Interstellar Review

alilreview
Nov 8, 2014
9 min read

A ‘Lil Review

Interstellar

Film Review

8/10

Chris Nolan continues to make films as serious as possible, and also ones that make you scratch your head and go “huh?” From the mind blowing Memento, to the earnest fan-boy praised Dark Knight Trilogy, to the mind blowingInception, he has continued to impress and exceed expectations with his filmmaking and storytelling. He most certainly does the same with Interstellar.

THIS MOVIE REVIEW IS RIDDLED WITH SPOILERS:

In the near future, our planet will no longer be hospitable for us. A Great Depression-style drought has come. Blight will end up killing crops and livestock on a global scale therefore jeopardizing mankind’s existence. No longer are scientists needed. Humanity has more value for farmers than scientists. In fact, textbooks refer to space exploration of the past as propaganda to reduce Russia resources during the “space race:” the moon landing is thought of as faked to discourage people for looking to the sky and focus on the needs of food at home. Talk about depressing.

In this world we are introduced to Cooper (Matthew McConaughey), a former NASA test pilot/engineer who has retired to be a farmer with his two children and father-in-law. Just like everyone else, he is trying to survive in this world when his daughter Murphy (nicknamed Murph) has been complaining about “ghosts” in her room knocking books in the room off the shelf. At first Cooper dismissed this as a child afraid of the dark, but further investigation reveals this is some form of an extra-terrestrial intelligence actually providing information/coordinates to them. Cooper begins to take this seriously and realizes that the books have been placed on the ground communicating coordinates in Morse Code. Cooper decides to drive to these coordinates and see what’s out there.

These codes lead him to NORAD. There they discover the once thought disbanded NASA actually still exists and has a plan to save the human race. NASA Professor Brand (Michael Caine) explains that a few decades earlier, a wormhole appeared near Saturn, probably by the same extra-terrestrials that gave Cooper and Murph the coordinates.

A previous mission has been sent to discover if there are any planets on the other side of the wormhole that would be suitable for colonization and resettlement for all on Earth. He then tasks Cooper with being the pilot for a new mission to go through the wormhole to discover these planets. Joining him on this mission are fellow astronauts: Brand’s daughter (Anne Hathaway), Romilly (David Gyasi), Doyle (Wes Bentley) and two robots named TARS and CASE (Bill Irwin and Josh Stewart) through the wormhole. The mission is to find a hospitable world while waiting for Brand to complete calculations (which are not yet ready) for a mass exodus from Earth to the planet to be discovered. If the calculations cannot be made, the astronauts will administer a “population bomb,” on the spaceship are thousands of fertilized eggs that would continue on as the human race.

Cooper, longing to go to the stars first is has to leave his family on Earth while he goes to save the human race. This is understood by his son, but not by Murph. After all, what daughter wants their father to leave possibly forever? The two part on bad terms and as a result Cooper is heartbroken.

After leaving Earth, and entering hyper-sleep for two years needed to get to the wormhole near Saturn, the astronauts begin exploration. Entering the wormhole is a mastery of special effects. The vertigo is amazing! Entering the wormhole, astronaut Brand (the professor’s daughter) sees one of the extra terrestrial beings and attempts to touch it. Upon exiting the wormhole, they find the first planet for exploration. Before departing for the planet, the audience is given a lesson in gravity and time. Due to the gravitational pull of this specific planet, time on the planet is slower than on earth. If the astronauts spend one hour on this planet, it will equal seven years on earth. After formulating a plan to not spend so much time on the planet, they land on the planet. They discover the planet is covered by shallow water, but the planet is prone to tidal waves more than five stories tall. As astronaut Brand tries to uncover probe from the previous mission, they are hit by a wave, killing Doyle. As they escape in the shuttle to the main ship, they discovered that the time dilation has caused twenty-seven years to pass outside the planet’s orbit (even though only an a few hours passed on the planet) and Romilly has been waiting for them for twenty-seven years all by himself. Back on the ship Cooper views video messages from the last twenty-seven years from his children. Murph still hasn’t spoken to him out of hurt, but his son Tom has become a father and introduces him to his grandson. Murph now has joined NASA and is working with professor Brand on figuring out the calculation, yet she still is resentful towards her father.

Due to damage to their ship as a result of the water planet and limited fuel, the astronauts can only visit one of the two available planets. How can they choose? On one hand, there is a planet that has perfect readings, on the other is astronaut Brand’s lover who she is desperate to try to get back to that she “feels” is a better choice. Cooper decides to go with data instead of emotion and they choose the planet with the better readings. When they arrive to the planet, they discover that it is actually a barren ice-filled wasteland that doesn’t even have a breathable atmosphere. When they revive Dr. Mann (Matt Damon), the astronaut from the previous mission from hypersleep, it is revealed that he faked the readings in hope of rescue to escape his loneliness of being on the barren planet alone. Dr. Mann knows that the calculation to get everyone from Earth will not work and was never a part of professor Brand’s plan, he proceeds to go forward with the population bomb. When Cooper and the other astronauts disagree, he proceeds with a plan to kill them and get on the ship himself and carry out the mission. After leaving Cooper for dead and killing Romilly, he escapes in the shuttle to make it to the main ship. After rescuing Cooper, astronaut Brand and he race to get to the ship before Mann leaves them stranded. However the robot locked out the docking codes, causing Mann to be jettisoned into as he opens the door.

Cooper and Brand then decide to do a slingshot around the wormhole to get to the final planet and will also transmit whatever data they have recovered back to Earth in hope that it helps solve the equation. During that process, because the gravity near the wormhole is so strong, they begin to dump parts of the ship no longer needed, including the robots. Finally Cooper dumps his ship into the wormhole to leave astronaut Brand alone to make it to the final planet.

And here is where the movie gets interesting.

As Cooper enters the wormhole, the gravity is so severe that he is forced to escape from the shuttle and be thrust into the blackness of the wormhole. When he awakens, he discovers he is “somewhere” and “somewhen” else. He now exists outside of space and time along with the robot. As he looks ventures around, he realizes the walls in this location are strikingly similar to a book case. As he looks through the book case, he sees Murph as a child. He realizes that he is the ghost that led Murph and he to NORAD. Outside of space and time, he allows the timeline to continue the way it previously did by giving the coordinates in the form of dropping books. He comes to the realization that the extra-terrestrials that opened the wormhole and led humanity every step of the way are not in fact extra terrestrials, but humans (or what humans will evolve into sometime in the future: beings that exists in the 5th dimension) who are directing mankind on their next steps in the past to ensure their survival. Adult Murph is able to complete professor Brand’s equation to bring mankind away from Earth with Cooper’s help. Within the wormhole, Cooper is able to see astronaut Brand reaching for him, there he realizes that he was the alien that she saw when they first entered the wormhole.

With his mission now complete, Cooper transports from the wormhole and is then rescued by a NASA ship sometime in the future. As he awakens, he realizes he is onboard a space station near Saturn decades in the future, which now operates as a waystation for humanity to use before crossing though the wormhole to the planet astronaut Brand departed for. On this space station, he finally fulfills his promise to his daughter, now an elderly woman with children and grandchildren of her own, to reunite with her. After they say their goodbyes before her death, Cooper takes a ship and departs for the new planet in search of astronaut Brand.

Thoughts:

This was excellent!

This is a movie that is almost devoid of any action. It’s unlike many other Chris Nolan movies because it is almost completely about either science, or emotion, without serious action. The fight with Dr. Mann, and the escape from the water planet are the only moments that even would compare as “action.” But if compared to The Dark Knight Trilogy, and Inception, this doesn’t even count as “action.” This movie is definitely a thinking man’s movie. There may be some who may feel misled based on the marketing of the movie, that it isn’t 90% dialogue (that you mustpay attention to in order to understand later scenes) instead of high stakes action. The cinematography is excellent as well.

There should have been more character development for Tom. The story firmly established Cooper’s relationship with Murph, but his relationship with his son was not as developed. It spent a great deal of time establishing Murph’s anger over her father’s abandonment, but not a great deal with his son. Plus his son ended up being a “villain” towards the end not wanting to take his family off the farm (even though the environment would kill them eventually). There is probably a scene or two on a “Director’s Cut” that would show emotions related to him also being left by his father to fend on his own, but it wasn’t shown in the film.

One thing that stands out from this movie is that when they show outer space, they show silence. Space is a vacuum where noise doesn’t exist. Audiences are familiar with Star Wars and Star Trek, and even Gravity, where space has loud explosions. In the real world the vacuum of space would swallow up any sound associated with any noises, and the film captures this very well. One could hear a pin drop in the theater during those scenes.

There will be some criticism for the third act of the movie. After all, the film goes at lengths with its scientific explanations for how gravity and time work, to have “love” be the constant that transcends space and time. It may seem as a bit of a cop out, but within the narrative of the film, it works completely. This film will be monstrously confusing to many, just for the sheer amount of science (and pseudo-science) presented in the movie may make some people confused at time, especially when they explain time difference/dilation.

Matt Damon is a dick! It’s rare for him to actually be a bad guy in the film. Audiences might not expect it, but it’s a welcome change for once.

The robots could have been better imagined. In a world where humanity has probes, and ships that can withstand the gravitational pull of a wormhole, one would think that they could be better imagined than giant Tetris blocks with a sense of humor.

The score is great. Hans Zimmer, (who has worked with Nolan previously) provides a unique score for the movie that works very well especially during moments of tension, and moments of hope in the film. The editing should be nominated for an academy award. The moments of tension outside the wormhole work exceptionally well in conjunction with moments happening on Earth and helped tell the story much more fluently.

Overall this was an excellent film and should be seen. This wasn’t screened on Imax, but knowing how Chris Nolan uses Imax technology, it’s probably a better experience, so see it in that format if possible. However, seeing it in a standard screening is just a wonderful.

8/10.

Cast:

Matthew McConaughey as Cooper

Anne Hathaway as Amelia Brand

David Gyasi as Romilly

Wes Bentley as Doyle]

Bill Irwin as the voice of TARS

Josh Stewart as the voice of CASE

Jessica Chastain as Murphy Cooper's daughter, nicknamed "Murph"

Mackenzie Foy as Young Murph

Ellen Burstyn as Old Murph

Michael Caine as Professor Brand