Ad Astra

Released in the UK on the 18th September (yesterday). 
The adverts made it look like nothing special and that would sum it up. 
Did we really need another movie about Astronauts? No. Was this movie going to be a hit? No.
So let's analyse what we spent two hours staring at.

Major Roy McBride (Brad Pitt) is the son of a legend, according to Space Command. He is an Astronaut and he falls from the station just above Earth when a power surge from Neptune destroys almost every complex that the US Space programme have on any other planet. Roy falls from this complex at the start of the movie but doesn't die, he isn't even injured. His heart rate never gets above 80 (which is very impressive) and so he is sent on a classified mission to Neptune, to locate his father, who is secretly believed to be alive and part of the 'Lima Project' which is based on Neptune. 



Roy makes it from Earth to the Moon and then from the Moon to Mars but during that flight he and the captain of the rocket that he is being transported in stop to answer a distress call from a biological transportation ship. They discover that there is no one aboard the ship as they were all attacked by a biologically improved form of Ape. The Captain is killed by this Ape and Roy manages to kill both the Apes on board and attempts to save the Captain. Upon returning with the Captain to the rocket, the Captain is pronounced dead and the last rights are said before his body is removed from the space craft and left floating in space. There are some problems landing on Mars and Roy has to take manual control from 1st Lieutenant who has become afraid of the ship. Roy lands it successfully and omits that detail from his mission report. The 1st Lieutenant is promoted to Captain.

Roy, now on Mars, attempts to communicate with his father. He reads the transcripts created for him by Space Com but gets no response so instead makes up a more personal speech to send to his father. His father responds but Roy is deemed too emotionally involved, fails his Psychological exam and is to be sent back to Earth. On Mars Roy discovers the truth about his father and the 'Lima Project'. The truth is that a crew were sent out to discover life sources on the planet but could not discover any. Once they could not locate any life sources most of the crew wished to return to Earth but Dr McBride would not let them. His crew turned on him so he killed them all. 

The rocket which Roy arrived in has now been equipped with nuclear weapons as their mission is to destroy the Lima rocket on Neptune so that they can continue to cover up what has really happened. Roy already has been given some data suggesting a cover up by his escort from Earth to the Moon and on Mars he is shown classified information detailing the real events. Roy goes aboard the rocket, against all order and in doing so, the rest of the crew end up dead as they try to remove him from the rocket and shoot him. Instead of shooting him the captain accidentally hits an air tank and the air in the rocket is contaminated. Roy attempts to save them but cannot so he flies to Neptune alone. 

On Neptune he plants the nuclear device and is reunited with his father. He attempts to take his father away from the ship and bring him back to Earth but his father, having declared that the only thing that he really loved was his job, un clips himself from Roy and fights with Roy to let him go. His father, played by Tommy Lee Jones, dies in Space and Roy uses the blast from the nuclear device to propel him back to earth, where he crash lands and is retrieved by the US space force. That is the end of the movie. 

This movie is a waste of time. There is no real action and he doesn't even manage to save his father. The movie doesn't show us if he is punished for disobeying orders or if he reveals the cover up. There were so many better endings for this movie than the one that they went with and in the end you just feel like you have wasted your time. There is no spectacular acting in it and it makes you wonder what caused Pitt to agree to make this movie. The plot was nothing special and the movie was clearly never going to win him any award or recognition so why do it?

Don't waste your money on this film. It wont change your life or even make you feel anything over the course of the two hours that you spend watching it. It hasn't added anything to our cinematic universe or the world of film. It's one of those films that you will quite easily forget was ever made. Not bad and not good, not made of anything to draw any response from you. It is, in every way, forgettable. 

Next up will be the Fast and Furious spin off: Hobbs and Shaw.

Downton Abbey

Hi everyone. 
It's been a while and I do apologise for that. I can now announce that due to changes in personal circumstances, I should now be able to write at least one blog on a movie per week. As much as possible, I will try to make these movies recent movies, but I will of course add in a few really old movies for fun.

Without further ado, I bring you...

DOWNTON ABBEY

So I have to admit that I am relatively new to Downton, having only discovered it two years ago. For those of you wondering how I could have only discovered it a few years ago the answer is simple; I knew about it due to the adverts and Maggie Smith but I was unable to watch it when it was released so I had to wait until I picked the box sets up in a charity shop for £2 each. Then I worked my way through them on almost a binge and really enjoyed them all. Naturally, I was excited for the movie as I felt that the series hadn't really ended. Julian Fellowes left so many possibilities with his final episode.

We all wondered what would happen to the house once all the 'Crawley girls' were married and this movie shows us. With Carson living happily retired alongside Mrs Hughes (who is not retired) and Thomas taking on the role of Butler we wondered how much time would pass before Thomas was deemed incapable of living up to the pressure. The answer is that he manages well until the Royal Family announce their visit and then after about two or three days Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery) asks Carson to come back temporarily and take over from Thomas as she doesn't want the household to appear unprepared for the Royal visit. 

I am going to try and answer some questions that may have been going through your head when you saw the advert for this film:
1) Do they survive the visit- Yes.
2) Do the household staff actually serve the Royal family- Yes, due to some creativity from Mr and Mrs Bates.
3) Is Lady Edith actually in her underwear for one scene- sort of. There are problems with her dress and so she is wearing her undergarments. This may be scandalous but she isn't revealing anything so it is perfectly sensible and realistic to assume that Ladies and Gentlemen were not always well presented.
4) Does Tom Branson give one of his Ireland speeches again? No. Tom actually saves the King's life by preventing an Irish republican from shooting the King. Tom is very well behaved in this movie.
5) Are there any new characters? Yes but not as additions to Downton. Imelda Staunton takes on the role of Lady Bagshaw, who is a travelling companion for Her Royal Highness the Queen and Tuppence Middleton appears as Lady Bagshaw's maid, Lucy Smith.

Now that those questions have been answered I can write a bit about the movie.

As we all know, Tom's character got a lot better after Sybil died and he became not only bearable but actually likeable. In this film he has a few powerful lines and appears as the most helpful character in the entire movie. You can't help but feel that from the moment he met Lucy Smith that he was always going to marry her. The relevance of this being that Lady Bagshaw is a cousin of Violet Crawley (Maggie Smith) and has been refusing to make Robert (Hugh Bonneville) her heir because she has actually made Lucy Smith, who turns out to be her child (but not from her deceased husband), her heir. Tom marrying Lucy would bring the money back to the Crawley household (in a manner of speaking).
Violet reveals that she is ill and places the onus on Mary to become the strong leader of the family who will fight for everything just because tradition states. This seemed like a good way to write her out of the script, should they chose to continue with this story and produce a one off Christmas episode (famous for killing off characters). Word on the street is that Maggie Smith wasn't going to do the movie until she discovered that the rest of the cast were all going to reprise their roles. The movie would not have been the same without her and the household would not be the same without her constant bickering with Isobel (Penelope Wilton).
Let's try to remember that Daisy and Andy were going to get married. This movie hasn't really moved on from that and at the end of the movie Daisy agrees to start thinking about her wedding. Daisy has really grown from an irritating character who was unable to see Thomas' true nature, to a relatively strong minded woman who can actually fight for the right things. Andy was always a step up from just about any other footman employed at Downton. Andy isn't stupid or a flirt, which makes him better than the two before him and he actually shows other sides to him as well in this movie.
Thomas gets to learn a thing or two about life and also gets a little bit of development. His character never really expanded in the series. Whilst he did settle down and grow up a bit, he didn't actually have much real development in the same that Mrs Patmore, Mrs Hughes and Carson all suffered from an illness which showed a vulnerable side to themselves.
Everyone has their moment in this movie and it is everything that you would expect from a Downton movie. The only negative is Anna's hair. It looks like a terrible wig and I hope that it is a wig because it doesn't look great on her. Everyone seemed to change their hair in the 20's but this just doesn't work for her. 

If you are a fan of period drama or Downton then make sure to watch this movie. It's in UK cinema's and is worth it. If you've never seen the series but are a fan of Imelda Staunton, Maggie Smith (how could you not be) or even if you are a Terry Pratchett fan and want to watch 'Susan' from 'The Hogfather' in something else then watch this movie.


Now that I have passed on my words of advice, without revealing too much of the plot I can leave you with the explanation as to why this post is in purple. Drum roll please... I struggle with Black on White because the contrast makes everything blurry so I now write almost everything in purple. From now on blog posts will appear in purple- apologies for this weirdness.