By Jonathan Klotz
| Published
The fate of humanity is at stake and only Brad Pitt can save the known universe in one of his rare sci-fi roles. on paper, Advertising Astra sounds amazing; Directed by James Gray, the prizewinner responsible for We own the night and The Lost City of Zand the expanded cast included both Tommy Lee Jones and Donald Sutherland, so all the pieces were in place to be a hit. Instead, the film is too well-made to be a good-bad movie and too boring to be a crowd-pleaser, leaving it stuck where no movie wants to be: competently made, well-acted, beautifully shot, but met with collective indifference.
A visually stunning journey into space
Advertising Astra humanity is on the brink of collapse due to strange power waves from deep within the solar system rocking the planet. There is no aliensalthough it is a floating space station responsible for fluctuations in Neptune's orbit. Brad Pitt, as astronaut Roy McBride, is sent on a team to find out if he is still alive on the space station “Project Lima”, played by his father, the commander of the project, Clifford McBride. Tommy Lee Jones.
Getting from point A to point B proves difficult, thanks in part to ferocious lab monkeys, space pirates, more power-ups hitting their ships at the worst possible moment, and a series of double-crosses. Advertising Astra it manages to put a lot into it, but at the same time, the result is very little. The runaway monkeys have nothing to do with the fate of the galaxy, so most of the audience is tuned in until the film gets to the story's true themes, the bond between father and son and humanity's hopes for space exploration.
Advertising Astra does a lot
When a movie is described as “slow,” that's usually a reviewer's code word for “boring” or “scary,” and yes, Advertising Astra it's a slow film, but that's because it's a rare modern-minded piece of big-budget cinema. science fiction. More 2001: A Space Odyssey Unlike Star Wars, there's a potentially classic genre lurking in the script and behind the gorgeous shots of outer space, but it's too broad to avoid obscuring the focus.
Advertising Astra the transition to the third act occurs with Roy having a big moment about his relationships, what got him to this point, and what he wants to achieve. That's what the film excels at, and if there were more and fewer moments like this with running apes or space pirates, it could have reached the heights of other cerebral sci-fi films. Solaris or Arrival.
Brad Pitt doesn't usually do genre films, but when he does, he brings his A-game Interview with the vampire for 12 monkeysand Advertising Astra not an exception. With a running time of 124 minutes, shaving off 10 or even 15 could have tightened the pace to create something more memorable and thought-provoking instead of a film that tries to do too much and loses itself in the process.
Advertising Astra currently streaming on Hulu.
