Ad Astra (2019) - Yet Not So!

★★☆☆☆

'Ad Astra' in Latin means 'to the stars', but Brad Pitt's Roy is not going to be able yet to travel to any star. He's just setting out for Neptune, one of the planets in our solar system, to find his missing father who is considered the cause of probably the end of mankind. The film feels like part 'Gravity', part '2001: A Space Odyssey', part 'Interstellar'. It's artistic but not gripping. It's thought-provoking in a sense but not thrilling at all. It starts off attractively but it zonks me out just half way through! Brad's cool and hot and invincible as usual, like a super human being getting super difficult missions super easy done! Gotta say, I checked it out because of him. I wonder, without him, would it draw any attention anyways?

Alright, I know 'Ad Astra' is not about how men do stuff. It's more about what and why they do it. Why are we still busy looking up at the stars while we can't seem to watch our step? Why do we keep looking out for more problems while we ourselves are already so problematic? What's the point of us being so concerned about other intelligent lives than us, and our place in the universe, while we always can't help being so selfish and self-centered? Would we be like far better off and problem-less then?

Who are we? Where do we come from? Why are we here? Such questions, I guess, can't be answered till the day we realize there's no such a thing as 'self'. How could you expect a being trapped in time and space to understand there's in fact no time and space? It is indeed reasonable, plain and easy to see, yet not so!