The man in space saves the world. Cue up Armageddon or Interstellar, not to mention hundreds of lower budget, often better space adventure films. The new Brad Pitt movie Ad Astra–that’s “to the stars” from the first century philosopher Seneca’s quote per aspera ad astra, meaning “to the stars through adversity”–looks a lot like it’s aiming to be one of those films. We might have skipped this one if we were to rely on the first two trailers alone. But space pirates? That’s something different altogether.
No one can deny the callback to Armageddon here, particularly with that movie’s co-star Liv Tyler appearing to be resurrecting her key scene in the Ad Astra trailers. And the intentional comedy drama Space Cowboys also featured Tommy Lee Jones as astronaut in similar space garb (he plays the father of Pitt’s character). Legendary dramatic and genre actor Donald Sutherland and genre veteran John Ortiz play supporting characters along with the Academy Award-nominated co-star Ruth Negga.
Maybe it’s more like the original Total Recall–the classic, not the remake. Is this cast, some respectable outer space visuals a la Gravity, and space pirates enough to get you into the theater? After watching all the trailers released so far, you may correctly feel like you’ve watched a quarter of the film. How will writer-director James Gray (The Lost City of Z) and co-writer Ethan Gross (Fringe) tie it all together?
First up, these are the two latest trailers for Ad Astra:
from Amazon.com. It’s a Western for the most part, and there’s plenty of John Ford influence in the comic book. The books and TV series follows Jesse Custer, a conflicted preacher in a small Texas town who combines with a powerful supernatural creature that has escaped from heaven. Along with his ex-girlfriend, Tulip (played by Ruth Negga), and an Irish vampire named Cassidy (played by Joe Gilgun), the three embark on a journey to find God.
