Today, November 15, 2014, makes it one year to the day that I've been doing this whole review/blog thing! Way back when I was doing this on Tumblr, mind. So yeah, to anyone who's been reading what I say for the past year, thank you so much! And if you happen to enjoy it (and I hope you do) hey, even better! I'm glad I could and still can be informative and/or entertaining, and I continue to hope that you all find as much enjoyment out of my writing as I have doing the actual writing! And finally, thank you to everyone who has been so supportive of both me and the Emporium this past year! It means a lot, and it's because of you awesome folk that (on top of keeping me sane this past year) I'm always looking at more things to do in the future, including a possibly-maybe-hopefully new video (or series.... ;) ). So thanks again guys! Here's to another year (or more)!
- Donlevy
Now then...
Interstellar is director Christopher Nolan's latest original film after Dark Knight Returns, and it's damn massive in scope. Faced with a dying Earth, Interstellar follows Matthew McConaughey's Cooper as he and several NASA scientists race to the stars to find a habitable planet for the purpose of population. From black holes to wormholes, it's the final frontier for Nolan and his desperate astronauts. And for Cooper, it's a race against time to save both his family and humanity at large...as every action undertaken costs the team precious years, or possibly decades. Interstellar is no doubt a marvel of visual and audio design, but it's unfortunate that the ambitious and larger-than-life story ends up weighing it down from being something truly great. Despite strong acting and a tantalizing story hook, the film can't escape its own gravity being continually bogged down by meandering exposition and an uneven and lacking final act.
I won't use more gravity puns, I promise.
In the near-future, resources on Earth have all but depleted, leading humanity to re-prioritize their production efforts in a desperate bid to stem their eventual fate. After Cooper and his daughter Murph (Mackenzie Foy) stumble upon a facility run by the remnants of NASA and led by Professor Brand (Michael Caine), Cooper learns that Brand has an even better idea: get the hell outta dodge. Or in other words, look to the stars, and leave the Earth. Realizing that Earth is on its last legs, Cooper, a former test pilot and engineer, agrees to accompany a group of scientists, including Professor Brand's daughter, Amelia (Anne Hathaway), on a space voyage to another galaxy, courtesy of a mysterious wormhole appearing near Saturn. The caveat however is that the wormhole leads to a system in proximity to a black hole, and the gravitational force exerted makes time dilate on the extreme. The team must investigate the planets for signs of hospitality, but they must choose wisely, for each minute or hour spent is years away on Earth. And for Cooper, those are years he won't be seeing his daughter.
I find that to be quite a strong premise overall, and it certainly makes for a dramatic choice faced by the scientists in the early-to-mid parts of the film. Great acting all around too, especially McConaughey who, jeeze, is on a freaking roll lately. I give big props to the voices of the AI robots that travel with the crew, especially, and also the surprise actors/actresses that appear later on. All of the actors face the drama up front, and the crew in particular convey equal parts awe and desperation. For added effect, the crew continually receive video messages sent from family back on Earth, as the years begin to tick away back home. They make for some really special and intimate moments, and allow the story to progress back on Earth years into the future without feeling jarring. Interstellar is quite deliberate in its pace early on, also evident by how little the film needlessly lingers back on Earth before Cooper leaves (which is to say, it doesn't).
As you approach the end of the movie however, you might find that the film can be...mmm...a bit of full of itself. What I mean is that, and without spoiling, the exposition and progression the film quite successfully managed in the beginning and middle acts is squandered by constant repetition of said exposition and delayed resolution in the guise of a forced and artificial tension. Basically...dialogue and circumstance between characters do little for story advancement and more for wasting of time. It's frustrating, and it makes what would otherwise be important story moments more of a relief than anything when they occurred.
I will say though that throughout most of the film, the science behind everything is handled and explained fairly well without what I'd consider to be oversimplifying. I suppose one could argue that Interstellar asks a lot of the viewer in order to follow along, but come on man, space is cool. Sure, I'm in no way an expert in any field of science of the cosmos, but damn, at the very least it looked freaking cool.
Indeed, Interstellar has some hugely impressive visual effects and composition. It's immediately clear that the film was expertly shot, and the use of both VFX and miniatures is excellent. The various planets feel fantastically alien, yet with a hint of familiarity, unintentionally or not, that make for fascinating and interesting locales. The cinematography flows more with the mechanics of the spacecraft, rather than with the astronauts, (in contrast to say, Gravity) and situates to make gorgeous vista views and horizons. A select few scenes even make fantastic use of rotation to make for some memorable and excitingly tense moments. Careful with this film if you have a tendency to get motion sickness.
And of course, of course, the music. It's always the damn music. Well it's damn good music! Haha! And who else should be behind it than Hans Zimmer. It goes without saying, but without the music that Zimmer provides, Interstellar would have been a very different movie. There's an enormous and empowering presence of organs in the soundtrack for the tense scenes, and a softer more melancholy approach to the sombre moments. His music sets the tone of the entire film, and it's what makes otherwise more subtle scenes stand out as epic and moving. I understand that some might have wanted a more underscored arrangement for those subtle scenes, for various reasons, but you can't argue with the results. My one criticism might be that by the end, the sheer amount of all those organs goes a little overboard.
To touch on it briefly, there are most definitely more than a few nods to science fiction works of the past, likely most notably of all 2001: A Space Odyssey. One scene in particular, that I wish I could spoil but I can't, is an extreme version of a particular scene in Odyssey involving a ship and station. And it's an amazing scene here. One of the several awesome set piece moments found in Interstellar.
So yes, for all it does on a technical level, those plot issues really do keep Interstellar from achieving true greatness, falling short of the heights of the films it pays homage to. Even so, it's a pretty good movie on a visual and audio level alone, and I feel that that makes it very watchable, even if its near three hour runtime is a bit daunting. If nothing else, Interstellar is certainly ambitious.
YAY
- Visually stunning. Space is cool, y'all.
- Great acting all around. McConaughey has been on fire recently. Also shout out to the voices of the AI's!
- Crazy music by, of course, Hans Zimmer.
- More than a few nods to past Sci-Fi movies, such as 2001: A Space Odyssey.
- Story deals with pretty hefty physics, and articulates it well without "dumbing down" too much.
- The set piece moments are sweeeeeeeeet.
NAY
- Artificial tension, particularly in the final act, is rather silly.
- Plot teeters on "going off the deep end."
- Story gets bogged down almost needlessly by repeated exposition.
- Similarly, the film could have used better time management (how ironic), by which I mean, spend less time drawing out said tension, and more time resolving. Again, mostly in the final act.
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