Astral City: A Spiritual Journey (2010)

Memorable, crazy movie

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

I had two near-death experiences and went on to do research on the NDE. I have written several books on it too. I think this film does an excellent job of explaining what is really unexplainable. The only thing I didn't like was the name! It's so much better than "Astral" or maybe "astral" has been over done by the new age genre. The acting was good and I didn't even mind needing to read sub-titles after awhile.Really worth the watch. I'm even going to look up the books to see if they have been translated into English. Just so clever, I will be thinking about it for a long time.

This film was the best one in 2010 because put in the main screen the most famous book of Chico Xavierbrings a new spiritual way to see life (not so new for 'espíritas'= a philosophical movement born in France, but Brazil have the main followers today, see 'Allan Kardek' for more information) - it doesn't have violence (common in 'good' films today) - actors were very good and the history was perfect showing the spiritual growth of a person (André Luiz) - the special effects were superb, carefully done - music by Philip Glass, no comments... very beautiful This film is controversial for many people because brings subjects as reincarnation, life after death so on

Impressed with the first exceptional visual effects movie ever produced in Brazil (post production was in Canada). Most impressed with the records this movie is breaking: 1) Most seen movie ever in the first weekend after its launch; 2) Surely will be the most seen movie in all Brazilian History; 3) Most expensive one to produce;It is loyal to the book (I've read 4 times), and it was made thinking on all audiences, not only the spiritists one. Interesting how children behave watching it. I noted my daughters were asking me things about moral, life after life, clothes worn by spirits, food on the spiritual world and so on. With some time watching the movie, I realized many other parents were having the same situation (explain children about life after life). For those who don't believe any life after life (death), maybe this movie isn't going to be any enjoyable. For all others, I recommend!

I am enthusiastic about exploring spirituality, and finding out about what it means to be human. But this film is a most convoluted collection of poor acting, cheap melodramatic moments, horrid set design, and weak directing I've had the misfortune to witness. It assumes that the audience is so dumb that it needs dramatic pauses and zooming in on the tears of the actors at proper moments to guide them and show them when to feel sad.The film is full of cheap tricks to lead the viewer to the conclusions instead of giving him/her the luxury of making up their mind. It's a soup of all religious beliefs that tries to deliver the overall positive message that people need to live for more than material goods. I usually support Brazilian cinematography (2 Filhos de Francisco, etc), but this was an insult to any intelligent viewer anywhere.