Movies Ad Astra (astronaut film starring Brad Pitt, directed/co-written by James Gray) - Trailer #2

[Greatoneshere]

3 minutes ago, number305 said:

Right on.  I'm interested in seeing it... but will probably wait to see it at home in a few months.  Most of my theater trips these days are with my kids, and I don't think they are ready for 'existence is meaningless'.  

 

The film's message is quite the opposite - it's about where we can find meaning in our existence and where we can't. But either way it's certainly not a film for children/kids.

[number305]

1 minute ago, Greatoneshere said:

 

The film's message is quite the opposite - it's about where we can find meaning in our existence and where we can't. But either way it's certainly not a film for children/kids.

Wow.  You guys have vastly different takes.  That's awesome.  

[Bloodporne]

Finally someone said monkey scene out loud so I can mock it openly as one of the most unintentionally funny things I've seen this decade. The entire theater burst out laughing to the point nobody even tried to be quiet afterward and just loudly mocked it. 

 

As you guys said, I'm sure there was a point I missed here but a CG monkey attack in outer space seemingly without a hint of self-awareness is fucking hilarious no matter how you slice it. 

[TwinIon]

Ok @SFLUFAN and @Greatoneshere, I finally bothered to write down what I was thinking.

 

Ad Astra can certainly be taken at face value: as a son’s emotional journey through space in search of an absent father. It wouldn’t be writer/director James Gray’s first film dealing with the subject, and there isn’t anything in the text of film demanding a more metaphorical reading. Still, when reviewing the film in my head, my interpretation isn’t simply that of a fantastic, if ill fated journey to the edge of the solar system. Instead, I like to think of Ad Astra as an allegory, a rebuke of god itself, and a parable about focusing on the lives we have in front of us.

 

Ad Astra is a journey to the stars, but it’s a journey searching for a higher purpose, a higher meaning, a higher form of life. It’s a journey that has consumed many, and left an incalculable burden on those in its wake. A journey as old as mankind, universal across cultures and, perhaps in the eyes of James Grey, one that need not be undertaken at all.

 

Set in a near future where space travel has been commoditized and manned exploration is increasingly common, Ad Astra tells the story of an astronaut in search of his father. A hero to all, his father may be the key to everything. What unfolds is less a story of a hero's adventure, and more a series of vignettes illustrating the collateral damage incurred during that search for a father in the heavens.

 

The film opens on a modern tower of Babel, mankind’s greatest creation and a tool for searching beyond the stars, incurring a terrible fate and falling back to the earth. Next, we go to the moon, and we’re told that it’s a lawless place where men have again resorted to violence and piracy over natural resources. We watch as good men, one father in particular, are senselessly killed in pursuit of the mission. Next we encounter a ship experimenting on animals, and witness nature’s fierce but futile backlash. 

 

Throughout each trial our leading man is calm and in control. His certainty and dispassion soothes the fear that might otherwise arise. He is legendarily level headed in the face of danger, but at the same time is wholly consumed by his relationship with his (heavenly) father. 

 

All this effort, all this death, and all for one purpose: to contact his dad. But that was never going to be enough. When our protagonist learns that there will be no reply and that the new mission is not to rescue or save his father, but to destroy him, to end that fruitless one way relationship, he is newly determined to go himself, and that single minded determination unleashes terrible unintended consequences.

 

When his travel has come to its zenith and he finally can confront the myth himself, he learns the obvious truth: god the father does not care for you; he never has. Your every experience has been evidence of that fact, but still you ignore it. There is no one out there, we have only ourselves rely upon, and there is such enormous beauty and promise in that fact that it should not be seen as failure, but instead it should be embraced. Yet still he holds on to the legend, his father, his god, latching himself to his father in a last, desperate attempt to bring him home. But that was never an option. He’s faced by a final choice to die along with his father or sever that connection once and for all. 

 

Free of the burden of his father, our hero can realize what he had all along. A relationship and a love that was fighting for him here on Earth. A real, tangible love worth so much more than that of someone among the stars who obviously does not care. That, I think, is Ad Astra’s take on god. We accumulate incalculable damage in pursuit of his affection, but the simple truth of the matter is that we are alone in our struggles. That god’s existence is not a worthwhile question because his indifference is already obvious.

[GeneticBlueprint]

1 hour ago, number305 said:

Wow.  You guys have vastly different takes.  That's awesome.  

 

To be clear, my take shouldn't be seen as different than @Greatoneshere's. I agree the film provides a lot of hope in terms of relying on one another and finding meaning in the here and now. I just meant that the search for a higher power and meaning in it is futile according to this film.

[Greatoneshere]

4 minutes ago, GeneticBlueprint said:

 

To be clear, my take shouldn't be seen as different than @Greatoneshere's. I agree the film provides a lot of hope in terms of relying on one another and finding meaning in the here and now. I just meant that the search for a higher power and meaning in it is futile according to this film.

 

I meant to say the same - I am in agreement with @GeneticBlueprint's take, it works in tandem with what I was saying.

[Greatoneshere]

48 minutes ago, TwinIon said:

Ok @SFLUFAN and @Greatoneshere, I finally bothered to write down what I was thinking.

 

Ad Astra can certainly be taken at face value: as a son’s emotional journey through space in search of an absent father. It wouldn’t be writer/director James Gray’s first film dealing with the subject, and there isn’t anything in the text of film demanding a more metaphorical reading. Still, when reviewing the film in my head, my interpretation isn’t simply that of a fantastic, if ill fated journey to the edge of the solar system. Instead, I like to think of Ad Astra as an allegory, a rebuke of god itself, and a parable about focusing on the lives we have in front of us.

 

Free of the burden of his father, our hero can realize what he had all along. A relationship and a love that was fighting for him here on Earth. A real, tangible love worth so much more than that of someone among the stars who obviously does not care. That, I think, is Ad Astra’s take on god. We accumulate incalculable damage in pursuit of his affection, but the simple truth of the matter is that we are alone in our struggles. That god’s existence is not a worthwhile question because his indifference is already obvious.

 

I agree with a lot of this full post - it was my take as well. As an apatheist this movie really hit that last part you said on the head for me - God's existence is an ultimately pointless question, regardless of the answer.

[Bloodporne]

45 minutes ago, TwinIon said:

Ok @SFLUFAN and @Greatoneshere, I finally bothered to write down what I was thinking.

 

Ad Astra can certainly be taken at face value: as a son’s emotional journey through space in search of an absent father. It wouldn’t be writer/director James Gray’s first film dealing with the subject, and there isn’t anything in the text of film demanding a more metaphorical reading. Still, when reviewing the film in my head, my interpretation isn’t simply that of a fantastic, if ill fated journey to the edge of the solar system. Instead, I like to think of Ad Astra as an allegory, a rebuke of god itself, and a parable about focusing on the lives we have in front of us.

 

Ad Astra is a journey to the stars, but it’s a journey searching for a higher purpose, a higher meaning, a higher form of life. It’s a journey that has consumed many, and left an incalculable burden on those in its wake. A journey as old as mankind, universal across cultures and, perhaps in the eyes of James Grey, one that need not be undertaken at all.

 

Set in a near future where space travel has been commoditized and manned exploration is increasingly common, Ad Astra tells the story of an astronaut in search of his father. A hero to all, his father may be the key to everything. What unfolds is less a story of a hero's adventure, and more a series of vignettes illustrating the collateral damage incurred during that search for a father in the heavens.

 

The film opens on a modern tower of Babel, mankind’s greatest creation and a tool for searching beyond the stars, incurring a terrible fate and falling back to the earth. Next, we go to the moon, and we’re told that it’s a lawless place where men have again resorted to violence and piracy over natural resources. We watch as good men, one father in particular, are senselessly killed in pursuit of the mission. Next we encounter a ship experimenting on animals, and witness nature’s fierce but futile backlash. 

 

Throughout each trial our leading man is calm and in control. His certainty and dispassion soothes the fear that might otherwise arise. He is legendarily level headed in the face of danger, but at the same time is wholly consumed by his relationship with his (heavenly) father. 

 

All this effort, all this death, and all for one purpose: to contact his dad. But that was never going to be enough. When our protagonist learns that there will be no reply and that the new mission is not to rescue or save his father, but to destroy him, to end that fruitless one way relationship, he is newly determined to go himself, and that single minded determination unleashes terrible unintended consequences.

 

When his travel has come to its zenith and he finally can confront the myth himself, he learns the obvious truth: god the father does not care for you; he never has. Your every experience has been evidence of that fact, but still you ignore it. There is no one out there, we have only ourselves rely upon, and there is such enormous beauty and promise in that fact that it should not be seen as failure, but instead it should be embraced. Yet still he holds on to the legend, his father, his god, latching himself to his father in a last, desperate attempt to bring him home. But that was never an option. He’s faced by a final choice to die along with his father or sever that connection once and for all. 

 

Free of the burden of his father, our hero can realize what he had all along. A relationship and a love that was fighting for him here on Earth. A real, tangible love worth so much more than that of someone among the stars who obviously does not care. That, I think, is Ad Astra’s take on god. We accumulate incalculable damage in pursuit of his affection, but the simple truth of the matter is that we are alone in our struggles. That god’s existence is not a worthwhile question because his indifference is already obvious.

Despite hating the actual execution, this is the great idea I also saw underneath it all. And a nice, well-written post that I honestly enjoyed reading more than watching the film itself.

 

Paging Morgan Freeman...

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

On 10/8/2019 at 12:26 PM, TwinIon said:

Ok @SFLUFAN and @Greatoneshere, I finally bothered to write down what I was thinking.

 

Ad Astra can certainly be taken at face value: as a son’s emotional journey through space in search of an absent father. It wouldn’t be writer/director James Gray’s first film dealing with the subject, and there isn’t anything in the text of film demanding a more metaphorical reading. Still, when reviewing the film in my head, my interpretation isn’t simply that of a fantastic, if ill fated journey to the edge of the solar system. Instead, I like to think of Ad Astra as an allegory, a rebuke of god itself, and a parable about focusing on the lives we have in front of us.

 

Ad Astra is a journey to the stars, but it’s a journey searching for a higher purpose, a higher meaning, a higher form of life. It’s a journey that has consumed many, and left an incalculable burden on those in its wake. A journey as old as mankind, universal across cultures and, perhaps in the eyes of James Grey, one that need not be undertaken at all.

 

Set in a near future where space travel has been commoditized and manned exploration is increasingly common, Ad Astra tells the story of an astronaut in search of his father. A hero to all, his father may be the key to everything. What unfolds is less a story of a hero's adventure, and more a series of vignettes illustrating the collateral damage incurred during that search for a father in the heavens.

 

The film opens on a modern tower of Babel, mankind’s greatest creation and a tool for searching beyond the stars, incurring a terrible fate and falling back to the earth. Next, we go to the moon, and we’re told that it’s a lawless place where men have again resorted to violence and piracy over natural resources. We watch as good men, one father in particular, are senselessly killed in pursuit of the mission. Next we encounter a ship experimenting on animals, and witness nature’s fierce but futile backlash. 

 

Throughout each trial our leading man is calm and in control. His certainty and dispassion soothes the fear that might otherwise arise. He is legendarily level headed in the face of danger, but at the same time is wholly consumed by his relationship with his (heavenly) father. 

 

All this effort, all this death, and all for one purpose: to contact his dad. But that was never going to be enough. When our protagonist learns that there will be no reply and that the new mission is not to rescue or save his father, but to destroy him, to end that fruitless one way relationship, he is newly determined to go himself, and that single minded determination unleashes terrible unintended consequences.

 

When his travel has come to its zenith and he finally can confront the myth himself, he learns the obvious truth: god the father does not care for you; he never has. Your every experience has been evidence of that fact, but still you ignore it. There is no one out there, we have only ourselves rely upon, and there is such enormous beauty and promise in that fact that it should not be seen as failure, but instead it should be embraced. Yet still he holds on to the legend, his father, his god, latching himself to his father in a last, desperate attempt to bring him home. But that was never an option. He’s faced by a final choice to die along with his father or sever that connection once and for all. 

 

Free of the burden of his father, our hero can realize what he had all along. A relationship and a love that was fighting for him here on Earth. A real, tangible love worth so much more than that of someone among the stars who obviously does not care. That, I think, is Ad Astra’s take on god. We accumulate incalculable damage in pursuit of his affection, but the simple truth of the matter is that we are alone in our struggles. That god’s existence is not a worthwhile question because his indifference is already obvious.

What an absolutely remarkable analysis! 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

The soundtrack has just been released on all the usual services.