This was one of the movie that I honestly did not have a clue what it was all about. I did not read anything about it and the trailer did not reveal too much information, but it did not seem to be having a lot of spectacular moments either (apart from one scene which intrigued me). Anyway as it was one of the new release movie this week, plus it had a major star in it, my wife and I decided to see it last night. Again due to the traffic restriction, we opted to see this at the cinema near our home, rather than at our favorite Dolby Atmos studio. So let us proceed with the movie now.
Brief Story Line
Set in the near future, when the space travel was already quite common and even trip to the moon was done commercially, an unidentified power surges happening throughout the earth and endangering the planet. Major Roy McBride (Brad Pitt - Mr & Mrs Smith, World War Z etc) a veteran and quite famous for being calm under dangerous situation was given special assignment which related to his father, the astronaut Clifford McBride (Tommy Lee Jones - Jason Bourne, The Fugitive etc).
Roy was accompanied by Colonel Pruitt (Donald Sutherland - The Hunger Games series, The Italian Job etc) who happened to be Clifford's old friend. During this mission, Roy also met with Planet Mars facility director Helen Lantos (Ruth Negga - Loving, Preacher TV series etc) who seemed to be mysterious and took special interest in Roy.
So what was the reason for this power surge and what did it have to do with Roy's father's project? Find them all in this sci-fi drama movie.
Roy was accompanied by Colonel Pruitt (Donald Sutherland - The Hunger Games series, The Italian Job etc) who happened to be Clifford's old friend. During this mission, Roy also met with Planet Mars facility director Helen Lantos (Ruth Negga - Loving, Preacher TV series etc) who seemed to be mysterious and took special interest in Roy.
So what was the reason for this power surge and what did it have to do with Roy's father's project? Find them all in this sci-fi drama movie.
End of Brief Story Line
Well this was a bit different from what I expected. From the trailer I saw, I actually had a feeling that it might be a bit of drama, but I was still hoping there would be a lot of adventure, mystery and possibly some actions as well. Turned out this movie had a lot more drama than the action itself. There was very little mystery to be solved, as we could have guessed what happened as the story progressed, revealing more and more information that helped us understand it.
This is a movie really good for critics, especially looking at Brad Pitt's performance. In fact, for me and my wife, we felt this was a bit like one man show where Brad Pitt performed a lot of monologue and providing a good portrayal of a man who seemed to be having no emotions but ultimately he was still human afterall. His calm expressions when facing dangerous situation or his really emotional expression towards the end were quite awesome. However, because of so many Brad's monologue voice over scenes plus the very very slow pace, made me and my wife felt a bit tired (some might even say it was boring). I am not sure about other audience, but the person beside me slept so peacefully that he even snored for quite some time.
Now I am not saying that this is a bad movie or anything, but as a fan of science fiction with intense story telling, I did not have the best of time seeing this film. There were only few scenes that made me feel suspense and excited but the rest were as I said showing a lot of (too much) drama. Most of the stars playing in this film were also veterans in dramatic roles and even nominated for multiple awards, like Tommy Lee Jones, Donald Sutherland or Ruth Negga. There was also another quite well known name of Liv Tyler (Armageddon, The Lord of the Rings trilogy etc) in a very minor role as Roy's ex wife Eve.
This movie did have a truly awesome and stunning visual effects. I was totally in awe with how wonderfully done the space scenery were. The visualization of moon's surface and the planet Mars and other solary system planets were the best highlight of this movie to me. I honestly was more entertained by these special effects compared to Brad Pitt's performance (yes, I am that shallow, so sue me). Another factor that I thought was enjoyable was the sound effects which were amazing, especially during the moon's scene or the scenes towards the end. I could enjoy it even though I saw this in a standard Dolby Surround 7.1 sound system. Btw, this film had a quite long duration of 123 minutes including closing credits which did not have any mid or post end credit scene.
From what I read of the critics review, this was universally praised, in particular Brad Pitt's performance. I have mentioned above the reasons for this. So I could also understand the appeal of this movie to audience who loved this kind of stuff. But for people who wanted to have an entertaining moment watching film in theater, should be warned that this does not feel like a commercial-purposed movie. I felt this one was more like a movie for the festivals and suitable for award nominations in the coming year. Therefore, I would recommend this to be seen by people who love this kind of quality in a film but perhaps not by people who are looking for suspenseful, mysterious and intense space sci-fi movie (like me and my wife). The choice is yours.
Mike's movie moments rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Well this was a bit different from what I expected. From the trailer I saw, I actually had a feeling that it might be a bit of drama, but I was still hoping there would be a lot of adventure, mystery and possibly some actions as well. Turned out this movie had a lot more drama than the action itself. There was very little mystery to be solved, as we could have guessed what happened as the story progressed, revealing more and more information that helped us understand it.
This is a movie really good for critics, especially looking at Brad Pitt's performance. In fact, for me and my wife, we felt this was a bit like one man show where Brad Pitt performed a lot of monologue and providing a good portrayal of a man who seemed to be having no emotions but ultimately he was still human afterall. His calm expressions when facing dangerous situation or his really emotional expression towards the end were quite awesome. However, because of so many Brad's monologue voice over scenes plus the very very slow pace, made me and my wife felt a bit tired (some might even say it was boring). I am not sure about other audience, but the person beside me slept so peacefully that he even snored for quite some time.
Now I am not saying that this is a bad movie or anything, but as a fan of science fiction with intense story telling, I did not have the best of time seeing this film. There were only few scenes that made me feel suspense and excited but the rest were as I said showing a lot of (too much) drama. Most of the stars playing in this film were also veterans in dramatic roles and even nominated for multiple awards, like Tommy Lee Jones, Donald Sutherland or Ruth Negga. There was also another quite well known name of Liv Tyler (Armageddon, The Lord of the Rings trilogy etc) in a very minor role as Roy's ex wife Eve.
This movie did have a truly awesome and stunning visual effects. I was totally in awe with how wonderfully done the space scenery were. The visualization of moon's surface and the planet Mars and other solary system planets were the best highlight of this movie to me. I honestly was more entertained by these special effects compared to Brad Pitt's performance (yes, I am that shallow, so sue me). Another factor that I thought was enjoyable was the sound effects which were amazing, especially during the moon's scene or the scenes towards the end. I could enjoy it even though I saw this in a standard Dolby Surround 7.1 sound system. Btw, this film had a quite long duration of 123 minutes including closing credits which did not have any mid or post end credit scene.
From what I read of the critics review, this was universally praised, in particular Brad Pitt's performance. I have mentioned above the reasons for this. So I could also understand the appeal of this movie to audience who loved this kind of stuff. But for people who wanted to have an entertaining moment watching film in theater, should be warned that this does not feel like a commercial-purposed movie. I felt this one was more like a movie for the festivals and suitable for award nominations in the coming year. Therefore, I would recommend this to be seen by people who love this kind of quality in a film but perhaps not by people who are looking for suspenseful, mysterious and intense space sci-fi movie (like me and my wife). The choice is yours.
Mike's movie moments rating: 3 out of 5 stars
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