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Brad Pitt Chases Stars in AD Astra – Review
Are there other life forms in space or is it just vast darkness? Space may never be fully discovered but the $80 million sci-fi epic, AD Astra, starring Brad Pitt took viewers on an expedition that attempts to answer the question that will continue to concern humankind for decades to come.
From this point onwards this article will contain spoilers for those who haven’t seen the movie. Proceed with caution! View the official trailer: Ad Astra, Trailer
Official trailer
Emotionally Impactful Performance
James Gray did an outstanding job of directing the film as well as Ethan Gross who wrote the film. However, I expected more from this movie. Perhaps newer aspects could have been added to the storyline which would make it stand out from other space related movies that often revolve around the same idea. But first, I will highlight the positive qualities of the movie.
The greatly talented actor Brad Pitt gave an emotionally impactful performance as he played the character of Roy McBride, who goes on an endeavor to travel across an unforgiving galaxy to divulge the veracity of his missing father, a character by the name of Clifford McBride played by the legend Tommy Lee Jones. The main themes of the movie are: mystery, drama, family turmoil, psychological issues and finally, action.
All of these themes are well met. The disappearance of Roy McBride’s father generated an atmosphere of complete mystery, leaving the viewers in their own thoughts as they think about all the possibilities behind the absence of Clifford McBride. An essential theme used in every single movie in history, “drama” is evident when Roy McBride finally reunites with his father. In this scene, an awkwardly dramatic tension engulfs the unhealthy air in the rocket ship as Roy’s dad refuses to come back home with his son. Denying any emotional attachments, dooming himself.
Next up we have family turmoil which is obviously displayed from the start of the film. Because the audience is informed that Roy’s dad left when he was a kid to go on an expedition, following the idea of life beyond our small planet within this blanket of oblivion.
Additionally, the audience learns that Roy may be facing some psychological issues. This is proved by the struggle the character conveys as he tries to restrain his mind from succumbing to darkness, undergoing small tests on a device that will determine if he is mentally fit enough to travel past the earth’s atmosphere.
Action and Baboons in Space
Action plays a big role in this movie as well. Viewers will be entranced by the movie as the action scene where a small chase from incoming hostiles was transpired in a series of shots with escorts and counterparts getting flinged here and there.
Another vehement action-filled moment took place when Roy attempted to help a rescue mission when he and the crew received a call for help from a nearby stationary rocket ship. Inside the rocket ship, Roy will come into contact with an environment infested with experimental rogue baboons that have taken over and killed the entire crew of that ship.
Moving onto effects, the realistic image of spacesuit-covered people riding motorized vehicles on the terrain of the moon appeared phenomenal, taking the audience on a journey as if the set has truly taken place on the moon itself.
Disappointing Finale
The movie all in all is monumental. However, the story of the movie could’ve been further embellished. As a movie lover, I was disappointed with the movie’s finale. Roy finally found his father, who at the time was on a mission to find proof of the existence of other life forms. But saying that he could never go home to his son as he would rather die in space foreshadows the events that materialize afterward.
It was implied that Clifford had found something, purposely shutting down the whole spaceship and killing off his entire crew members so he would not be forced to go back. Yet it was never fully elaborated on, leaving some of the audience as confused as I was.
I believe the director James Gray could have played more with the movie, adding more dramatic history and including possible other life forms. I found myself having a hard time trying to figure out whether this movie was intended to be something like Gravity. It seems though that they’ve tried to have a mix of both. Nonetheless, Ad Astra proved to be extraordinary.
The only disappointing feature is their hesitancy to weave more ideas into the plot. Even though the movie could’ve used more ideas on the mystery side, Brad Pitt’s acting made up for most of it as he captured every moment perfectly.
Ratings and Earnings
A top critic from Detroit News on Rottentomatoes said, “This is slow, obtuse filmmaking with little emotional connection,” which proves to be true throughout the film. The movie hit 339 on the Tomatometer, with 83% and 9,011 verified ratings earning it a total of 40% audience score.
Ad Astra was screened in 44 markets outside the US earning $26 million. It also made $19.2 million inside the US, bringing its total to $45.2 million in global box office receipts.
News
Amr Diab Gets Hacked on Twitter
Amr Diab’s Facebook page has announced that his twitter account has been hijacked by anonymous and now tweeting political.
Update: Amr Diab’s Facebook Page announced that “Amr Diab’s Twitter account has been restored successfully and you can follow Amr’s tweets normally now”
Amr Diab got hacked on Twitter
On Thursday 9th of Jan, Amr Diab’s Facebook page announced that Amr Diab’s Twitter account has been hacked by anonymous and now tweeting politics!
Amr Abdul-Basset Abdul-Azeez Diab (born 11 October 1961) is an Egyptian singer and composer of pop music. He was awarded the World Music Award for Best Selling Middle East Artist, three times: 1998 for the album “Nour El Ain”, 2002 for the album “Aktrr Wahid Byhbak 2001” and 2007 for the album “El Lillady”. Amr Diab also won The African Music Awards 2009, Big Apple Music Awards; Life Achievements Awards: Best Singer of The Year in 2009, and Best Male Act in African Music Awards 2010.
He is known as the Father of Mediterranean Music He has created his own style which is often termed “Mediterranean Music” or “Mediterranean Sound”, a blend of Western and Egyptian rhythms.
In The Mediterranean in Music, David Cooper and Kevin Dawe referred to his music as “the new breed of Mediterranean music”.According to author Michael Frishkopf, Amr Diab has produced a new concept of Mediterranean music, especially in his international hit, “Nour El Ain”.
In his analysis of The Very Best of Amr Diab album, Victor W. Valdivia of All music said: “His music melded traditional Arabic sounds and textures with Western rhythms and instruments. The mesh was dubbed Mediterranean music, and The Very Best of Amr Diab displays Diab’s superb skill in creating it.”
In 1997, he won three awards at the Annual Arabic Festival: one for Best Video, for Best Song, and for Best Artist of the Year. Diab received a Triple Platinum Award for the sales of Nour El Ain and a World Music Award in Monaco.
After the success of the previously shared overall analysis of Sherine’s new album “Ana Keter” and her social media presence, we decided to fulfill your requests with more details and additional insights.
The report is from Jan 15 through Jan 31, 2014; however, starting Feb, we noticed that Sherine’s team has enhanced and developed how they engage with fans on Facebook.
Still, there’s more to do; please review the slides below to know what exactly they are missing with recommendations.
Check out the report:
Key take-outs in 15 days after the launch:
- Album gained 11 million views in 2 weeks on YouTube
- YouTube Channel subscribers boosted by 90K subscribers in 15 days out of 127K total subscribers overtime
- Buzz reached 15K tweets/RTs since the launch on Twitter
- How do people talk about the album/Sherine on Twitter?
- People are sharing songs from YouTube & SoundCloud
- +90% positive sentiment on Twitter
- Sherine’s Twitter account is excellent at spreading the news about the album’s success.
- People are tweeting the song’s lyrics.
- Sarcastic tweets about Sherine & few songs (regular) - Almost zero negativity about the album
- Album teasers on Facebook created credibility for Sherine’s page, reflected in the page results after the album’s launch in the next 15 days with 92K Interactions & 312K New Likes.
- The album received tremendous engagement on the launching date of Jan 15. However, no posts for four days after the launch negatively affected the interactions.
Recommendations:
Sherine Abdel Wahab’s Facebook page would have received double or maybe triple new likes and interactions if the improved posts’ quality; please find below the points taken:
- Long updates with no extra value-added will lead to losing your fans’ interest
- The text-only format isn’t preferred, as it is well-known that they generate less reach than other content (Facebook announcement)
- A call to action is essential to generate leads & increase engagement
- Each post has to have its visual, audio, or video so you can attract/engage your audiences
- Understand the situation and act upon it, always be relevant to the time and avoid posting irrelevant content at the wrong time.
- Revise the tone of voice in future activities.
To recap - Overall performance is average to good - Enhance your content formatting - Improve the tone of voice on all networks - Be creative to engage your fans better - Be Consistent - Start your SoundCloud account.
News
Putin, Obama war on social media starts with unfriend on Facebook
New stage of the cold war, is it?
The Social media war between Putin and Obama started with UnFriend, this is the action taken by Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the Facebook diplomacy with American president Barack Obama.
The unfriending comes after an official White House update about the possibility of a US-Syrian war. President Putin revealed that Obama’s updates about the Congressional debate on a possible war with Syria have annoyed him.
After unfriending, President Putin update status on profile “Something I should have done a long time ago”
Also, He said to Russia’s Pravda News Service “President Assad and I, we are the Facebook friends. We like the same pages, we share pictures of cute women and all that. Obama needs to lighten up on there, it’s not for serious stuff,”
President Obama’s latest posts about the possibility of the war in Syria have been reported by someone and he received a warning from Facebook that he will be prevented from posting on his profile for 24 hours.
He has also commented “Really, Putin needs to grow up. If he didn’t like that [post], he could have just hid it from his news feed instead of creating all this Facebook drama,”
JOE BIDEN “Vice President of the United States” announced to reports that President Obama has signed into his Twitter account to unfollow Putin.
The turmoil generated between Putin and Obama over their dispute on the Syrian crisis. Expanded to reach the social networks
Putin and Obama on social Networks
The question now is, are we witnessing a new stage of the cold war between the two countries, will they continue the war online instead of the military tactics and old spy war?
It’s obvious that social media is really changing the game in everything, and now it’s taking over on a very high level.
Keep an eye on Digital Boom and we will keep you posted with more news and updates on the cold war and even more…
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