I love anything that Christopher Nolan throws out there, but now have reached my breaking point. It first started with "Inception"--I don't know a single person that followed the story the first time, and repeat viewings made it better but the payoff was still not worth it. Then "Man of Steel" came out, and repeat viewings make it better, but it was still underwhelming. The last hour of nonstop destruction didn't help.
And now Interstellar. 20 minutes into this three-hour movie, I knew I was in trouble. First of all, Matthew McConaughey as a NASA pilot-turned-farmer doesn't resonate with me. Maybe it's his Texas drawl, but he doesn't strike me as a NASA pilot. Farmer, yes.
To save earth from impending ecological disaster, NASA sought him out as the ONLY pilot that can pilot some craft and discover a new planet. And once he discovers this planet (estimated minimum time two years of space exploration), then they would evacuate everyone on Earth. Are you kidding me?
His sacrifice would be to abandon his young daughter until he came back, and each year away would rapidly age his daughter. So if he was gone a year and she is 10, she would be at least 33 when he got back, based on some time-space continuum wormhole whatever theory.
I can only say that the movie devolves into an Inception-induced fantasy where different dimensions and realms collide. At one point, he is trapped behind a book case trying to tell his 10 year-old daughter that he came back from the future to let her know that he never left her. Man, I didn't give a crap at that point.
Even the special effects couldn't save this movie. I say "special effects" because Nolan uses very little CGI, and this movie needed cutting-edge effects. After "Gravity", which was beautiful to look at but weak story, digital effects for a space movie must be top-notch. Interstellar's effects looked like an analog tv screen in a DVR world.
Got to give it 63 points out of 100. Very little redeeming value and it over-reached. No one wants to be confused by a space story. At least with Gravity, you knew exactly what the dangers were and also the solutions.
Chris's take…
Considering the amazing things I had heard coming into 'Interstellar', I have to agree with Lee on this in that it was ultimately disappointing. The length of the film became oppressive after a while, the concepts, while initially interesting, eventually devolved into talky goobedly gook, and the thought that the best pilot that ever lived just 'accidentally' stumbled upon this secret NASA facility, and now the guy in charge of this Earth Saving Mission turns over the controls to this cat, like a day before the mission launches, is completely ludicrous.
One of my main issues though was the use of big name actors to do next to nothing. Just as an example, when they unzip the scientist Dr. Mann from his cryo sleep, it's revealed that this guy is being played by Matt Damon. The issue with this is that character is presented as a big reveal, so when this character is presented to us, we don't see Dr. Mann, we're like 'Hey, it's Matt Damon!', which essentially takes you out of the movie. It's like that for a lot of the characters as you kind of wait to see who they have playing what. Hey… It's Casey Affleck! Hey… it's Jessica Chastain! Is that Topher Grace? It just takes one out of the movie.
But far be it from me to question the great Christopher Nolan, whose best movie in my opinion is STILL 'Memento'. I know Batman Fan… fighting words if ever there were fighting words.
