Interstellar Review

When the earth is hit by drought and famine that is slowly wiping out all its crops and causing extreme changes in climate, humanity stands on the brink of extinction and a group of astronauts, led by former NASA test pilot, Cooper, has to go through interstellar travel to find a new planet for humanity to inhabit.

Interstellar was an idea that was conceived in 1997 and was in development since 2006. It took 4 years for Christopher and Jonathan Nolan to write. Interstellar along with Inception, which took 9 to 10 years to write, are pretty much Christopher Nolan’s babies and as such, it is only fair to look first at Nolan’s influence on the film as a whole.

Nolan and McConaughey discussing
about a scene.

From Memento to The Prestige to Inception to the Dark Knight trilogy, there are certain things that one comes to expect from a Christopher Nolan film; flawless directing, outstanding cast performances and mouth-watering premises to name a few. Interstellar delivers in each of these departments yet again as the world’s best dressed director continues to prove that he is not just a one-hit wonder. Nolan is a master at immersing his audience into the world he creates, whether that is in space or in dreams or in a world where a man dressed as a bat punches people. He is always on the same wavelength as his audience and knows exactly how to capture and hold their attention throughout his film and he does so again in Interstellar. Even though this film spans nearly 3 hours, at no one point does it really feel dragged out, except perhaps the ending. Unfortunately for the film, with ‘Gravity’ having come out last year with similar space visuals, Interstellar does not feel as original as it was probably intended to when it was first envisioned.

The film is led by Matthew McConaughey, a former comedian who has completely transformed himself to become one of the best actors in current times. This film represents a very important step for McConaughey as it is his first film after winning the Academy Award for Best Actor. Questions arise of whether he will follow in the footsteps of former winners, like Daniel Day-Lewis and Tom Hanks, in continuing giving outstanding performances in movies or disappear into terrible movies like Adrian Brody and Nicholas Cage. With this performance, McConaughey shows that he is here to stay as he convincingly depicts himself as a loving father, a farmer and an astronaut in the same film. He will have every viewer clinging onto his every word as he guides the audience into space and beyond. He even has an unbelievable scene of pure raw emotion in the film in which he perfectly conveys his character’s thoughts and feelings without saying a single word. His dynamic acting chops continue to unravel as he creates an amazing character full of leadership and responsibility, yet at the same time plagued with guilt and the burden of humanity on his shoulders.

McConaughey is joined on screen by Jessica Chastain and Michael Caine, who both do great jobs in portraying the characters they were given and Anne Hathaway, who does an okay job with the, unfortunately, very boring one-dimensional character she was given. Particular props should go to young Mackenzie Foy, who before now was only famous for playing some kid in the Twilight films. Kids in films, especially at her age and playing such a stubborn character, usually tend to be annoying and the weakest part of a film but Foy stands as an exception to this rule. The stakes in the film relies greatly on her likability and relationship with McConaughey and young Foy’s performance is flawless throughout as this 13-year-old stands side-by-side with last year’s Best Actor and equals his performance. It takes two to tango and the relationship formed by McConaughey and Foy’s characters served as a great catalyst of the film.

The parts of the film that really shine are the themes. The film features several clever themes and messages, such as love and the importance of humanity vs life and logic vs emotion. The themes were very cleverly conveyed in the film and will be further elaborated on in the spoiler section later on. Another great aspect of the film, as with all of Nolan’s newer films, is the soundtrack. Hans Zimmer continue to amaze with every soundtrack he creates for Nolan as this one perfectly encapsulates the weightlessness of space while also including the dream-like wonder of space exploration and interstellar travel. It made the film so much more than it was by itself as Zimmer really knows how to tell a story with music.

McConaughey and Hathaway meet in
the Academy Awards earlier this year.

However, the film is not without it’s flaws. Nolan has made it a point to write almost every one of the films he creates and it is usually there that his films tend to struggle. Not learning from past errors, the main problem most people will have with the film will be its 3^rd act. Like his last film, The Dark Knight Rises, Interstellar’s 3^rd act was riddled with plot holes and conveniences along with shifts in tone and silly assumptions that cause the film to lose its audience. Though the problems in the story were less noticeable in The Dark Knight Rises, they are very clear in Interstellar and anyone who has watched the film knows exactly which part is being referred to here. It does not present a very good end result for the 3 hours the audience will spend watching it and will only manage to split most audiences into two groups of thoughts. The first group being people who end up confused with the ending and the second group, like me, understanding what is meant to be conveyed and the explanations given in the film but not buying into the concept. The 3^rd act was an unfortunate misstep for the film, not the first from Nolan.

Though it was a smart film based on how it intelligently portrays its themes and messages throughout it, the way Interstellar ends pushes ones immersion a bit too far and is based, not only on unproven theories but also on assumptions and just silly ideas to tie mysteries up. For a film so heavily marketed as a realistic depiction of wormholes and blackholes, to the extent of having a real wormhole specialist consult them on it, it’s ending ends up being as unrealistic and ham-fisted as the ending of the film ‘Lucy’. As Rotten Tomatoes puts it, ‘its intellectual reach somewhat exceeds its grasp’. With crazy concepts, gaping plot holes, silly coincidences and a subtle evolutionary message which is ridiculously unrealistic, Interstellar completely falls apart in the 3^rd act and, though it recovers a little at the end, is nothing more than a huge disappointment to someone who was looking forward to it since it was announced nearly 2 years ago.

That is not to say it is a bad film in any sense of the word. The performances, direction, intense moments and special effects continue to be strong reasons to watch the film in the biggest screen one can find. Christopher Nolan has always strived to make good films and Interstellar is no exception. It may not have the mind-blowing element like Memento or the clever spectacle that makes one question existence like Inception or even a well thought out full story like the Dark Knight, but it is still half a good film with lots of positives and strengths that can be expected in all Nolan films. Unfortunately, that one negative element is so strong and may leave such a lasting impression on the viewer that it may overshadow an otherwise good film. It may not be Nolan’s best film by a long shot, but it still does come recommended and is half a good film on space exploration with strong themes that will keep one thinking throughout the 3 hours in the theatre.

SciFi Movie Rating: 8.5/10

AFTER CREDITS Movie Rating: 7/10

[Warning: Spoilers ahead]

"I'm back to ruin another movie!"

Well, let’s start with some minor spoilers that I didn’t want to give away in the non-spoiler section. First of all, I really liked the TARS and CASE characters. Nolan’s film is too smart to make the robot the villain and I applaud him for that. Very good and likable characters with a very good design. On the other hand, I don’t know what Topher Grace was doing in the movie. After he ruined Venom, his appearance took me completely out of the movie. His random character was introduced late into the film with no real purpose other than to scream at everyone around him and provide an unnecessary and forced romance in a film that did not require a romance. Another little thing that bothered me is how Cooper finds out Edmund and Brand were in love. Maybe I wasn’t paying enough attention but I did not get that impression at all until Cooper asked TARS about it. Nolan also seems to be bad at writing characters with two children as one child always seem greatly favoured while the other always end up not being relevant to the story at all, a problem he also seemed to have in The Dark Knight with Commissioner Gordon’s kids.

So those were the minor spoilers. There are two major spoilers I’d like to talk about. The first is the whole Dr Mann section of the film. I loved the twist that old Brand had solved the equation a long time ago. I loved how it portrays giving up ones humanity to save the human race. Things like that make the audience think about whether life or humanity is more important and it is a great underlying theme in the film. This theme is also shown in the Dr Mann twist, which I saw coming early on but still loved. Making the best and most inspirational character give up his own humanity was a brilliant move by the Nolans. Matt Damon does an excellent job in portraying the character and is so well casted since most audiences know him as the good guy in most films he is in. What I did not like was Nolan thinking that he needed a fight scene to make the film more interesting. Making that fight scene takes a lot away from the act as it transforms the Mann character from a sympathetic character into an all out traditional cliché villain that the hero must fight. The fight scene makes the scene an action scene and causes the audience to focus on what will happen next in the film instead of looking into themselves and considering the themes of the story and what they would have done if they had been in Mann’s situation. It’s a subtle difference but it is these subtle little differences that distinguish good movies from great ones.

The other major spoiler is obviously the black hole part and beyond. I thought the film did not do a very good job in its explanations. Unlike many people, I actually understood the ending and think the reason for all the confusion is due to the fact that the film over-explains certain elements while not explaining other elements. So let me get this whole ending straight, because it is back-crap crazy when you think about it. A insanely genius little girl's dad goes into space and travels through a black hole and through the power of love and future human beings, he is able to possess a watch and send her the secret to an equation that can help save humanity. Let’s start from the obvious. The idea of a person entering the 5^th dimension due to the black hole is absolutely ridiculous. Also, the idea that ‘they’ are future human beings that have evolved into beings of the 5^th dimension that transcends time and space is borderline stupid at best. It would have been a better idea if the film had left that part completely up to the audience’s imagination or maybe made it so that these 5^th dimensional beings were spirits of deceased people rather than future evolved people. Then the film could have even used the deceased Michael Caine to explain the scene. That entire part was silly and over-explained, leaving nothing to the imagination and ultimately causes me to understand everything about it, therefore allowing me to realise how stupid the concept is. At the same time, it is not explained how the wormhole appeared next to Saturn in the first place with us left to assume it was placed there by the same future humans even though they aren’t supposed to be able to interact with the physical world. Also, the entire happy ending scene felt tacked on as a compromise, much like the ending of The Dark Knight Rises, being forcefully happy despite the dark and tragic tone of the entire film up to then. The entire 3^rd act felt presumptuous and condescending, trying so hard to be smarter than it actually is when what it should have done was to keep to its strengths, which, as mentioned earlier, is in highlighting its powerful themes.