Interstellar Review

Director: Christopher Nolan

Starring: Matthew Mccounaughey, Anne Hathaway and Jessica Chastain

Released: November 5th 2014

"We've always defined ourselves by the ability to overcome the impossible. And we count these moments. These moments when we dare to aim higher, to break barriers, to reach for the stars, to make the unknown known. We count these moments as our proudest achievements. But we lost all that. Or perhaps we've just forgotten that we are still pioneers. And we've barely begun. And that our greatest accomplishments cannot be behind us, because our destiny lies above us."

These words are said by Cooper, Matthew Mccounaughey's character in Christopher Nolan's latest film Interstellar. Exploration has always been a key factor in our own history one could say that we are always tempted by the unknown and what's out there. We've been exploring our world the moment that we've had concious thought as a race, always looking for resources and shelter. Exploration is not only a key factor in our lives but every living creature. It's been said countless times that Space is the final frontier, we will eventually leave our planet and there's already talk on creating a colony on Mars. Countless films have come out over the decades detailing space exploration and the troubles that beset the brave Women and Men that venture off of our native home. No movie though has ever captured the imagination of the world and film makers like Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. Now I know I said I'd be reviewing every Kubrick movie (I only got through Spartacus) I do intend to finish that promise just bear with me. 

Still to this day there has not been a movie that has come close to the epic scope that is 2001. Many have tried of course, but no one seems to be able to do what Kubrick was able to accomplish so many years ago. Of course Christopher Nolan's Interstellar is the first movie we've had in years that even comes close to skimming on the surface of 2001. Many have said that this movie triumphs 2001 in almost every way, of course its all up to ones personal interpretation of a movie and their own tastes. I'm not here to knock anyone's opinion over but I will say this. Interstellar is a good movie but in no way is it anything like 2001. Comparing the two is almost inevitable since they are the only two movies that are similar in some regard, but Interstellar isn't the perfect masterpiece that everyone's making it out to be. 2001 is one of my favourite movies, so when another movie comes along claiming to be "this generations 2001" and "it triumphs over 2001 in every way" I'm going to check it out. Now I'm not a Nolan hater and I didn't go into this movie trying to attack it, in fact I've been looking forward to it for a long time now. My excitement was at a peak because frankly, I really wanted this to be on the same league as 2001, sadly it just isn't the case but it is still a fantastic film. 

Interstellar takes place in the future and Earth has seen better days. A terrible blight has completely destroyed most of Earth's soil making growing any food almost impossible. The only food left to the world is corn (ironic because corn is in everything these days), to make matters worse the planets atmosphere is slowly being eroded by a blight and by the time many children see adulthood they'll die of suffocation, our worlds time is up. A Farmer named Cooper (Mccounaughey) is chosen by the remainder of NASA to embark on a last ditch effort to save our race. By travelling through a newly discovered worm hole Cooper and a team of astronauts ( Hathaway, Wes Bently and David Gyasi) but travel to another galaxy to find a new world for Humans to eventually colonize.

Of course saying anything more about the plot would completely spoil the experience of seeing Interstellar, and I'm telling you it is quite the experience. It's best going into this movie knowing hardly anything. The promotional campaign of the film has done a pretty spectacular job at keeping many of the films secrets, even the surprise cameo near the end of the film. As with every single film in his impressive resume, Christopher Nolan has crafted a technical wonder. Every technical detail  is laid out to utter perfection, the cinematography from Hoyte van Hoytemma is marvellous. Seeing as how Nolan's preferred choice Wally Pfister was directing his own movie (Transcendence)  during the filming of Interstellar, Nolan had to go with someone else, and he chose the perfect person for the job. Interstellar is shot with such gorgeous beauty every shot is incredible and all tells something valuable about the many worlds of Interstellar. Seeing black holes made my mouth drop, and that first trip into the worm hole is something that has to been seen to believe. 

As always Hans Zimmer scores Nolans journey into space, I personally loved the soundtrack. It had a very creepy otherworldly feel to it much like 2001's score. Zimmer seems to love to use simplistic notes for the themes of Nolans movie and put them on repeat, this gives the movie a haunting feel. However the score might be to overpowering for others. If you thought that Inceptions score was loud and obnoxious, well be prepared for almost three hours of loud organ thumping, because the majority of the score of this movie is exactly that. 

Now the acting is across the board in this movie. As always Matthew Mccounaughey is amazing, I still don't know where this talent has come from. Of course he is sort of a joke amongst many now but the man can surely act and I think that Interstellar is one of his best performances. Anne Hathaway is also pretty good in the movie as well, I just feel like there was something slightly missing from her but that is another problem all together that lies within the script. The movie also has a pretty impressive cast; Jessia Chastain is great as always, Wes Bently (personal favourite), David Gyasi, Casey Affleck and Nolan favourite Michael Caine are all good in their roles, but the best actor in the entire film heck the best character mind you! Is performed by Bill Irwin, if you don't know what character I'm talking about I wont spoil it because Bill Iriwn gave a very unexpected comedic performance that the heavy materiel in the movie relied on. There's also a great child performance from Mackenzie Foy who plays Coops daughter Murph. Most of the entire emotional core of the movie relies on the relationship between Coop and his Daughter. It is the anchor of the plot, however this leads into some of the many problems that Interstellar has, and trust me this movie is far from perfect.

Even with all of the scientific and quantum theories riddled throughout the film there is just something that's sort of off about Interstellar's script. If you're a fan of heavy over explanatory dialogue that spoon-feeds the audience, you wont have a problem with the writing. However this is not an actors movie. Remember how I said that most of the positives of this movie are on a technical aspect? That's because this movie is mainly for the technical wonder of the trip. Most of the characters in the movie are not there to serve the plot, in fact almost every character in the entire movie just float along because "the script demanded them to". There are also huge character arcs in this movie that contradict everything that was established for certain characters early on the film, I wont give spoilers right now (I have a section for that) but the primary  victim of this is Anne Hathaway's character Brand, who's entire drive for the film is the very thing that makes many people criticize the depiction of women in film. 

The great thing about 2001 was that you had to figure out what was going on, instead Christopher Nolan and crew have decided that the audience isn't smart enough to understand the vast and epic scope of the movie. So for the entire controversial third act (I still don't know if I'm on board with it) basically has Coop and another character spoon-feed the audience the entire plot of the movie, basically giving their own commentary on what's going on on screen. Look, even after seeing the movie what went on wasn't that complex, anyone could have figured it out. That's where 2001 succeeds and Interstellar fails, 2001 didn't pander to the audience, it knew what it was and you either loved it or hate it, and this is where I'm going to end all comparisons to 2001. 

Other than Coop and Murph hardly any of the other characters have any development in the slightest. The movie does try it's hardest to make you feel an emotional punch in the gut but I always found myself asking "why should I care? You haven't given me anything to indicate that I should care". All you have to go on is Coop constantly saying throughout the movie "I miss Murph!" For a guy that really loves his Daughter he completely neglects his son in the process who becomes the most underdeveloped character in the film. There is a moment in the movie revolving around his son during one of the films more tense moments and I felt lost. It's not that I didn't understand the movie its just that just like Anne Hathaway's character Cooper son does this complete 180 in his motivations and his own personality. 

Now this point here might depend on theatre that I watched the film in, but I've noticed similar complaints. The sound mixing in this movie is awful! I have no idea what they were thinking, some parts of the movie are completely muffled out by Zimmers booming score and the rockets of the space engines. If you see the movie come back and tell me you could understand, in 100% actual clarity what the entire crew were saying when they left Earth's atmosphere to begin their voyage. Looking around at the audience I noticed many people inching closer to the screen, not because of any emotional pull but because they couldn't hear the movie. I even  heard many whisper "what did they say?". Now this isn't like Bane's voice in the Dark Knight Rises which as we know was intentionally muffled to the point of exhaustion (before being changed in post)  a movie like Interstellar needs the audience to understand what the characters are saying since the film is filled with scientific theories and terms, you need to understand the movie. Especially during a crucial  scene like leaving Earth for the very first time.

Now one of the things that really bothers me to no end is completely up to the certain personal tastes of certain viewers. It's hard to talk about this because it's a major plot point and theme in the movie. All I can say is that something happens in the film that complete goes against science and all the theories in the film in general. Now I know, this is science fiction, but there is a big difference between the hard science fiction that Interstellar represents and the science fiction "fantasy" that's in almost every sicfi film. The way Coop solves Earth's problems is almost like something out of a Matt Smith Doctor Who episode, and not a good one.  So before I go on talking about the last act of the movie I will let you know there be spoilers so scroll away now because there's a lot I need to get off my chest. 

Spoilers on what I don't like!!!!!!!!!!

So as I said, Coop solves Earth's problems with something that completely goes against all laws of physics. This is the only way I can effectively describe the ending.

By travelling through a black hole Coop uses the power of love to survive the trip, then being trapped in a 5-dimensional tesseract, he possess a watch, with the power of love to give his daughter an equation to harness gravity. 

Yes this is the last act of the movie, I loath when the answer to everyone's problems is love. Love is not, I repeat, not a fantastical other worldly force that binds the universe. All it is in the deepest sense is our animalistic attachment to mate and reproduce the species. In a movie that is labelled as hard scifi, even going as far as having a physics be a producer and consultant for the film, you should not have love be quantifiable!!!!! It makes no sense at all in the world created in Interstellar, I would let it pass in something like Guardians of the Galaxy it would just be a slight annoyance. Even in Harry Potter I hate how love is something that is more powerful than any magic. This is 80/ 90's garbage that does not belong in a movie like this. At first I thought it was just a theory explained by a character that was only an analogy, but nope. Love, the answer to Earth's problems is love because it can transcend time and space.

Now for the entire movie Coops drive, his "raison de vivre" is to get back to his daughter and family. His love for his daughter was so powerful that it literally transcended time and space! So what happens when he is reunited with his daughter after 120 years? She tells him to leave 30 seconds after they meet! I just sat through a three hour movie essentially about a man trying to get back to his daughter (oh his son isn't there either because screw him I guess) she tells him to pack up and leave and go look for Anne Hathaway's character. Like Murph, I understand you're old and dying and want to be with the family you've made, but do you know half of the crap that Coop went through to even see you again!? This was one of the few moments in the movie that I actually cried due to the fantastic performance from Ellen Burstyn and then they swept the rug out from under my feet by having Murph tell her dad to just go.

Now, this isn't the only part of the movie with terrible writing, oh no. Remember when I said that Anne Hathaway's character completely changes through the movie, I mean it. When we first meet Brand she is stoic and all about her mission and saving Humanity, it's her life's work as she puts it early on in the voyage. Everything she does is for the mission, she has this unwavering resolve and because of this she gets Doyle (Wes Bently) killed in the process on a planet where 1 hour is 7 back on Earth.So what happens when they have to chose another planet to take a look at? Brand tells Coop to go to the one with her boyfriend on it because she believes in her love for him. Where did this even come from!? Not anywhere in the movie is it referenced that Brand had any sort of love interest. Also you're telling me that one of the few people that not only are charged with saving our race, but is one of the higher up officers on the mission is doing it because she needs her man!? Also this is the beginning of the love is quantifiable garbage that the movie spouts. And this isn't the only MASSIVE character change.

Coop has a son, I know it's hard to believe because this character didn't need to be in the movie at all. It's revealed quite early that Coops son Tom will not amount to anything in life and become a farmer, so he does. He gives up on his Father after not hearing from him in twenty four years. This is honestly the only other heavy emotional moment in the movie due to Coops reaction to seeing his son drastically age before his eyes via recorded messages.

During his time Tom becomes a farmer and stays on his family's home. There is this sub-plot that starts going on when Murph notices that his son is coughing quite a bit due to the constant dust storms. We then quickly learn that they all have black lung and could die. So Tom I guess becomes a psychopath and decides to keep his family locked in the house and goes as far as physically assaulting a doctor. I don't know, it's poor writing at its finest. Maybe if I see the movie one more time I'll understand this point but there isn't any build up to Toms sudden shift of personality. It's a stupid character and if he was taken out of the film the movie would still be intact. 

Spoilers end

I know its considered almost sacrilege to even question anything Nolan does. Interstellar is a good movie don't get me wrong I enjoyed it quite a bit and I'll be buying it on day 01 of its home release. However the movie has problems and they can't be overlooked. Some of them might just depend on who is watching the movie, because film is subjective. Interstellar is more about the technical wonder than the actual plot. The movie is riddled with exposition dialogue to an annoying extent and there are some major plot problems that hop around. But I was on the edge of my seat for a good portion of the movie. It's just that final little act  just nudged me the wrong way. If my opinion does change (because this seems like a movie to sit on) I'll update this and add what I thought. 

As it stands though, Interstellar is a fantastic voyage, there isn't a lot of movies like this and it really is an ambiguous project. But just because the movie has a very big and epic scope to it does not give it a pass to be the "masterpiece" people are making it out to be

I give Interstellar a 8/10

It's good like I said, but I personally think Inception was the better Nolan foray into scifi. But if you are going to see Interstellar make sure you watch it on the biggest screen possible with the best sound, you won't regret it.