Ratings: 9.8/10
Film Class: A
Genre: Sci Fi Action
Interstellar is an intergalactic mix of stellar storyline, stellar performances and stellar soundtrack. The movie's about a gifted astronaut who was tasked to lead a team into a newly found wormhole which would allow humans to travel light years away to find another habitable planet. Set in a futuristic world where humans are threatened with frequent dust storms, Interstellar is guaranteed to make you laugh, cry and be blown away by the script and cast performances. The movie spans over a few dimensions, mentioning up to even the 5th dimension, and the dreary, at times sinister sounding soundtrack completes this blockbuster with a "6th dimension".
I was surprised to be laughing quite a bit, with the witty one-two liners throughout the entire movie, a much needed relief, because most of the time, I was either teary-eyed or clenching my fist balling myself into a corner of my seat because it was a rollercoaster ride alright. The believable chemistry sparked by the stellar cast was really crucial in touching that "chord", and once the director nailed it, he knew he could focus on the sci-fi part and ultimately the seat-gripping action part. Explanations were quick, but precise, and director Christopher Nolan wasted no time in progressing the storyline.
I was pleasantly surprised to see a familiar face, actually many, but that one particular actor who wasn't featured in any of the trailers helped add brownie points to this already amazing movie. There were a couple of twists here and there and my advice is to stop now, if you haven't already watched the movie to go catch it first because it's best viewed not knowing what you're in for.
Interstellar is my number one sci-fi movie. Hands down, and I'm confident it will stay at the top of my list for a long while. The CG wasn't "Gravity" like, it wasn't state-of-the-art, at some point, I thought I even saw traditional props being used to create the space effects. But it was obviously a deliberate, well thought-of decision because the seemingly grainy graphics added realism to the out-of-the-world storyline, and in that, sucking the audience into a blackhole of the unknown.
Relativity, wormholes, the 4th dimensions are all tricky topics to address in any movie because it's bound to be subjected to criticism, but Christopher Nolan was so bold he literally "threw" the concepts right smack at our faces, take it, or leave it. But in doing that, he managed to create a movie experience like no other. I was so impressed with the storyline my reactions towards it was converted into denial... that I could not believe a movie of this calibre could even be made.
A definitely must-watch. A masterpiece.
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*warning, major major spoilers ahead. Do not read on if you haven't caught the movie*
Christopher Nolan has his "trademark" scenes, reminiscence of "Inception", the floating around (extremely apt cos it's in space!) and the warping of the landscapes. I have an inverted commas for trademark because I think they're only seen in Inception and not his other well known movies such as The Dark Knight... though the cast featured familiar faces, such as Ann Hathaway and Michael Cain.
I thought the main theme of the movie wasn't about saving the world, that's only secondary to "love". It wasn't until towards the end when Ann Hathaway took off her astronaut's helmet to get a breath of fresh air in another world that got me thinking... perhaps the ultimate moral of the story was love. That it can be felt, but not proven, just like religion, the so-called "feel", which was why I term it the "6th dimension" as above, thanks to the soundtrack.
There were 3 options for them to choose from, and all 3 were chosen by the time the credits rolled. The choices of which seemingly liveable planets to shuttle to given the lack of space fuel. The first was a bad choice, an interesting world of water, but they were supposedly only given 1 other choice to choose from. Of the other two, there was a more logical and practical choice, which the crew ultimately did go to, but the 3rd and last planet was only visited by Ann Hathaway at the end. Rem the removing of the helmet part? There was a particular scene in which she explained she felt was the right choice because it was love that drove her to make that choice. Well, apparently it seemed, that the choice was right afterall - a different, alternate route, with the same outcome - the preservation of humanity. Both Matthew McConaughey and Ann Hathaway eventually took different routes, but with similar desirable outcomes.
Also, I believe there's also a part about the bond with robots. It wasn't until re-checking out of the trailers just (cos I wanted to see if that well-known actor I mentioned above did appear in any of the trailers) that I was able to revisit this particular scene at the start that Matthew McConaughey said that robots can't adapt. That statement of his proved that he lacked empathy towards machines, or robots, and can be seen with his earlier conversations, but eventually a friendship with robots was built, seen towards the end.
At the beginning of the film, it started with a narration of an elderly woman (and some others), assumed to be the daughter of Matthew McConaughey which kinda "spoilt" the ending because I figured out a crucial twist in the movie, the "ghost" the younger her spoke of. However, even though it turned out as I had predicted, it was the build up that got to me. The so-called possibilities seemed so bleak that at some point I doubted that it could even lead to that outcome, but it did.
Though full attention has to be given to ensure that you're able to grasp the storyline (try not to miss their conversations), but overall it wasn't too taxing a film as long as you're not an over-thinker or a major critic of interstellar travel.
I thought it was a digestible mainstream blockbuster which is set to impress both the young, and old, regardless of gender and knowledgeability.
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(PS.: On second viewing, I realise there's almost no jarring loopholes. The backstory was such that Matthew McConaughey crashed during his flight into the stratosphere (dream scene at the start, and there was a line about it somewhere in the film about the rest of the "astronauts not even going pass the simulators"), and that when he was finally found at the end, it was because the Cooper station was orbiting near Saturn, where the wormhole was. He apparently was floating around in outer space when two blinking lights (the station) found him after the "tesseract" (extra dimensional space after passing through the blackhole) collapsed.
The lines in the "tesseract" were gravity lines, subjected to manipulation and where the connection to the watch which he gave his daughter was possible since gravity was supposedly a constant in time. So eventually time didn't alter or anything of that sort in the end, all that happened was that the so-called anti-gravity equation was solved, hence lifting the station into space, which would eventually orbit around Saturn, and hence, save Matthew McConaughey.
Also, the 2 different sets of robot voices I thought I had initially heard wasn't due to a change in voice-over... but because there were 2 robots on board the ship. One was the "auto-pilot", the other was the one following the astronauts around - the humorous one.
The time-loop paradox was still prevalent, that if in the first place had he succeeded in communicating to his daughter in the "tesseract", he wouldn't have ended where he would in the first place - none of the past would have happened. And if he had indeed gone into the "tesseract" the first time round and not succeed, it would mean that his "2nd time" there, was possibly an alternate reality. But if it was indeed an alternate reality, then there would have been too many variables to factor in. However, I'll close my case on this chicken-and-egg reasoning and bask in the beauty of this one-of-a-kind space odyssey...)
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(PS.: On second viewing, I realise there's almost no jarring loopholes. The backstory was such that Matthew McConaughey crashed during his flight into the stratosphere (dream scene at the start, and there was a line about it somewhere in the film about the rest of the "astronauts not even going pass the simulators"), and that when he was finally found at the end, it was because the Cooper station was orbiting near Saturn, where the wormhole was. He apparently was floating around in outer space when two blinking lights (the station) found him after the "tesseract" (extra dimensional space after passing through the blackhole) collapsed.
The lines in the "tesseract" were gravity lines, subjected to manipulation and where the connection to the watch which he gave his daughter was possible since gravity was supposedly a constant in time. So eventually time didn't alter or anything of that sort in the end, all that happened was that the so-called anti-gravity equation was solved, hence lifting the station into space, which would eventually orbit around Saturn, and hence, save Matthew McConaughey.
Also, the 2 different sets of robot voices I thought I had initially heard wasn't due to a change in voice-over... but because there were 2 robots on board the ship. One was the "auto-pilot", the other was the one following the astronauts around - the humorous one.
The time-loop paradox was still prevalent, that if in the first place had he succeeded in communicating to his daughter in the "tesseract", he wouldn't have ended where he would in the first place - none of the past would have happened. And if he had indeed gone into the "tesseract" the first time round and not succeed, it would mean that his "2nd time" there, was possibly an alternate reality. But if it was indeed an alternate reality, then there would have been too many variables to factor in. However, I'll close my case on this chicken-and-egg reasoning and bask in the beauty of this one-of-a-kind space odyssey...)
