20th Century Fox

Brad Pitt understands disappointment when it comes to sci-fi . Despite being one of Hollywood's biggest stars, his genre projects haven't always landed at the box office. For proof, look no further than "Ad Astra", an astronaut movie that's not to be confused with the school of the same name Elon Musk founded in 2014. Critics enjoyed the blockbuster, but it fizzled at the box office, bringing in $135 million from an $80 million production budget.

"Ad Astra" sees Pitt play Roy McBride, an astronaut who leads a mission into space to find his father (Tommy Lee Jones). Roy's father traveled beyond the stars years earlier, searching for alien life and was never heard from again. However, a father-son reunion isn't the main objective of the mission. Solar surges threaten to wipe out Earth, so Roy and his crew must fix the problem before it's too late.

Of course, the best space movies are about the journey rather than the destination.…