Ad Astra

"He captured strange and distant worlds in greater detail than ever before. They were beautiful, magnificent, full of awe and wonder. But beneath their sublime surfaces there was nothing. No love or hate. No light or dark. He could only see what was not there and missed what was right in front of him." - Roy McBride

release year: 2019
genre: sci-fi
viewing setting: home Bluray 12/21/19

synopsis: A star astronaut heads out to Neptune to figure out what happened to his missing father (and his big science experiment that may have gone wrong) 26 years ago.

impressions: It was generally good sci-fi, with some exciting and visionary moments but also some slow ones. I didn't find the main character to be completely sensible all the time, and some actions both by him and others were questionable, but overall it was a solid space story.

acting: Brad Pitt is the mission-focused, perhaps overly-driven astronaut. Tommy Lee Jones is his father, who was/is even worse, to the point of being deranged. Ruth Negga and Donald Sutherland have brief, minor supporting roles.

final word: Worth seeing, though a bit slow and senseless at times.

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