AD Astra | Sep 20 2019 | Sci Fi | Best movie of the year with a B- cinemascore? | Brad Pitt

[DeeCee]

I’m trying to be spoiler free so I’m not being scene specific. The spacecraft issue is a generic issue that doesn’t really spoil anything. 

[CoolioD1]

10 minutes ago, Plain Old Tele said:

 

I suppose you could say he's an empty vessel into which you can pour whatever you want. But without going into spoilers, the keys to how it wraps up needed to be more established (or even set up) early on, and I didn't think they were.

 

there was one minor detail i didn't love, but otherwise i disagree with you on this i thought the follow through on his arc was pretty beautiful and it hit me in a strong way, we'll just disagree on this.

 

and if the vehicle designs and space exploration being unrealistic are a big knock against the film for some people that's fine, but i just think the whole "oh, this is only for people who aren't interested in space" line of thinking is unnecessarily smug and dismissive.

[DeeCee]

Probably didn’t help that I’d watched Arrival the night before. 

[DeeCee]

6 minutes ago, CoolioD1 said:

there was one minor detail i didn't love, but otherwise i disagree with you on this i thought the follow through on his arc was pretty beautiful and it hit me in a strong way, we'll just disagree on this.

 

and if the vehicle designs and space exploration being unrealistic are a big knock against the film for some people that's fine, but i just think the whole "oh, this is only for people who aren't interested in space" line of thinking is unnecessarily smug and dismissive.

It was intended as a light hearted smug and dismissive. 

[Plain Old Tele]

1 minute ago, CoolioD1 said:

there was one minor detail i didn't love, but otherwise i disagree with you on this i thought the follow through on his arc was pretty beautiful and it hit me in a strong way, we'll just disagree on this.

 

Fair. But also, I'm a huge sucker for father/son stories, and I'm really surprised at how much that didn't work for me.

 

I think it's a worthy effort. Gray & Pitt, et al were really swinging hard here. I just think they kinda whiffed.

 

In terms of the space stuff: it's a lot of things, not just the technical stuff (tbh if they establish a coherent universe I don't really care about it being purely accurate). And clearly Gray wanted to show the glories of the inner solar system and the potential for human colonies. But the overall journey taken and the conclusion(s) drawn by the main character (and by extension, the film) feel very old-fashioned and dated, at least compared to a lot of written science fiction. (Sadly, there's been precious few movies to do so, so I understand if Gray's attention and interest came mainly from the film side of things). And they've been outspoken about channeling APOCALYPSE NOW and that sort of thing. But the overall universe they've created and presented here feels like they spent lots of time in a couple of areas and then just sort of waved their hands a bunch, and that feels like lousy creation (whether fair or not).

[lorddemaxus]

34 minutes ago, DeeCee said:

Given the current status of space exploration and vehicle development pretty much all of the space vehicles in the movie are ridiculous. It’s like the script and vehicle design was done in the 70’s and no one ever bothered to update it except to slap on a few Virgin Galactic stickers. 

 

If there was an interesting emotional core to the movie this could have been overlooked but the main character is an emotionless robot and you’re not given much reason to care about him. 

 

The movie played things very straight but randomly jumped between trippy sequences. It felt like Gray was looking for his inner Terry Gilliam but was nowhere near finding it. 

 

Does the movie taking into account modern day advancements really make a difference? If anything the simpler approach they took prevents the movie from taking its focus away from the emotional stuff.

 

And the main character being a robot for most of the movie is the point. Just like with First Man last year.

 

I don't think the "trippy" sequences were really just there to show the character's psychological state. It wasn't Gray trying to find his inner Gilliam.

[DeeCee]

I feel a post in the review thread coming later this morning. 

[lorddemaxus]

Spoiler

Im honestly surprised by the amount of people who expected this film to be about father/son relationships and the movie to end with TLJ and Brad Pitt reconnecting. It's not the kind of message the film wants to tell. TLJ is too lost in his own delusion to care about the people in front of him. He cares more about what isn't there. The part where TLJ and Brad Pitt meet up is meant to be tragical in a sense and not cathartic. 

 

[Plain Old Tele]

10 minutes ago, lorddemaxus said:

Does the movie taking into account modern day advancements really make a difference? If anything the simpler approach they took prevents the movie from taking its focus away from the emotional stuff.

 

There's a moment late in the movie where their choices of... travel made me actively enraged.  

Edited September 19, 2019 by Plain Old Tele

[JB33]

Well, mixed reactions for sure, at least around these parts. Looking forward to checking it out this weekend.

[SnokesLegs]

I loved this, one of the best films I’ve seen this year, I was completely engrossed in it and Brad Pitt and the cinematography were outstanding. It deserves to do a lot better than it’s probably going to do. 

[Water Bottle]

52 minutes ago, Plain Old Tele said:

 

Fair. But also, I'm a huge sucker for father/son stories, and I'm really surprised at how much that didn't work for me.

 

I wonder why. 

[DeeCee]

43 minutes ago, Plain Old Tele said:

 

There's a moment late in the movie where their choices of... travel made me actively enraged.  

Spoiler

[Water Bottle]

3 minutes ago, DeeCee said:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

[Plain Old Tele]

7 minutes ago, DeeCee said:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

That too... but I was thinking about what happens just a little after that.  

[DeeCee]

1 minute ago, Plain Old Tele said:

 

That too... but I was thinking about what happens just a little after that.  

I see.

 

Spoiler

 

[Plain Old Tele]

Just now, DeeCee said:

I see.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

L M F A O

[DeeCee]

Plug time.

 

BOT's very own Space Thread.

 

 

[Plain Old Tele]

@DeeCee

 

(probable AD ASTRA spoiler, don't look if you haven't seen the movie)

 

 

"We used to look up at the sky and wonder at our place in the stars,

now we just look down and worry about our place in the dirt."

 

 

Edited September 19, 2019 by Plain Old Tele

[OdinSon2k14]

Looking forward to this, Sunday afternoon. I liked Gravity, Interstellar was strange 🙂...but I feel I will really enjoy this one.