It’s safe to say that Christopher Nolan is one of those directors whose films are always near the top of my most anticipated list. Even when he’s making you work hard by wondering if his screen logic holds water, he’s still entertaining you like few film makers can. Yeah, I’m talking about Inception. With Interstellar, Nolan will test your tolerance of real scientific theories rather than invented dream stuff.
Interstellar involves our Earth in an undetermined future where humankind has somehow depleted or disrupted the soil of moisture and rainfall. The Earth is dry, and crops are dying off in mass extinctions. But a group of explorers are sent into space to make use of a newly discovered wormhole with the hope of conquering the vast distances of an intersellar voyage to find a new planet to live on.
This is a pretty hard sci-fi film using theories of Relativity and the nature of Time, lightspeed travel, and black holes. If there is anything to pick at in this film, it’s going to be whether there are any holes in the science logic used here. I’m sure there will be science nerds out there that will find some problem somewhere and complain about it. As for me, I think it’s all pretty sound and there’s enough fiction to the science to make it work.
If the nit-pickers were able to just sit back and enjoy the fictional narrative around all this sci-fi science theory, they would be entertained in a way only Christopher Nolan can entertain. Interstellar is a grand space epic that manages to weave a tapestry of science fiction and emotion in a very particular way. As I continued to think about the final act of the film, I found it became more and more profound in its’ structure. Sort of like Inception, but in a more universally satisfying way. Sort of like 2001: A Space Odyssey, but with a more emotional aspect.
Both Christopher and Jonathan Nolan wrote this script, and they probably could have shortened it just a bit – it tops out at almost three hours long. the only real issue is the that the script probably could have been tightened up a bit. But, Nolan is has pretty much gotten to the Spielberg/Lucas/Peter Jackson level of film making now, so I suspect he doesn’t hear the word “no” very often anymore. If he wants a three hour movie, he’s going to make a three hour movie.
Other than that, Interstellar is pretty impressive. It’s beautifully shot, and the effects are both stunning, yet not steeped in fantasy. They’re designed reaslistically, as if we were seeing things as they are in real life. There seems to be very little CG here. The ships appear to be in three dimensions, not computer game imagery. Everything has presence, and that makes such a big difference for the better.
And as I said before, as the third act unfolds, you start putting all the pieces together and it has that “A-ha” effect followed by an empathic response that keeps building. I felt it resonated with me. PArt of me is indeed a romanticist.
The cast in Interstellar is great. From McConaughey to Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Wes Bentley, Mackenzie Foy, Michael Caine, Casey Affleck, Topher Grace, Ellen Burstyn, John Lithgow, AND Matt Damon, everybody is on. Seriously, it’s like a who’s who of great actors.
Insterstellar is definitely one of those films that you don’t need question the technical proficiency of, but there is going to likely be some varying of opinion. Will it resonate with everyone or not? That depends on you. And you certainly won’t find out until you see it, which is what I’d recommend. I’m in for a full four kittenhands.
~ Neil T. Weakley, your average movie-goer…I don’t know, I got nothin’ for this today. 🙂
