Interstellar - Movie Review

                

            In 1968, an American film that changed cinema forever was released. Decades ahead of its time, the film was misunderstood and not regarded well at first. It was a highly complicated film, but once you can understand the thinking behind the making of it, the countless themes, messages, ideas, and questions regarding the human race can be discerned. Many people believe it to be one of the best films of all time. It is in fact my favorite film. That movie is 2001: A Space Odyssey.

            In Interstellar, we are in a futuristic world in which the Earth is dying. Many companies have been shut down; the military in America is no longer there. There doesn’t seem to be much governing going on, but the people in this part of America are trying to keep some form of society going. Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) was a pilot before the Earth stopped being able to grow plants. He is now, like everyone else, a farmer/engineer. But he is obsessed with planes and things that fly. Mackenzie Foy plays his daughter, Murph, at the age of ten. When she is at this age, Cooper accidentally stumbles upon the last part of NASA, which no one knows exists anymore. When the few people still working for NASA find out that he is one of the best pilots they can get, Cooper is sent away from his family on a mission to go through a wormhole to find a planet that can support life in order to save the human race.

            In the paragraph above, you will find my attempt at the description of the plot. But this is not a film that can be summarized in a paragraph, or even two. There is so much more to this movie than above, even in the beginning. But I will not say so, due to my saying it possibly ruining the movie for anyone who will want to see it.

            Brand (Anne Hathaway) is one of the few other people that accompany Cooper on the mission. She is the daughter of Professor Brand (Michael Caine) who is basically the leader of all of this. Jessica Chastain plays Cooper’s daughter Murph at… Jessica Chastain’s age. This movie jumps some time in relation to how long Cooper and the others are on their mission.

            Now, to get into my opinion, you know I love this movie. The first paragraph of this review may seem irrelevant, but after seeing the movie, it is obvious that the screenwriters (Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan) and the director (Christopher Nolan) took a large amount of influence from 2001: A Space Odyssey. There are many shots that seem like Stanley Kubrick was behind them. And the overall themes and ideas of Interstellar very much relate to some of those in 2001: A Space Odyssey.

            There are many messages having to do with the overall purpose of mankind. Some of these ideas have to do with the ingenuity of the race. Some have to do with the folly. There are differing views on how to keep the race alive present in different characters. Which should we go with? Which is the right one? That is what the film asks us. Different emotions are put in the ideas of the film and the relevance of them is questioned. But there is evidence put on both sides. The question is put on us, the audience. There are many ideas present in this film and they are all expressed to the near full extent.

            Interstellar also has a lot of very smart writing not having to do with the universal themes. Thought-provoking ideas are also shown in the science of it. Interstellar travel is not mastered easily. There are things that must be mastered for it to happen and the scientists have to do some literal rocket science to figure out how to pull it off. Time and gravity and very much put in the film and I found the science of it intriguing. It was another good element to mix in with the greatness of the movie.

            As for the making of the movie, Interstellar is masterful. Christopher Nolan does an absolutely incredible job directing this movie. It all feels so under control and well done to the point where it seems like these things could really happen. Nolan’s notorious editing sequences are definitely in the movie; and they are as powerful as they have been. Nolan’s style plays into making the movie a non-stop thrill-ride. His homage to Stanley Kubrick and his film 2001: A Space Odyssey is impressive. And his vision of the movie along with its ideas helps to imbed these themes into the film even more.

            This movie is highly original. I could not feel a beat coming. And that is thanks to the script. It’s truthfully a great screenplay. There are some really fantastic dialogue sequences. And as already mentioned, the scientific elements are brilliant. The plot is thought-out and so well realized through the script. It gets just about everything right.

            The cinematography is beautiful and Hans Zimmer’s score is magnificent. It’s a very original score and it adds so much to the film. The music is not recognizably Hans Zimmer’s. This is a very different score of his. It adds a lot. And with Wally Pfister not being the cinematographer of the movie because of his desire to direct a terrible one (Transcendence), I was wary of the cinematography. I wasn’t sure it would be up to par with Pfister’s at all. And I’m not sure if it’s as good as Pfister’s, but the cinematography is fantastic. And the visuals in space are great. They are very imaginative and inventive. And they also look somewhat realistic.

            One of the things that surprised me most about the film is the acting. Every single performance, even Mackenzie Foy as ten-year-old Murphy, is great. Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Michael Caine, Jessica Chastain… All of the leads were great in both their dramatic, emotional performance and their acting chops.

            With all the praise I’m giving Interstellar, you might be wondering why it doesn’t get an A+ and something closer to a 10.0/10 than a 9.0/10. That is because I do have a flaw - and quite a large one, actually. It’s the last fifteen minutes of the movie. At one point something big was about to happen, and I thought that the movie was about to take a turn that could either be awful or fantastic. It turned out the turn was not awful, but still bad. Once it took the turn, I predicted every reveal that would happen in the scene and I predicted correctly. At that point, the movie almost left its themes and it certainly strayed away. I thought that it went too far and could’ve stuck with something else. It took a wrong turn. Its reach escaped its grasp. Luckily, that was the only wrong turn in the plot and the ending came soon after, so the loss of much enjoyment from me in that scene did not screw up the entire second half of the movie. Only the last few minutes.

            Overall, Interstellar is a fantastic movie. Yes, its ending was bad, which was a shame; but other than that, all elements were amazing. It hits in every category, delivers in every way. There are messages to be deciphered and ideas to think about. It makes us think about ourselves as a race, not quite so good as 2001: A Space Odyssey did, but don’t expect it to outdo one of the best movies ever made. It serves its purpose as a movie. There is but one part some entertainment was lost. And that was the end.