Ad Astra (2019)

Ad Astra has moon pirates, a rover chase across the lunar surface and some very angry lab baboons, and it’s still the quietest, saddest space movie you’ll ever sit through. That’s the whiplash. This is a story about a son who can’t feel anything, and Brad Pitt plays Roy so contained that a whispered voice-over has to tell you what he’s feeling, scene after scene, like a therapy journal read aloud. Some of that narration helps. Most of it smothers the pictures. And the pictures are gorgeous: the giant antenna in the opening, the lonely underground base on Mars, the blue haze around Neptune. Tommy Lee Jones shows up late as the father, and their time together is the reason for everything. Liv Tyler gets a few flashbacks and almost no lines. It made $127.5 million worldwide on a reported $80M to $100M. A 6.2 because it looks like a masterpiece and talks like a diary. $47.99 says the next nature documentary with baboons in it gets switched off before the first one looks at the camera.

What works: The visuals are stunning, the moon rover chase is a great set piece, and Brad Pitt’s quiet performance is braver than it looks.

What doesn’t: The voice-over explains every feeling the images already show, and the slow middle will lose anyone who came for action.

Who it’s for: Patient viewers who like their space movies lonely, gorgeous and secretly about somebody’s dad.