Review of Interstellar (2014) by Nathan E — 14 Dec 2015

Interstellar is an understandably divisive film: Some praise it blindly for being a Christopher Nolan film, others deride it for various reasons ranging from plot to the third act. While I do like many of Nolan's films, I don't consider myself a Nolan fanboy (or a fanboy of any directors) and I judge a film solely on its merits.

For the most part, Interstellar is an exciting and interesting film with big ideas and bigger set pieces. Parts of the film do remind me of other (great) films like Gravity, Sunshine, Prometheus, and especially 2001: A Space Odyssey. But unlike 2001 (a movie I personally still don't understand), Interstellar is pretty straightforward about its science.

But it's not without its faults: There are several illogical moments (why was the military disbanded? How are there no food riots? Shouldn't the world be more like Mad Max?) that could have been explored a bit better while trimming a bit from its three-hour runtime. A third-act revelation that is fascinating is also confounded with more questions (Is love really a scientific phenomenon?) and the final few minutes of the movie really make no sense and even question much of the movie (Perhaps an attempt to be like Inception?). There's also a great score that I heard would overcome the dialogue, but it wasn't as big a problem as I expected, because it wasn't dialogue integral to the plot of the film so much as just parts of the scene that could still hear, but low. And the cast - save for Matthew McConaughey, who was exceptional - was just okay.

Interstellar is a slow-burn of a film that could have been trimmed down a lot and still make sense, but considering I had low expectations, I think I could be able to watch this film again and enjoy the ideas and theories explored.