| Title | Qt3 Movie Podcast: Ad Astra |
| Author | Tom Chick |
| Posted in | Movie podcasts |
| When | October 7, 2019 |
Let's find out what happens when you shoot Brad Pitt into outer space!
Next: Joker
Nice to see Ed Asner get properly credited.
I forgot to write in with my thoughts but I have every confidence that you guys have it covered. I only just started listening but am glad to see that @Kelly_Wand nailed Donald Sutherland’s most important contribution to the movie.
Now for the real news: Kelly is coming back to America!! OMG Kelly what happened—did you finally accept that offer to be White House Communications Director??
Oh hey cool, I still want to see this but I need to give the podcast a listen and find out if any of you guys liked the movie.
So I’m not the only one!
What was the thumbs up/down breakdown for those of us avoiding spoilers?
We’re all pretty down on it, even though I feel it’s worth seeing.
-Tom
Ah, bummer.
I wish I had written in!
Post moar words here. That’s kind of like writing in.
-Tom
I need to finish listening first. I had to stop so I could focus on getting a Texas medical license.
Don’t tell anyone 'cause I’m under NDA, but I’m really excited, you are now reading the tedious non sequiturs of Rudolph Giuliani’s new personal lawyer. Only for college cred, but finally a chance to become more to people than just The Glamorous Writer of the Jumper videogame. Afk, need to pick a college. Wait, the President has a university?! U-S-A!
I knew I wouldn’t be the only one that noticed Mark Ruffalo’s cameo in this. :)
Man, what a piece of garbage it was. The “science” was unforgivable and the plot was worse.
Thank god the podcast made watching this thing worthwhile. It was brilliant, thank you!
Interesting listen as someone who liked the movie. You acknowledged a bunch of the good stuff and even almost admitted that the anticlimactic confrontation was a legitimate twist and that the science foibles didn’t matter. I agree Cliff Booth was a way better Brad Pitt character, but still I’ll take a great and satisfactory Brad Pitt performance in the same year (especially if Pitt is balanced by some great Hoytema.)
I really have no issue with bad science in most movies and I’m always a little amused when it bothers people. Movies make their own science, whether it’s a blow to the face not leaving a mark, magical instant computer hacking, or Iron Man’s flying suit. Ad Astra isn’t selling a story about the mechanics of space travel, acoustics in a vacuum, or the effect of EMP blasts from the outer planets. Those things are bits and pieces in the background, little more than scenery. They’re elements of the plot, not information about the real world. Entertainment doesn’t have to be education.
It’s like complaints about the Chernobyl miniseries taking liberties with how radiation works or Hurt Locker having a character wipe blood off bullets so they’ll load. Drama often involves dramatization. It’s a feature, not a bug.
As for the twist with the anticlimactic finale, I would have been okay with that if I had at least gotten an interesting conversation between Brad Pitt and Tommy Lee Jones, or some sort of connection, or sparks, or something, anything. Drama also needs to sometimes be dramatic!
Amen, brother! Amen! Ad Astra is gorgeous largely because of the cinematography. I’ve been tempted to go see it again on an Imax screen. But I think I’ll just watch my Interstellar blu-ray instead.
-Tom
BTW, the space baboon sequence was totally ripped off from Dwayne Johnson’s masterpiece, Rampage.
I was not a fan of this. I missed seeing this when the Podcast came out and then it took me two years before I finally got around to watching it.
I really disliked the laughable science in this. If you are going to throw physics and everything out the window, fine, but there should be a really good payoff for doing so and I don’t think that there was any worthwhile payoff in the movie.
For a slow moving Heart of Darkness in Space type of movie it seems like leaning hard into science would have been to it’s benefit. Instead you get none of the science and absolutely no payoff at the end! That was really annoying. Also, Tommy Lee Jones killed his fellow crew members more than a decade and a half ago and yet there was no decomposition?
Having said all that, it was worth watching for the opsis and to hear what for me was a brand new episode. I really miss that weekly treat on Monday morning and without the Podcast, I’ve been lost when it comes to searching out movies to watch and finding the motivation to watch.
I also just watched this this weekend. Had to break it into two viewings. I got my 3rd covid jab which made me I’ll, and I got tired midway through it.
Very bad science aside (climbing into a rocket while it’s accelerating away from the surface?), what bothered me the most was the constant narration, tellings us what the character feels, and how we should feel about SpaceCom. Just shut up and let me figure it out for myself.
At least I have the podcast to listen to now.
Ha ha, we saw Ad Astra.
From what I remember, I think it could have been a better movie with a different lead? Imagine Ad Astra starring Charlize Theron with Daniel Day-Lewis as the father she eventually finds.
-Tom
Have you seen Proxima?
Neptune rock ring surfing was totally radical.