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SimplyScripts Screenwriting Discussion Board  /  Movie, Television and DVD Reviews  /  Ad Astra
Posted by: JEStaats, September 30th, 2019, 5:02pm
I keep wanting to say Ed Asner when I talk to peeps about the movie. Just me.

No Spoilers except the V.O. is going to drive you nuts! To me, this was a blatant rip-off of Apocalypse Now. I even stayed through the credits to see if it was based on the movie or Heart of Darkness. Nope. Instead of travelling up a river, he travels to Neptune with way points of the Moon and Mars. With a couple of skirmishes along the way that add nothing to the film.

Visually stunning, great green screen and CG. I gotta give it that.

C-
Posted by: eldave1, October 1st, 2019, 10:11pm; Reply: 1
Darn. Was looking forward  to it
Posted by: Fais85, October 2nd, 2019, 1:45am; Reply: 2
Was eagerly looking forward to this one. But they keep pushing forward its release date here. Strange!
Posted by: James McClung, October 2nd, 2019, 2:45pm; Reply: 3
Funny. I've seen the trailer multiple times in theaters. Absolutely zero interest from me. And yet this...


Quoted from JEStaats
To me, this was a blatant rip-off of Apocalypse Now. I even stayed through the credits to see if it was based on the movie or Heart of Darkness. Nope. Instead of travelling up a river, he travels to Neptune with way points of the Moon and Mars.


...this actually sounds somewhat intriguing, despite the other drawbacks you've noted. Apparently not a plus though. Strange. What gives?
Posted by: JEStaats, October 2nd, 2019, 3:21pm; Reply: 4

Quoted from James McClung

...this actually sounds somewhat intriguing, despite the other drawbacks you've noted. Apparently not a plus though. Strange. What gives?


Looking back, I think it would've marketed better and I would've received the film more positive if I knew that it was based on or a remake of Apocalypse Now. Instead, I felt myself almost cheated.

If the writers/producers/director had no intention of it being relative to A.N., well...hmmm...don't know what to say about that.
Posted by: Andrew, October 6th, 2019, 5:42pm; Reply: 5
Thought it was just going to be perplexed by the omnipresent, add-nothing-to-the-story VO.

If you ever think to yourself, 'do I need a VO', give this watch this to remind yourself when it's definitely not needed.

On VOs, some obvious examples aside, I always thought the VO for Jerry Maguire was absolutely spot on.
Posted by: Nomad, October 6th, 2019, 7:43pm; Reply: 6
I disliked this movie better when it was called The Thin Red Line...Or was it Tree Of Life?

The Thin Red Tree Of Linfe?

Visually this movie is just as good as Tree Of Life, but there's just a slow, depressing story that doesn't make much sense (Space Pirates for 30 seconds?)

I'll probably watch it again when it comes out on Prime to make sure I didn't miss something deeper.

-Jordan
Posted by: Grandma Bear, December 6th, 2019, 10:38pm; Reply: 7

Quoted from JEStaats

No Spoilers except the V.O. is going to drive you nuts! To me, this was a blatant rip-off of Apocalypse Now. I even stayed through the credits to see if it was based on the movie or Heart of Darkness. Nope. Instead of travelling up a river, he travels to Neptune with way points of the Moon and Mars. With a couple of skirmishes along the way that add nothing to the film.
C-

Exactly what was going through my head as well. Even the tone it was delivered with was exactly the same.

Okay movie though. Not great, but ok.
Posted by: Colkurtz8, December 7th, 2019, 12:41am; Reply: 8
Yeah, this was decent, falling short of great. Too derivative of other films that have already been mentioned.

James Gray is a curious one. I've seen all his films, I like his sensibility, his integrity but generally speaking, his work never quite reaches the heights, emotionally, dramatically or otherwise, that he is evidently striving for.

One exception would be Two Lovers which I thought was genuinely great. Little Odessa also has a wonderful mini monologue by Maximilian Schell about our relationship to our fathers which I've never forgotten.
Posted by: LC, December 7th, 2019, 3:39am; Reply: 9
Sleep inducing. I had high hopes for this and thought it'd merit a cinema outing. Not to be. There were moments of suspense but then it seemed the Director chose not to build on those high points but suck the life out of them. A pity. Not a patch on Gravity which did keep me glued to the screen.
Posted by: Heretic, December 13th, 2019, 3:22pm; Reply: 10
This was 10/10 entertainment for me, but I can definitely see why it's not for all tastes.

Incredible visuals, good performances, outrageous story. Sort of a meta-blockbuster -- a big-budget flick trapped in the subjectivity of a protagonist who's totally unmoved by movie-blockbuster-type stuff.

I thought the VO made perfect sense for the movie. He spends most of his time listening to his own thoughts in his head in a big silent universe -- so, so do we.

It's an adventure movie, not a thriller, and I think that kind of hurt its reception as we don't make (or market) such things very often anymore. Along with High Life, I'd consider this one an exciting step forward in what people are doing with contemporary science fiction.
Posted by: eldave1, December 28th, 2019, 11:35am; Reply: 11
The visuals were stunning - top notch. the movie was a train wreck. Given the amount of tedious voice overs they should have titled it Ad Nauseam.

Dialogue - so exposition laden and on the nose. Countless times characters are providing each other information for our sake rather than finding clever ways to deliver the background we needed.  And if I heard one more line akin to "your Dad was a hero" I'm sure I'd vomit (Ad Nauseam).

The love for formula leaped off the scream. We need a ticking time bomb type scene here - but it doesn't make sense - fok it. We need a reversal here - but the one you have doesn't make sense - fok it - we're twenty minutes in and I need a reversal!

Dropped story lines and character arcs were real pleasant. I wonder how Donald's Sutherland emergency surgery went?

But the biggest issue was the absolute dismissal of logic. We got to get this guy to Mars as quick as we can to send a space text.  TIME IS CRITICAL - so let's spend three weeks getting him there because certainly in the days of flying ships to Neptune there is no technology that would allow them to send an electronic recording of our her's message to Mars.  

We need a car chase scene.  How about we do that on the Moon and create this un-policed wasteland between the trillion dollar city we built on the moon and are most valuable rocket station in the universe. We got to have Fast and Furious there. But wouldn't the military patrol this land like it was made of gold??? Who cares - I need a moon car chase scene.

And of course our hero won't be allowed on the rocket to Neptune. Fortunately, a commander that wants his father dead with all her heart is going to do everything in her power to derail the mission whose specific objective is to kill the dude.

But how is she going to get him on that ship??? Easy - they built a secret tunnel that just happens to open up directly under the ship. Say what - that sounds like a poor security measure - won't it at least me manned by guards??? No it's a secret. But wait - it's right under the ship - how can it be secret??? Oh, because I need it to be. I couldn't think of a logical way to get him on board.  Besides, the next 4 minutes is basically going to be The Martian meets Apocalypse Now - so I'm sure our audience will be distracted. PS - did I mention that somehow our middle aged hero is going to be able to accidentally kill the entire crew within three minutes of boarding??? Alrighty then.

The last laugh out loud moment for me was when our hero boards the Lima. Of course they have to have some old-timey stuff there to show that this thing is dated. There choice - a dot matrix printer. Wait - didn't they stop selling those in 1985???? Yeah - but it sure is old-timey. People will get the point.

This movie/script is why people who are not paid to write believe they can write. Train wreck.
Posted by: LC, December 28th, 2019, 4:53pm; Reply: 12

Quoted from eldave1
The visuals were stunning - top notch. the movie was a train wreck. Given the amount of tedious voice overs they should have titled it Ad Nauseum


;D Dave, thanks for the laugh first thing in the morning.

A very well thought out analysis of this film, imho.
Posted by: eldave1, December 28th, 2019, 5:46pm; Reply: 13

Quoted from LC


;D Dave, thanks for the laugh first thing in the morning.

A very well thought out analysis of this film, imho.


Gracias
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