He has difficulty connecting with his fellow humans including his wife Eve (Liv Tyler). As a career military space traveler, he feels more comfortable in the isolation of space than on Earth. He also feels a deep loss as his father had disappeared long ago while on a mission to Neptune.

He escapes death while working on a transmission tower that reaches up to the edge of space after it is struck by a rouge electrical storm. This event leads him to a mission that will alter him forever. He is given top secret information that his father might still be alive and in some ways contributing to the events that endangered the tower.

Ad Astra plays out like a cross between Apocalypse Now and 2001: A Space Odyssey. Director James Gray is on record comparing it to Joseph Conrad’s novel Heart of Darkness, the story that formed the basis of Francis Ford Coppola’s 1979 film. The outer space settings is used as a backdrop for an examination of the human condition. Why are we here, are there other living beings out is space, is there divinity or does the divinity only reside in ourselves?

Rob Hudson
www.facebook.com/foxmoviesaus

As an action piece, it gets the job done but as a proper Jason Bourne movie, it’s quite the disappointing experience. Gone are almost all the clever ways Bourne can extract himself from trouble and in their place are just Teflon walks in the park. Moments where no real menace can really stick.

He gets out of almost every jam with just brawn and no brain. Julia Stilles is very much underutilized as well and sadly exits early and takes with her the only character that links Bourne to a friendlier past. In the place of proper story telling are a series of spectacular action sequences that not only strain the law of physics to their breaking point but also tend to wear the viewer out. Pokemon Go

If this edition reignites the franchise that will be a good thing because Matt Damon fills this role splendidly when given something to really sink his teeth into. Next time out let’s hope for far more intrigue and much less outlandish action.

Rob Hudson
www.jasonbournemovie.com.au