It's sad how quickly it's obvious that something is just going to be pretentious trash for IYI's.
Director James Gray (The Lost City of Z) has said he wanted to make a film that depicted space travel as realistically as possible "and to basically say, 'Space is awfully hostile to us.' It’s kind of a Heart of Darkness story about traveling to the outer edge of our solar system." The official synopsis strikes just the right note of vague grandiosity: "Astronaut Roy McBride (Brad Pitt) travels to the outer edges of the solar system to find his missing father and unravel a mystery that threatens the survival of our planet. His journey will uncover secrets that challenge the nature of human existence and our place in the cosmos."
Of course the title alone was enough - "Brad Pitt heads into space with mega daddy issues in first Ad Astra trailer."
These people write for a living and that's what they come up with?
For those who haven't seen The Lost City of Z, don't bother. The book, while interesting, already ends on a "euro's suck, natives are great", and the movie just made it worse while adding stupid feminist crap.
That's the second red flag (after the title).
The rest is just as illuminating, if not for what the filmmakers intended. Heart of Darkness? That's a nope. Gee - space is awfully hostile? Never would have guessed.
Bluntly, there's nothing this film pretentiously hopes to do that wasn't already done better in Interstellar - including the genius guy going insane and murderous after years of isolation.
Note, interstellar was about us taking our place amongst the stars, not discovering secrets that challenge our place in it.
That is a huge difference.
