Ad Astra

A contemplative space adventure. See, here's the problem with a contemplative space adventure: it tends to be a lot of thinking, not much action--so when the action finally does come, the viewer has been lulled, if not to sleep, then at least into a state of quiescence that leaves him somewhat indifferent to the proceedings. That's a problem for any movie, let alone a big-budget space show like this one. It's all rather grim, which is not necessarily something that makes for an automatically bad movie, but is something that requires some extraordinary effort, some extra special part of the presentation to redeem that grimness. That never really shows up here. Instead, you just get Brad Pitt showing his age, Tommy Lee Jones and Donald Sutherland really showing their ages, a putative co-star (Liv
Tyler) who's barely there throughout, and a long, slow journey that ends mostly in disappointment (not to mention a bit of spaceflight absurdity). The trip to these stars simply does not shine.