Once again, I’m trying to make up for the abysmal job I did last month, so I high-tailed it to the theater twice this weekend! First up was the long awaited (for me) Ad Astra. I know there was a lot of hype around this movie, but it being about space, I was a little skeptical.
Taking place in the not-too-distant future, the film starts with Major Roy McBride (Brad Pitt) falling from space to earth while working on a satellite. That was enough to throw me off at first, but then I realized that space travel is easy now, with commercial flights to the moon, and whole populations living underground on Mars. McBride is a highly revered astronaut, just like his father was.
But his father is lost in space, around Neptune, from an expedition that took place sixteen years ago, called the Lima Project. The military believes Roy’s father may still be alive and is causing devastating power surges throughout the solar system. They want Roy to go out and send a message. At first he’s accompanied by an old friend of his father’s, Pruitt, who gives Roy a classified file before he heads off alone to Mars. It turns out the mission is a seek and destroy one.
Once on Mars, it appears Roy is successfully able to make contact with his father, but no one will tell him anything. A woman who lives on Mars tells Roy that his father killed her parents as part of the Lima Project, and she just wants him to go get answers. Roy is able to sneak on board the craft traveling to Neptune, but ends up accidentally getting the rest of the crew killed in the process. Roy makes it to his father craft, but he wants to remain in deep space forever, convinced there is intelligent life that still needs discovered. My favorite line of the movie is when Roy says this about his father, “He was so distracted by what wasn’t there, that he couldn’t see what was right in front of him.” So even though Roy still loved his father, he knew it was a lost cause to bring him back.
The movie overall was a slow burn, but there were certainly some intense moments. I liked this better than say, Gravity, because it was all a little bit smoother of a process. Gravity almost made me hyperventilate throughout the entire film! It also brought up a pretty great point: what if we are all there is in this universe? I imagine Pitt will be getting an Oscar nod for this, so if you’ve got an affinity for space, go check it out!
Last night, my sister and I decided on a good, dumb laugh kind of movie, Jexi. Starring Adam Devine, this movie centered on Phil, who just got a new phone with an AI that just wants to make his life better! In the worst, most inappropriate way possible. Filmed like a cellphone camera going in and out of focus, it also touted some pretty great supporting parts and a concert! Will I ever see this again? No. But did I laugh out loud on many occasions? Yes. So it was worth trip in my book!