Let's start by stating the obvious: Astral City offers a rather poor cinematic experience. The overall quality of this product is that of a soap opera. Writing, acting, and direction are naive in a way that will be obvious to anyone, except those who are heavily invested in spirituality and are easily impressed by any relevant work.

The movie has not much artistic merit.

However, I have to acknowledge that while better-made movies about the afterlife (e.g. What Dreams May Come) succeed in entertaining me, they fail to elicit the same level of soul-searching and spiritual curiosity of this B-movie. I am sceptic by character and very hard to impress or persuade, and of course I don't believe that the book on which this movie is based was actually psychographed, yet I find the ideas of cyclic reincarnation, spiritual healing and spiritual elevation insightful and worthy of research, especially for Western audiences who may not have had much exposure to them.

Something I didn't like about the theology in this movie (and presumably the book if I were to read it), which is maybe stemming from the culture in which it was produced, is that the astral city is organised as a powerful bureaucracy which micro-manages every aspect of your (after)life, to the extent that in order to make meaningful progress in your spiritual path, you have to go to a public building and queue (yes!) to talk to some patronising government official.

I am British and have no particular sympathy for the libertarian extremists in the US, but I dread the idea of my afterlife being ruled by a celestial bureaucracy where good deeds can be effectively spent as a currency to access government-supplied benefits. I hope that is not what afterlife looks like: possibly, it is just the utopia of a "fair" bureaucracy conceived by someone who is fed up with corrupt governments and institutions here on Earth.

Nosso Lar (seen yesterday) is an adaptation of a book written by André Luiz himself through spiritual medium Chico Xavier, hence it's a shortened version of what the book really represents. Also, we all know that book adaptations almost always fail to deliver to the fans the expected experience and hardly ever entertain the ones who haven't previously read the book that's being adapted. Nosso Lar is also kind of boring and confusing. In the beginning of the film the narrative will constantly change between different parts of the main character's life and his physical and spiritual state after his demise. There are several long speeches that break the pace of the film, but funny takes relieve the boredom making the film more watchable.

The film has directing, role cohesion and visual effects problems, but it does well in delivering to the spectator some more advanced notions of spirituality, an issue that's recently been brought up much in Brazil through films and soap operas. It may be entertaining and inspiring to those who have interest on spirituality but if you don't believe in those thoughts you probably shouldn't watch it, since it may be a not so good introduction to this wonderful subject.

I read The Astral City many years ago, and it helped inspire me to learn Astral Projection. The Astral World is very different to the physical world. For example you see by sensing energies, as opposed to trying to look at them. This is not so easy in demonstrate in a film. If you want to know how to visit the Astral City then you will find practical projection techniques at GreatSimulator.com Its good to watch a film such as this because it drives you to explore. One of the best aspects of the whole story is the way in which it makes you realize the importance of learning what lies beyond death. Visiting the Astral World through Astral Projection at least shows you what the reality beyond death is.