Interstellar

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Michael, Tom, Cassie, Tara, Cicely, Sebastian

It's gonna be hard to discuss this one without spoiling too much but I'm going to try. Suffice to say, this is a real tricky one and for me personally, it doesn't work despite being one of the most immaculately constructed pieces of space travel I've seen on the big screen. It's truly a spectacle. One that I thought was going to be like Gravity, grounded by science. Christopher Nolan grounds everything in reality as much as possible. But the last third of this lengthy movie throws it all away and goes full sci-fi fantasy, hoping that the sentimental and emotional connections between characters they've clumsily force fed down our throats will overwhelm our sense of logic.

And honestly, that's not going to be a problem for everyone. I did have certain expectations and while they didn't really pull the rug out from under me it was a bit of a disappointment to see the stock standard sci-fi tropes they decided to use, and their somewhat sudden reveal is hard to adjust to, given what has happened in the two hours proceeding.

I have always loved films dealing with time travel. And while this is dealing more with general relativity, those concepts do come into play. But there were some big pieces set up at the beginning that did give me pause. I hoped my hunch was wrong but the film eventually got around to the reveal and it was less than stellar. Time travel allows for many cheats in story telling if you're lazy. This film is hardly lazy (well, sometimes, we'll get to that) but it does rely heavily on the self fulfilling paradox and it's a real peeve of mine. So like I said, not going to be a problem for everyone but really annoyed me.

Here's a sentence I never thought I'd write. Surprise Topher Grace outweighed surprise Matt Damon. Did you know Matt Damon was in the film? I didn't either. And his part is carelessly wedged in the second act to do nothing more but add in conflict the film doesn't need. It's the perfect example of all the unnecessary excess that Gravity did away with and resulted in a film that's pretty much half the running time. But that's hardly the worst crime of the film. At least those sequences have genuine thrills and suspense and are entertaining and engaging.

No the parts that are harder to forgive are the characters sprouting actual statement of theme rather than talking like a person. There was one point where Anne Hathaway, bless her, garnered snickers from many in the audience for talking about how love will save the universe. She really tries hard to sell it but even Matt Damon, Matthew McConaughey and Michael Caine fail in this regard. No one can make that stuff sound natural.

Half the movie is corny (literally and figuratively) and the rest is space travel stuff. And about a third of the space travel stuff is crazy sci-fi nonsense. And I'll probably see it again on the big screen, the visuals are really something. And in IMAX, you have the added bonus of much of the spectacle being full frame. And my god the sound in that cinema. Seat shaking earth shattering sound. Amazing. But is does mean sitting through 2 hours of a film I really feel dubious about. And listening to Hans Zimmer do some interesting drone-isn music but ruin it but throwing in a organ which will inevitably lead to 2001: A Space Odyssey comparisons.  

Remember that movie Contact, which coincidentally starred Matthew McConaughey? That film is almost like the inverse of this. It's all earth bound, primarily a drama with some space travel ideas tacked on. Whilst thematically very different, the drama in that film works. And they have very similar structures for their climax, in both cases problematic. I remember the South Park criticism "I waited through that whole movie to see that Alien and it was her god damn father." Mmmm... Even so, Contact pulls of its finale with grace a subtly compared to the behemoth that is Interstellar, a film that thinks it's being smart but really just feels patronising. Maybe one day I'll grow to like it like I do Contact. But more likely it's just going to keep pissing me off.