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Mathew McConaghey, as he spends most of the movie.
I think I liked it.
That's the short version of my thoughts on Interstellar. I really think I liked it. But I can't quiet tell, and it's difficult for me to piece everything together into a coherent single thought on it. I'll try my best.
The short version of the plot is this: It's the relatively near future and Earth sucks. A mysterious plague is slowly but surely killing off all the plant life on the planet creating a global dust bowl effect. All wars have stopped, science has been abandoned, and life has returned to an agrarian society.
Mathew McConaughey is Cooper, an ex fighter pilot and engineer turned farmer. He stumbles onto the last remaining remnants of NASA who decide they can use his help on one last daring mission to try and save humanity. The mission is to travel through a black hole and reconnect with one of three science missions sent through ten years earlier. Accompanying Cooper is Anne Hathaway's Dr. Brand, Wes Bentley as Dr. Doyle, and David Gyasi as Romilly. Meanwhile back on Earth Michael Caine and Jessica Chastain attempt to complete work on a space station that will serve as humanity's next step forward. There are a few twists, but they range from boring to dumb. It's way more interesting to watch how the plot plays out then actually trying to think about it to much.
The plot is, at best, smart science for dumb people. At worst, it's dumb people with smart science. There's been some talk about how Interstellar was written for Spielberg, and that Christopher Nolan only took the reigns at the last minute, but it's impossible to tell the kind of impact that would've had on the movie. Certainly, Spielberg has a better understanding of how to get characters to talk to each other, and crafting the human elemant of the story, but Nolan's ability to craft individual scenes really does do something great for the movie. Regardless, the performances are good all around, with McConaughey, Chastain, and Hathaway all giving standout performances.
On to the science. There's a lot here. Probably to much. Unlike other recent sci-fi movies about space travel, Interstellar isn't just content to say "It's the future, deal with it". Rather, they went through a lot of research to make this film, and you are damn well going to listen. This is perhaps the films weakest moments. For every interesting and exciting scene, there's about twenty scenes of people discussing the science behind it, and it all gets very boring. Make no mistake, the science is good, but at a certain point you stop caring because they've been talking about it for ten minutes now.
Into that Goodnight
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Visually interesting, but boring.
On the technical side, Interstellar fare much better. There's a lot of detail put into the fine things, and the future it crafts is very believable. It takes the same approach to the future that Looper did, in that everything looks sort of like it does now, but shittier. It doesn't spend to much time on everything, leaving it up to the viewer to figure out how the new works. Easily the most interesting tech on show is the robots the film uses, creating complete personalities, and using them effectively.
The cinematography is well done, thanks to DoP Hoyte Van Hoytema. He's a relative new comer, but there are some impressive titles under his belt such as Her, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, and Let the Right One In. The camera is steady, even when the action gets really going, and lighting is consistently mood setting throughout.
The same cannot be said for Hans Zimmer's score, which is an overbearing attempt to meet halfway between John Williams, Alex North and, weirdly, John Carpenter. It's loud and obnoxious, and dialogue in certain scenes is impossible to hear. At one point the great Micheal Cain is extolling some very plot important dialogue and I couldn't hear a damn word of it. It creates feelings of unease when it doesn't seem necessary, and even when it is appropriate it's just way to damn loud.
In conclusion, Interstellar is a movie that only certain people will like. If you're looking for science fiction closer to Asamov rather then Abrams then this is probably the movie for you. It certainly evokes thoughts of a history long lost, when explorers and adventurers were the stuff of legands, but it's so bogged down in slow dialogue and overly complicated science that it become difficult to enjoy. It's not a bad movie, but it's easily Nolans weakest.
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