Interstellar Review: Time And Relative Dimension In Space

Christopher Nolan is here once again with one of the most anticipated movies of the year that promises to both amaze and test your mind’s capabilities to follow this highly scientific and intriguing plot. But with the heavy weight of audiences expectation and the ambitious story based on real scientific theory on Nolan, Mcconaughey and co’s shoulders coupled with an extravagant 2 hour and 49 minute runtime sadly there was a lot of room for the movie to falter and stumble instead of ascend and create a mind blowing, grandiose after-effect the movie was for hoping for.

The story of Interstellar showcases a very bleak and hopeless near future scenario, made even scarier by the too real possibility of this version of earth becoming a reality in the not so far off future, where the Earth’s resources are running out and it is becoming harder and harder to maintain a reliable source of food for the population of Earth, forcing the majority of humans to become farmers to help keep mankind alive. This very dire situation forces ex-pilot, now farmer, Joseph Cooper (Matthew Mcconaughey) to retake his position at the helm of one of the last spacecraft's on Earth and venture out into the unknown and find the residents of Earth a new planet to call home.

As you can probably tell through just the description of this story the universe of the movie is very detailed and believable effectively making each decision feel like its life or death. Each character of the film comfortably fills their role doing, saying and acting exactly how they should be with almost no aspect of this universe feeling out of place or awkwardly forced which is coupled with a great sense of mystery throughout the plot. Christopher Nolan presents his great ability at world building through this movie with the history of this Earth, on the brink of becoming an apocalyptic landscape, rich in content and genuinely made me want to learn more about this struggling future we had found ourselves in and just how we got to such a collapsed state of survival. This very cohesive, realistic and intriguing sense of the movie definitely continues to its interstellar space travel making me really interested in the science of actually getting to these far off and strange worlds.

However while this movie’s lore is hyper realistic and intriguing there was one creation of the movie that left me disappointed and took me out of the movie every time it came on screen. This aspect was the robot crew of the film; while their voice actors and dialogue make them likeable and engaging characters their design is more silly than innovative with their appearance on screen literally making some members of the audience laugh instead of intensely watch in awe as they had done for the rest of the movie. While it is impressive that these creations where actually built for filming to add to the amazing realism of the film they still seem out of place when looking at the big picture of the film with their origins brushed over to a brief mention in. Their only saving graces are their usefulness to the plot and their loveable personalities that give this heavy and bleak storyline some very appreciated uplifting humour, if only for a couple of scenes.

While Interstellar is a grand awe inspiring exploration into the science of space travel it is also a very poignant and emotional movie with many moments of the film that firmly take hold of your heart strings and yanks on them until you can barely hold in the tears. This is achieved through the astounding acting that is presented by the many fantastic and some Oscar winning performers on screen with no one letting the team down from the hilarious TARS robot whose voice overcomes it’s strange and off-putting design (played by Bill Irwin) to the obvious stand out of Matthew Mcconaughey’s Joseph Cooper who is not only the anchor of the film plot wise but also emotionally too really making you empathise and feel the pain and sacrifices this man just trying to save his family has to make. While Mcconaughey’s performance is highly empathetic the same can be said for the rest of the cast as throughout the movie you will definitely feel the heart break of almost each and every character on screen resonate with you as you see the reality of living in such a devastated and ruined version of humanity.

There are many heart felt moments in the movie that are given ample time to breath and really leave an impact on the audience but strangely there are also moments that feel rushed with some decisions and, actually interesting, planning for the next perilous step that is going to be taken by the crew over in the blink of an eye; leaving me not only slightly confused on the high concept manoeuvres they are about to take but also dissatisfied with how they got to such a dangerous and ambitious conclusion.

As usual with a high budget science fiction blockbuster the visuals of space are jaw dropping and gorgeous but with Interstellar this is achieved in a different way to most other films of its kind. The cascading oceans of stars that grace the audience’s eyes are not the usual polished and shiny vistas seen in movies such as Guardians of the Galaxy, although there is a place for these equally impressive visuals, Interstellar gives us a more realistic and natural expression of space that pulled me into the movie in a completely different and interesting way. These scenes of space travel, both realistic and abstract, left me astounded at how Nolan was able to deliver such a refreshing view of a sight that in past years, thanks to the advances in technology, has become all too familiar.

The amazing shots don’t start and end with the fantastic space travel scenes but the earth scenes are also treated with such care and invention with the self-destructive world invoking both emotions of pity and awe at the strange beauty of the wrecked civilisation. All this makes almost every shot of this movie, from establishing to closing, an interesting and impressive ride indeed.

The realism doesn’t end with the scientific theory and gritty space vistas used within the film. It extends into the cockpit of the spacecraft too as the craft isn’t only a very realist future mirror of the technology we use now, with some very advanced leaps also included of course. In-fact the actual inner of the craft was built as well as structures presenting the magnificent space that they would be traveling through.  This adds another level of authenticity to the performances of the actors on screen as they are reacting to actual physical objects and views around them instead of imagining what will be added in later by CGI; making the performances even more engaging and the danger feel even more intense when being hurtled through the outer reaches of space.  

While the initial concept and journey to the salvation of Earth is a highly enjoyable and deeply emotional adventure sadly when entering the final act and the resolution of this space epic the concepts and story line slowly starts to decompose till I was left shaking my head in disbelief of the strange and awkwardly placed direction the script was taking us. It is very difficult to fully explain why the final moments of this otherwise enjoyable movie created such dissatisfaction for me, but in a brief summary the ending felt too farfetched and forced with circumstances resolving too quickly and perfectly with the final cherry on top of the soured cake being a typically Hollywood ending that didn’t fit the otherwise serious and thought provoking film.

What also really doesn’t help the abominably stark change in storyline quality of the final act is the unforgiving colossal runtime of 2 hours and 49 minutes. While I can definitely understand why the movie needs to be or could even be longer with the interesting but very complicated theories used and emotional beats throughout that could have been delved into in even more depth; by the final 25 minutes of the movie I was hoping for a swift finish to release me from the theatre. But once again this sudden and fast wane in interest was almost definitely because of my disdain for the direction the concluding minutes took the movie in.

Thankfully though there are many through lines of high quality entertainment that will help ease the pain in the decomposing finale and heighten the already intense, emotional and fantastic scenarios on earth and in deep space. One is the amazing visuals that are always on hand to entertain you but the other is the great soundtrack of Interstellar. Hans Zimmer, once again (of course), has done an amazing job, knocking it right out of the park effortlessly as always. Concocting a score that not only harkens back to the scores of classic science fiction films but helps elevate the awe you feel when viewing the wonderful vistas of the interstellar travel.

Interstellar has a lot of flaws that you could pick and groan at for days but to be honest when walking out of the theatre I was not only still fascinated by the themes and science brought up in the movie, wanting to learn more, but also left having really enjoyed the movie. For all its stumbles it’s still a deeply emotional, greatly acted and visually astounding film that’s reinvigorated the sense of innovation that can be achieved when creating a science fiction movie.

Interstellar = 7.5/10

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Also this review you can see in next months edition of the NG5 Magazine.