Interstellar (2014)

"Love is the one thing that transcends time and space."

Farmer and ex-NASA pilot - Cooper - joins a team of explorers who’s mission is to travel through a wormhole, created by an unknown being, in an attempt to find a potentially habitable planet that will sustain humanity.

I have totally lost faith in Christopher Nolan since ‘Inception' and ‘The Dark Knight Rises' but I was optimistic that ‘Interstellar' would change that… Unfortunately it didn’t. 

You can’t help but respect the size and scope of ‘Interstellar' because, at the end of the day, it’s a phenomenal feat to have been able to make a film with the visuals and ambition that ‘Interstellar’ has. This being said, the size of the film (and the money that was obviously spent on it) is only disguising the fact that it’s ultimately a weak film. 

I saw ‘Interstellar' in IMAX (which is how I’d like to see every film... ever) because it's always a more immersive experience. It's massive sound system that rocks the entire theatre and a screen that’ll fill your peripherals is the perfect set up for any movie experience. I experienced ‘Gravity’ in IMAX and deduced that ‘Interstellar’ would probably benefit from it and I was right, it turned out to be one of the only redeeming features of the film.

Let’s get down to it.

Exposition is defined as "a comprehensive description and explanation of an idea or theory.” which is basically what Nolan does throughout the entire movie. He leads us by the hand because apparently the audience isn’t intelligent enough to grasp the theories and ideas presented in ‘Interstellar’ on their own. Nolan thinks he has to explain every detail to us as if explaining it to a child. This isn’t exaggeration, he literally has a character take a piece of paper and give us a demonstration that you would give to a child as to how a wormhole works. Please give us some credit… It’s insulting.

Funnily enough this is the same problem that I had with ‘Inception’. ‘Inception’ is hailed as a mind bender and a film that challenges the audience but I have to call bullshit on that one I’m afraid. Two dimensional characters are crow barred into the plot to basically feed us information, exposition and answers. For example, Joseph Gordon Levitt’s character’s sole purpose in ‘Inception’ is to talk us through the movie and make sure the audience understands exactly what is going on at any given moment. This really aggravates me as a viewer when a film underestimates my intelligence and feels it has to explain itself at every turn. This is what I experienced with ‘Interstellar’. Granted, I understand that certain ideas have to be explained in order to follow the rest of the plot but it was a constant annoyance. Give us the important details and we’ll do the rest ourselves.

What I found illogical was the experience of the crew members. For instance, Matthew McConaughey’s character - Cooper - was either wildly under-qualified for the job or totally over-qualified. He didn’t understand basic scientific principles (someone who was on the mission in the first place should understand what he didn't) but, on the other hand, had vast knowledge and experience with some very advanced protocols and technology? Come on... He should have a decent knowledge in the first place but shouldn’t have the knowledge that rivals Anne Hathaway’s character - Brand - who is the professional on board. 
It seemed to be whenever the plot called for some exposition there was someone there to explain it to Cooper. He was asking a lot of questions that, based on his knowledge later on in the film, he shouldn’t have been asking. He’s an ex-NASA pilot. If I was on board the ship with a pilot (who is meant to be a genius NASA pilot) who doesn’t seem to have much knowledge about space, I would be having a serious “Houston, we have a problem.” moment.

‘Interstellar’ doesn’t portray the feeling of being space particularly well. When you look at films like ‘Gravity' and the definitive space exploration film '2001: A Space Odyssey', you really get a sense of what space is like. You experience the silence and the weightlessness along with the absolute oblivion that lies beyond the space craft. I didn’t get this feeling from ‘Interstellar’ which took me out of the movie completely. Muting the sound when you aren’t in the ship doesn’t instantly make me believe that I’m in space. Granted, the visuals in space were breathtaking, especially in IMAX, but that's all they were... Really well done CGI space sequences.

Despite the constant reminder that Cooper needs to get back to his family, it never quite grabbed me and made me care. I never felt connected to the crew and felt like I was being told how to feel rather than just letting it happen by itself. It’s hard not to compare it to a film such as ‘Apollo 13’ with Tom Hanks but ‘Apollo 13' has so much heart and you care so deeply about the crew that its incomprehensible that they won’t make it home. That desperation and futile hope that’s present in ‘Apollo 13’ was what was lacking in ‘Interstellar’. The crew were totally expendable. In the end, I cared more for the robots on board the ship than the humans, which is a crime in a film that’s meant to be about how love transcends time and space.

Christopher & Jonathan Nolan have no clue how to write female characters. Literally no clue. They're based on weak stereotypes that are insulting to women. For instance, Anne Hathaway’s character, is hailed as an expert in her field and someone who is totally devoted to the mission. Great, I’m on board with her character. However, she is suddenly willing to completely abandon professionalism, training and most importantly common sense to be reunited with her boyfriend (who she hasn’t seen in however long) and forsake the entire human race… Really?
Not to mention Cooper’s older daughter who has so many “daddy issues” that she still holds a grudge against the fact that he left her to go and save mankind but then turn around and follow in his footsteps anyway?

Despite this, there were some aspects of the film that I did enjoy. 
The theory of relativity comes into play when a situation arises that an hour translates back to 7 years on earth. This is really thrilling because time becomes such an important factor that any second wasted translates to a serious amount of time lost for the human race on earth. However, even though it was an interesting idea and concept, it did feel a little forced on the story. It felt to me like it was a new concept that they wanted in the movie so they just found a way of cramming it in. It wasn’t as seamless and subtle as it should have and could have been.

The soundtrack by Hans Zimmer is exciting. Hans Zimmer always has a way of churning out scores that really capture the essence of whatever is going on in the scene, whether it be tension, excitement or dread. Put his thrilling score alongside some of the flying sequences in the film and you’ll have most people gripping their seats. This being said, the sound mix was totally off. The music was too loud. Dialogue was lost in the mix and moments were lost as a result.

Matthew McConaughey is confident as the lead in this film. I’m so glad he’s made this come-back as a solid, reliable actor. He really holds the film up (despite being a slight parody of himself) and makes the character his own, despite me not caring about his relationship with his family…

This leads me to a plot point that I found really strange in the film, this isn’t a spoiler but Cooper apparently has a love that can transcend space and time for his daughter Murph but he really doesn’t seem to care about his son Tom... I was really bothered by this and it was never resolved. I feel bad for Tom.

It’s so hard to find a child actor that is actually believable but Mackenzie Foy plays Cooper’s daughter Murph. She gives a strong performance and actually outshines her older counterpart who plays Murph in the future.

I really, really wanted to love this film but I just didn’t. It should have been '2001: a space odyssey' meets 'Apollo 13' but unfortunately didn't live up to that expectation.

It’s probably worth seeing so you can come to your own conclusions (with a little help from Christopher Nolan of course) but I would recommend so many other films that do a better job in delivering similar concepts and ideas that ‘Interstellar’ tried to explore but ultimately ended up dumbing down. If you want to see it done properly, I suggest a few films such as; ‘Primer’ (the true mind bender), the classic return space journey - ‘Apollo 13’ (based on the true story), one of the defining science fiction films ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ and the recent 7 time Oscar winner ‘Gravity’.

I always expect to be crucified if I point out any flaw in a Christopher Nolan film. He has achieved quite a strange reputation where his films are gospel for some reason. Everyone seems to respect him as a master filmmaker for the few successful films he's made recently, of which, he receives too much for.

I want the old Christopher Nolan back. I want the Christopher Nolan back that gave us films like ‘Memento’, ‘The Prestige’ and ‘Insomnia’. Much smaller movies with intriguing ideas that really have a lot of strength without the gargantuan budget. 
I believe that ‘The Dark Knight’ was the beginning of the end. I am a huge fan of ‘The Dark Knight’ but its success (much to do with Heath Ledger’s performance as the Joker) seemed to blow open a door for Nolan, where he could do whatever he wanted without question. It appears to me that because Nolan has made a handful of successful films in the past, he can now do what he wants without an objective opinion and criticism.

Overall, ‘Interstellar’ is a tremendously messy film that has a lot of flaws. It looks relatively decent in IMAX but has way too much CGI. When you compare it to ‘2001: a space odyssey’, that didn’t have the luxury of CGI, you really see the "space" that separates them. ‘Interstellar’ doesn’t have enough heart, despite the whole message of the film being that love is the one thing that can transcend space and time… but not if you’re Cooper’s son.