for the father was also quite entertaining and, moreover, I don't remember a cinematic portrayal of Neptune. The action scenes are awesome, the opening explosion on the Tower of Babel is thrilling as fuck, or the chase with the lunar vehicles, or the fight with the infected monkeys. In places the film is unexpectedly gritty and I liked that a lot. Despite my big fears, it was a lot of fun and a nice space experience. 8/10.
()
Ad Astra is a film that is easy to shoot down or mock with a withering catch-phrase, but which nevertheless hypnotically draws in the viewer and long afterwards smoulders in one’s mind. It is impossible to avoid the impression that something is simultaneously missing and excessive, whether monologues, action scenes or pulpy elements thatturn contemplative absorption into amused mockery. Like a cosmic Heart of Darkness, Ad Astra gives the impression of being abridged, as if a full range of other stops on the road to the destination have been bypassed. Glimmers of the film’s world give the sense of a well-thought-out future and colonisation of the solar system. Director James Gray's film comes across asa several-hour miniseries that has been edited down and promises the possibility of not only seeing more of everything but, primarily, getting everything in a more sophisticated, dramaturgically refined and, above all, more slowly flowing form. I very much would have liked Ad Astra’s runtime to be twice or even three times as long, with proportionately more stops in space and some motifs more thoroughly developed. In its actual form, it is a sort of Reader’s Digest, the fragments of which do not conceal the masterful filmmaking and give a sense of an epic vision.
()
Coppola’s Apocalypse Now in a sci-fi guise, with the same structure and the same orientation points. Gray’s tribute to the master. The same as the book by Conrad that it’s based on, this is a story of the essence of man and our role in the environment in which we live. The result isn’t the same, but that doesn’t matter. The journey to find your father is more important than the destination. There is no lack of action scenes and Hoyte van Hoytema outdoes himself again. Visually, it is like manna for the eyes. Pitt’s voiceover as the guide with a mental state of stoic calm, who doesn’t like people, works excellently. As does the father figure veiled in secrets, played by Tommy Lee Jones. The universality of this story about loneliness is made more intense by the emptiness of space. The laws of physics are not too important here. Despite all the big scenes, it’s an extremely low-key movie. A meditative masterpiece that isn’t for everybody, but few people will walk away completely unsatisfied.
()
A more intimate version of Interstellar, with similar formal opulence, musical arrangement and philosophy, but less ambitious artistically and script-wise, without a climactic finale or even highlight scenes. A cosmic father-son relationship drama and a story about making the right life choices and decisions that doesn’t take place exclusively on planet Earth. Brad Pitt is again fantastic.
()
The search for alien life and the search for the meaning of one's own, guilt and atonement, forgiveness and reconciliation... There are so many themes to think about in Ad Astra, and it's still a riveting spectacle, that it's impossible to be dissatisfied (unless the viewer is expecting an action-packed blast). In short, James Gray has made the perfect sci-fi that can reference 2001: A Space Odyssey from start to finish, and rightly so, because not even Nolan's Interstellar came this close. Many of the stunts in Ad Astra even look like they were created to Kubrick's score (all those spacewalks, ship-to-ship transfers, moon landings, etc.); it made me very happy. If you liked the strangely haunting and brooding atmosphere of The Lost City of Z, expect exactly that mood this time around. A wonderfully written, shot, and acted film from a believably imagined future that is actually both big and intimate at the same time, and which has something to say to you if you want to hear it.
()
James Gray completed, underscored, and carried to heavenly heights what he had already so impressively begun in The Lost City of Z: the fateful relationship of father and son and the perfectly old-fashioned, conscious development of the main character, wrapped in the most captivating cosmic setting ever. Interstellar? Hmmm, no, Space Odyssey. Every shot is magnificent, and the sequences on the moon and the final pilgrimage through material emptiness and moral fulfilment are downright hypnotic. Every gesture of the focused performance of Brad Pitt has a fundamental and undisputable reason, just like every note of the subtle score. I admire Gray from for not giving a crap about the mainstream and building a story of such epic proportions around a single character, whose distant journey from the earth’s surface so smartly symbolises a pilgrimage to his own past, while coping with his own legacy and bravely setting the direction for a new course of life, freed from the fateful shadow of his father. An audio-visually bombastic poem about the cosmos, by far the best and most beautiful homage to Space Odyssey ever, and with a human heart that truly touched me. I would have ended it with the detail of the praying hands, leaving the last minute to the audience, otherwise, beauty.
()
The first thing that struck me on the way out of the movie theater was that this movie is way closer to Coppola's Apocalypse Now than any of the recent intellectual blockbusters set in space, such as Interstellar or First Man, and this was confirmed by James Gray himself, the source he was actually inspired by a lot was Joseph Conrad's novella Heart of Darkness. Therefore, this of course undoubtedly accounts for Brad Pitt's resonant inner monologue, which perfectly fits into the lonely desolate environment of outer-space, where a person is given no choice but to dive deeply into their own thoughts and doubts. The interesting ideas presented in the movie, along with the visual effects definitely left a good impression on me, and after its finale, I feel much better about Ad Astra than I do about the two big science science fiction movies mentioned above. In the end, I would not forgive myself for not making this comment: I wonder if casting Donald Sutherland and Tommy Lee Jones was an independent decision, or if it was a direct reference to Eastwood's Space Cowboys. In any case, the movie has a very strong cast.
()
Perhaps I was anticipating another Interstellar or Gravity from Ad Astra and therefore had high expectations, which unfortunately in my case did not materialize. From a visual point of view, it is a nicely made film with some noteworthy scenes (the fall from the antenna, the clash with the pirates, the angry animals and Neptune), but narratively I found it rather shallow, despite the fact that a large part of the film consists of the main character's inner monologues, as he copes with the loss of his wife and father, as well as with the omnipresent loneliness that reigns in the universe. I guess I was expecting more action or some breathtaking plot twist, which is why I left the theater a little disappointed.
()
"Live. Love. Submit." I called Interstellar a manifesto of humility; Ad Astra is a manifesto of its own insignificance. Those who say the film is about nothing are right.
()