Ad Astra 4K Blu-ray Review & Comments

I got a little bored of this unfortunately, but Pitt was good and I thought that, way too brief, action sequence on the moon towards the start was magnificent.
 
This isn’t just a dull movie - it’s non sensical.


You can now get to Neptune in a few months but you’ve never thought to send an expedition after the lost mission? Hmm.... someone clearly spotted that one late in the process hence the rather obviously tacked on line about sending probes after ‘the event’. Still makes them look pretty uncaring before then though

By definition a laser message would be highly specifically focused, with little scatter, but you manage to hit the exact spot? When the probes failed to find them? Hmm....

The reason the lunar rovers were light & flimsy was because it’ll they had to be to get them there. You’ve literally got a major concrete built lunar base, so clearly that’s not a an issue any more. So the Americans are using flimsy, unarmoured vehicles because...erm, tradition?

Random space apes because you’ve realised you’ve got an astonishingly dull movie? Fair enough, but it feels like a scene from a completely different film. A more enjoyable one.



I was bothered and thinking about issues like the above while watching it because I was bored. It’s a poor movie that thinks it’s a clever one. If you want to watch an update of Heart of Darkness, watch Apocalypse Now. It’s nicely shot though.
Add to those you mentioned
The tower from the Earth surface to outside the atmosphere which just exists for an international space antenna to be placed on the top ('just perfect to contact our distant neighbours out there') when a satellite in a geosynchronous orbit would be a lot cheaper and easier to build. Just seems to be there for a bit of action in the fall to the ground. I'd withdraw that if it had been a space elevator but it wasn't.

The main Moon base for interplanetry travel located for some 'reason' on the dark side of the moon out of sight but the journey to it from the other base the commecial flights land at is though bandit country just so the buggy attack sequence can take place. Something which adds absolutely nothing to the plot of the story. The distance is hundreds to a thousand+ miles so why wouldn't a flyer be used like in 2001. Especially when to travel on the surface is dangerous.

Going off course and stopping to look at the Norwegian space station when at full Moon to Mars transit speed like pulling in and stopping at the side of the road. Just so there can be another bit of action which adds absolutely nothing to the plot line.

Having to make a journey to Mars just to record a message. Couldn't he do that on the Earth or the Moon?

Landing the interplanetary ship on Mars where it then has to use fuel to take off again rather than just parking it in orbit and using a lander. A technology which was used for the first Moon landing in the 1960's. Just so there can be a sneak entry into an airlock located near the rocket boosters and another bit of unneeded action. Same situation with big rocket take off from the Moon when an orbital parking setup would use much less fuel.

Jumping off the ship to go through the rings around Neptune and ending up exactly where required despite using just line of sight orbital 'calculation' which didn't take any account of changes to the trajectory from all the impacts from the ring rocks.

Using the shockwave from a nuclear explosion as a speed boost to get back to Earth.

I wanted to like it but by the end it was a shrug of shoulders and a 'is that all it is then'.
Did prompt me rewatch Event Horizon yet again though so there was that to be said for it.
 
Unfortunately, this movie just didn’t go anywhere.

Great build up, but it just seemed rushed at the end once he came into contact with his father, and the great build up lead to a damp squib.

Great visuals and sound tho.
 
Not sure why there are so many negative comments about Ad Astra. I didn't find it dull or boring at all.

Watched it last night for the first time on UHD Blu-ray in the home cinema and enjoyed it. The moon buggy pirate sequence didn't fit with the rest of the movie, and there were a few stupid/silly plot points (boarding the Mars ship etc.) - but in general I liked the study of a man alone who needed isolation to understand what he really wanted.

Spaceship interiors and weightlessness felt very authentic. Exterior ships were unfortunately CG and lacked mass at times - but the effects were mainly good.

Regards,
James
 
Not sure why there are so many negative comments about Ad Astra. I didn't find it dull or boring at all.

Watched it last night for the first time on UHD Blu-ray in the home cinema and enjoyed it. The moon buggy pirate sequence didn't fit with the rest of the movie, and there were a few stupid/silly plot points (boarding the Mars ship etc.) - but in general I liked the study of a man alone who needed isolation to understand what he really wanted.

Spaceship interiors and weightlessness felt very authentic. Exterior ships were unfortunately CG and lacked mass at times - but the effects were mainly good.

Regards,
James

Sure, but they didn't go into the surge when he found him. Nothing interesting around that.

I watched with my family and we all felt there would be something interesting/climactic/mysterious at the end of his journey. There was this rather poor quick summary that the worlds his dad found looked rather nice, but nothing more. Nothing credible to justify the sacrificing of his crew, or him going so off grid other than a bit of space madness and that he really wants to find some aliens.

The trailer says "What we are facing is a crisis of unknown magnitude" .."All life could be threatened" Really? Well, tell us about it. They hint at this existential crisis because of the surge, but he get's there, says "Hi dad, I'm taking you back", Dad resists. Pitt goes home. It's really bizarre, like they ran out of time and budget.

Also, they go to the trouble of recruiting Pitt. Now, you wouldn't get the guy's son to go and potentially assisinate his own dad. Hello! Conflict of interest. You feel there must be a special reason other than that his heart beat doesn't exceed 80pm. Then they drop him from the mission without batting an eye lid. I's poor story telling and not credible.

Plus, I'm not impressed with the Apocalypse Now style narration. I love Apocalypse Now. Blatantly and obviously copied.
 
I watched the 4k Bluray over the weekend. The film is single paced and slow and some scenes are just laughable. 5/10
The Cinematography is great and the HDR 4k image is amongst the best I've seen. 10/10

The atmos sound track is excellent but I've heard more engaging mixes especially with rocket launches etc. 8/10
 
I watched Saturday nite on rented on Rakuten TV, as they sent me free points. I enjoyed the film it was more different to a lot of the recent space films, and quite thought provoking with families split up because they worked in space like.
On my C8 watching in the dark and the space scenes looked amazing black with different space ships in many scenes had tiny flashing lights these then looked so bright to!
Came up HDR, and was in 5.1.
 
Sure, but they didn't go into the surge when he found him. Nothing interesting around that.

The trailer says "What we are facing is a crisis of unknown magnitude" .."All life could be threatened" Really? Well, tell us about it. They hint at this existential crisis because of the surge, but he get's there, says "Hi dad, I'm taking you back", Dad resists. Pitt goes home. It's really bizarre, like they ran out of time and budget.

Plus, I'm not impressed with the Apocalypse Now style narration. I love Apocalypse Now. Blatantly and obviously copied.
That's totally fair. I didn't see the trailer, so didn't have any expectations. I do find (many) modern trailers to be very, very annoying. They either 'sell' the film as something it isn't, or they tell you way too much about the movie and reveal important plot points.

I love 'Apocalypse Now' too. While there are some thematic similarities, I never thought it was trying to be 'Apocalypse Now in Space' ;-)

Regards,
James.
 
Sci-Fi is my favorite movie genre, and this one is by far the absolute worst Sci-Fi movie I ever seen. Let me emphasize it again BY FAR!

It is a solid -3/10 (yes, minus).

Can believe some people liked it. But I am fine with that, as there will be people that severally dislike the films I love... I just wonder if they are the same people and we have 180° tastes.
 
Sci-Fi is my favorite movie genre, and this one is by far the absolute worst Sci-Fi movie I ever seen. Let me emphasize it again BY FAR!

It is a solid -3/10 (yes, minus).

Can believe some people liked it. But I am fine with that, as there will be people that severally dislike the films I love... I just wonder if they are the same people and we have 180° tastes.
My wife gave it - 10
 
Navier - for a sci-fi fan you must have not seen many sci-fi movies to say this is the worst sci-fi film you have ever seen?
I can see why some people wouldn't like it, pacing issues and some obvious hoky ideas of what people do in certain scenes, but to say its BY FAR the worst??
worse than AvP: Requiem? worse than Babylon A.D.? worse than Skyline? worse than Hollow Man? worse than GeoStorm? worse than Species II? worse than Battlefield Earth? I could go on?
Now I know that film rating is a personal thing and what someone likes (like I like this film) another person can say they really didn't like, or even hate, thats cool, thats your perogative
But to state a film like Ad Astra is the absolute worst Sci-Fi movie ever is just stupid
There are soooo many sci-fi movies worse than this.
 
Navier - for a sci-fi fan you must have not seen many sci-fi movies to say this is the worst sci-fi film you have ever seen?
I can see why some people wouldn't like it, pacing issues and some obvious hoky ideas of what people do in certain scenes, but to say its BY FAR the worst??
worse than AvP: Requiem? worse than Babylon A.D.? worse than Skyline? worse than Hollow Man? worse than GeoStorm? worse than Species II? worse than Battlefield Earth? I could go on?
Now I know that film rating is a personal thing and what someone likes (like I like this film) another person can say they really didn't like, or even hate, thats cool, thats your perogative
But to state a film like Ad Astra is the absolute worst Sci-Fi movie ever is just stupid
There are soooo many sci-fi movies worse than this.
I love Plan 9 so I reckon I will be fine with this! ;)

I actually watched Battlefield Earth to the end and it wasn't the worst film I've seen by a long chalk.
 
Even if you detest the film, the cinematography and visuals should at least discount it from being the worst movie ever made. What a ridiculous comment. Why does everything have to be so binary these days.
 
It's worse than 'the worst sci-fi ever made' in one respect. Two decades later we're still talking about Battlefield Earth. We won't be talking about Ad Astra 20 years from now. Its sin is averageness, and average films are always forgotten.
 
Ah but would you say Battlefield Earth is a better film than Ad Astra??? :)
Aha! Well cant tell you that. Not quite yet anyway. Ill do a review in the usual place. Shame some here don't do reviews - the more, the better!
 
I do have a review Jim, but in a “picture paints a thousand words“ kind of way, and it goes as follows:

A7CECB3A-3027-4E9B-A317-F8271425DA0B.jpeg
 
I think Cas's summary nails it. Gravity by way of Apocalypse Now. Years ago when I watched Gravity in 3D I found it a little bit of a let down. Ad Astra was enthralling from beginning to end, watching the story unfold, the politics, the feelings or lack thereof. One part of the music score had more than a touch of Hans Zimmerman which did take me a little out of the film.

The picture quality was decent but I think I'm a little spoilt now with top notch HDR 4K discs. The Atmos was by and large very good but I personally didn't find it as immersive as it could be.

I was thinking of this but there have been some poor reviews whilst others have said that this is the film the Interstellar should have been and I absolutely love that film.

I knew this was the kind of film I should have seen at the cinema. I should have trusted my instincts rather than the reviews. In a way this is the film Interstellar could have been. Interstellar for me had a great setup but I personally didn't like the ending. But this is more like an introspective Gravity rather than Interstellar which had more "action".

Overall an amazing experience. 9/10
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I really wanted to like this film. I love science fiction, like Brad Pitt and was very much looking forward to watching it. Unfortunately the experience didn’t match the anticipation. I found the pacing matched the even controlled personality of Brad’s character. Consequently like Roy McBride my heartbeat never exceeded 80bpm whatever was being experienced and I just found it all rather dull. Even the action scenes felt flat and unexciting.I found the storyline too simple with virtually no subplot and no exploration of the main characters and how they had got to where they were.
In the end it was like eating lettuce with no seasoning or dressing. Not bad just forgettable.
Count me as ‘not angry, just disappointed’.. 5/10
 
In the end it was like eating lettuce with no seasoning or dressing.
Very Off Topic
FYI I'm a London kid so I used to think the same thing about lettuce, tomatoes and salad in general. But then I tasted salad which had been freshly grown in decent soil. No dressing or seasoning. It turns out that salad isn't just texture, it really does taste of something lol.
/end OT
 
Enjoyed it, glad I bought it digitally mind for a tenner rather than on disc for £25, as it’s not one I’ll rewatch much.
 
I think Cas's summary nails it. Gravity by way of Apocalypse Now. Years ago when I watched Gravity in 3D I found it a little bit of a let down. Ad Astra was enthralling from beginning to end, watching the story unfold, the politics, the feelings or lack thereof. One part of the music score had more than a touch of Hans Zimmerman which did take me a little out of the film.

The picture quality was decent but I think I'm a little spoilt now with top notch HDR 4K discs. The Atmos was by and large very good but I personally didn't find it as immersive as it could be.



I knew this was the kind of film I should have seen at the cinema. I should have trusted my instincts rather than the reviews. In a way this is the film Interstellar could have been. Interstellar for me had a great setup but I personally didn't like the ending. But this is more like an introspective Gravity rather than Interstellar which had more "action".

Overall an amazing experience. 9/10

Tell you what I love about Gravity, though. It's an experience. On my set-up, in 3D, I'm almost *in* the movie, and I can watch it again and again and again and be thrilled by it every time. Can't really compare Ad Astra for me. One watch was enough.
 
Tell you what I love about Gravity, though. It's an experience. On my set-up, in 3D, I'm almost *in* the movie, and I can watch it again and again and again and be thrilled by it every time. Can't really compare Ad Astra for me. One watch was enough.
I remember being immersed just not very interested in the story. I've got it on iTunes to watch again so maybe I will change my mind.
 
On a side note l was going to buy this film on 4k HDR via the Apple TV app that l have on my tv last night,but instead l streamed IT Chapter 2....it looked very good but my god the sound was dreadful in comparison to anything on 4k disc but so glad l read this review a 4k bluray it is

Agreed, I bought IT Chapter 2 on iTunes, as the kids wanted to see it early but the sound was nowhere near bluray quality...made sure I bought the disc for Ad Astra

Felt the ending was a little undercooked but really enjoyed it nonetheless and really good PQ and Atmos
 

The latest video from AVForums

Is 4K Blu-ray Worth It?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom