Hulu's sci-fi thriller with an A-list superstar has already been forgotten

The author Jonathan Klotz
| Published 21 seconds ago

The fate of humanity is at stake, and only Brad Pitt, in one of his rare sci-fi roles, can save the known universe. on paper, Advertisement Astra sounds amazing; it was run by James Gray, the award winner in charge We own the night and The lost city Zand the expanded cast includes both Tommy Lee Jones and Donald Sutherland, so it was all set to be a hit. Instead, the film is too well-made to be a good-bad movie and too boring to be a crowd-pleaser, leaving it in the middle where no movie wants to be: competently shot, well-acted, gorgeously shot, but met with collective indifference a shrug.

A visually stunning journey through space

Advertisement Astra humanity is on the brink of collapse as the planet is rocked by strange energy surges from deep within the solar system. There are none alienshowever, it is a floating space station in Neptune's orbit that is responsible for the surges. Brad Pitt as astronaut Roy McBride is sent on a mission to find out if anyone is still alive on the space station Project Lima, which includes his father, Project Commander Clifford McBride Tommy Lee Jones.

Getting from point A to point B proves difficult, thanks in part to feral lab monkeys, space pirates, a major power surge that hits their ship at the worst possible moment, and a series of double crosses. Advertisement Astra manages to squeeze a lot into it, but at the same time very little consequence. Runaway Apes has nothing to do with the fate of the galaxy, so by the time the film gets to the real themes of the story, the bonds between father and son and humanity's hopes for space exploration, most viewers have tuned out.

Advertising Astra does too much

When a movie is described as “slow,” that's usually reviewer code for “boring” or “sparkly,” and yes, Advertisement Astra is a slow film, but that's because it's a rare contemporary contemplative big-budget motion picture. science fiction. More 2001: A Space Odyssey than it is Star Wars, there's a potential genre classic in the script and behind the gorgeous space shots, but the focus is too broad to come out of hiding.

Advertisement in Astra's the transition to the third act comes with a great moment of focus on Roy, his relationships, what brought him to this point and what he hopes to achieve. That's what makes the film great, and if there were more of those moments and less of escaped monkeys or space pirates, it could reach the heights of other cerebral sci-fi films like Solaris or Arrival.

Brad Pitt doesn't usually tackle genre films, but when he does, he brings his A-game from Interview with a vampire to 12 monkeysand Advertisement Astra is no exception. With a running time of 124 minutes, shaving off 10 or even 15 could have been a tighter pace to create something more memorable and thoughtful, rather than a film that tries to do too much and loses itself in the process.

Advertisement Astra currently streaming on Hulu.