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Nolan has over reached here, too much "tell, not enough "show" (pulled from the Dallas Morning News review and fits the show like a glove). Oh how I wanted to love this. Parts of it were loveable (Jessica Chastain anyone?). However, I'd call it a semi lovable convoluted mess. Interstellar's plot makes Inception's seem like the book, "See Spot Run". Perhaps with subtitles it'll make more sense.
Those who may be a wee bit hard of hearing, you better be ready to concentrate and even then, with the score as loud as it was, you'll miss KEY elements. I thought my high school physics and 2 sophomore level college astronomy classes would leave me well prepared to understand what was going on. Uhhh, nope. There were some pretty loopy physics going on here. Saying anything else about the "physics" or the plot would be spoilers.
Worth a watch for the "wow!!" moments (there were quite a few, especially the portrayal of other worlds) but don't go expecting to see the Next Big Thing in profundity.
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The movie tried to tread on the heels of other greats before it - starting with 2001 but failed miserably.
Stupid beginning - emotional outbreaks to further the plot which didn't make much sense - with such a weak script maybe "Better" actors couldn't be convincing.
Too many plot twists / questions left unanswered. Certain special effects VERY good - but again seemed to be "borrowing from the past"
WAY TOO LOUD music crescendo's.
I equate this movie with a most current entertainment; vapid; shallow; narcissistic; mere shadow
Left me squirming in my seat - if I wasn't there treating my son - would have left quite early.
Charles
Nolan may have overreached but he still hit the ball well out of the park. Those complaining about such films as Prometheus lacking a cohesive beginning middle and end will have little to complain about here, and the theme was more organic and humane.
When Nolan hammered the thesis at the film's climax it punched me in the gut with raw emotion (and no, the thesis wasn't the Dylan Thomas quote). If you have a daughter and that is what life is about to you, this film will bring you to your knees. The wormhole and binary code from beyond the horizon of space, time and gravity is tantamount to the "well" in Murakami's Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, wherein the protagonist is driven to a metaphysical place from where he tries to contact his loved one.
It mirrors the human condition and rings true when handled with authority and poetic license, and Nolan is certainly gifted on both counts. A total powerhouse work, and even if you don't connect to the emotions of it, it's a helluva ride. Made Gravity look like much ado about nothing.
....in this film. The "human level" aspects of this film did dominate the surface. And with the physics of Einstein's theory multiplying the years of separation (for those remaining at home)it seemed only to add grief and depression for the astronauts.The movie was over-wrought with honey dripping emotions of love, grief and depression. With the astronauts what hope there was from the onset became systematically replaced with depressing news. At a critical juncture what should have been a calculated choice of destination among our astronauts was chiefly driven by emotion.
And it seemed that the ultimate salvation for the human race was not "plan A" as had been envisioned. Plan B did succeed. But that is where the movie gets complicated. Messages sent via Morse Code to the second hand of a mechanical watch from Coop to Murph. But by means of a 5th dimensional Tesseract where, from within, time and space can be crossed. Depicted as the insides of (between the shelves) a library. But to activate the second hand of Murph's mechanical watch assistance from the crews robot Tars was necessary.
Ultimately I was not involved with the events of this movie. Rather, I was repelled by the depression of it and found myself not really caring one way or the other about the outcome.
A downer of a movie.
-Steve
Edits: 11/10/14
...plan A that triumphed with gravity added into the equation, how did Murph and her entire family get there?
Right you are. See my post just below. 2nd viewing helps to clarify.
But now I'm $30 into this IMAX movie.
-Steve
I'm not sure how you can say the film was depressing when in the end humanity triumphed, Cooper was reunited with his daughter, sadly he had missed her whole life, but she had clearly led a life of success and was surrounded by her family at the end. She also basically told him to hook up with Brand to have the life he was meant to have, and that's exactly what he was doing when the film ended. Had Mann (Matt Damon) destroyed the ship or killed Cooper, I could definitely understand your point that it was too depressing but the film's first and final acts were a high note of optimism. I didn't think the physics (time and gravity) emphasis was particularly important. Nolan gave just enough of that and the special effects of space to draw in the viewer, no more and no less.
"........but the film's first and final acts were a high note of optimism."
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Yeah, the mood, lighting and background music indicated a positive vibe. That there was success. That Murph read the code and was able to re-calculate the formula successfully and that changed the course of Earth history.
Then there they were living in a kind of 'ring-world' kind of space station in orbit around Saturn. I did not catch any mention of what had become of Earth and its billions of people. But I presume Earth was abandoned and only the lucky few associated with NASA were able to migrate to the new off world stations. Which I take to mean that it was Plan B they went with.
Further, Coop found himself living in a constructed replica of his old Earth farmhouse. He did not spend too much time in that rocking chair. No, he confiscated a spacecraft and took off for the last known location of Dr. Brand (Hathaway). I did not see any optimism in that final scene. Only the act of a man who figured he did not belong on that space station with the descendents of his family.
So much misery.
-Steve
I'm not sure how you came to any of those conclusions. Plan B was for the astronaughts who had reached the other inhabitable planet through the wormhole to populate that planet through artificial means (test tube babies). That didn't happen. Murph was able to set up a safe planet inside the galaxy and pursue plan A.
Coop didn't stay in the house for more than a cursory time and was taken there to see that the house had become a museum/novelty. Murph, on her deathbed, had told Coop to go rescue Brand, the obvious motivation being to have a life and family the way you're supposed to. He didn't confiscate the ship. Murph had arranged for him to go get Brand just as she had arranged for the farm house to be made into a museum.
I just returned from a second viewing. First viewing had me on sensory overload and I missed observing some of the key events. For what it is worth, some of the dramatic moments do seem over-wrought. But the film does mean to play to the emotional aspects. One has to accept it as such.Yes. Plan A did succeed. By solving the gravity issue, Murph was able to figure how to get the underground space station off Earth. And with it however many people from the planet could go with. However unlikely that may seem
Also the movie ended on a note of hope. Dr. Brand did continue on to Edmund's planet and in the final sequences it was seen that there was breathable atmosphere. She had set up camp. And now Coop was on his way to join her. Real hope there. The beginnings of a human colony on a habitable planet somewhere across the universe.
On the second viewing the events within the Tesseract made more sense. If there is anything that makes sense about a Tesseract.
Also, your comments regarding the message of love and human emotion became more clear. In the movie it was those aspects that worked to motivate Murph into doing her part.
From the beginnings of the movie it was clear that Earth was to be abandoned. The question was what would happen to the human population of Earth. I can't say the movie fully addresses this at the conclusion, or maybe I missed that too.-Steve
Edits: 11/10/14
You have an advantage over me in that you've seen it twice and I'm going by memory of only seeing it once. But it seemed clear to me that by solving the problems of space, time and gravity, Murph/NASA were able to transfer the entire population of Earth to a huge area (space station or moon?) orbiting Saturn not far from the wormhole.When Cooper flies off to rescue Brand at the end, the implication to me is not that he'll stay there with her but that he'll bring her back to the new Earth to have a family and a normal life with her. That would be the life he missed when he had to spend all his time fighting dust, when his wife died and he then abandoned his family to take the weight of saving the world on his shoulders. This new life and new chance at love was Murph's dying wish for him.
That was mindblowing too, to have the daughter older than the father and the parenting roles almost reversed. Murph had lived a full life and was a grandmother who obviously was involved in her family, whereas Cooper hadn't experienced that even though he wanted to and had learned the hard way that's what life is all about.
Edits: 11/11/14
would have no more success than those from the New World had in being populated by those from Europe.
And would not intelligence sufficient to create all that technology be able to do something as simple as contract what Buckminster Fuller designed decades ago, i.e. a huge canopy covering massive metro areas and protected, artificial agricultural areas?
I suppose some guys spent weeks thinking about "Inception," another overwrought effort: why bother? It's not "Hamlet." Making a narrative purposefully complex, when it doesn't have that much to say even when deconstructed, is a sign of weakness.
The Nolan "Batman" films worked--- they were straightforward enough. So did "Memento," largely because of the brilliant acting of Guy Pearce.
An over-reliance on "Wow!" dooms "Interstellar." It tries to pound the audience into submission.
Edits: 11/10/14
You're thinking too hard, Tin.Inception had a very simple thesis--that you could influence someone to the core by planting a thought in their head. We've all done this or feared this, where if we said something that was taken so seriously and deeply by someone else that it would alter all future interaction and the course of a relationship or life.
Interstellar also had a very simple thesis that built on the inception thesis. Best summarized when Coop said, "I promise to come back for you." Nolan always builds a complex plot around his theses, like layers of an onion, but his real gift -- what he does so well -- is he makes it relatable on the human level so that at the climax he can strip it all down to that core thesis.
Sure enough, when Murph was asked how she knew Coop was coming home, how she knew to keep trying after Caine's deathbed confession that he had no intention of solving the problem, and how she knew to not give up and walk out of that room without the answer...sure enough she said she knew because her dad had promised her he'd come back for her.
It was their love for each other that made it happen, and by hammering that at the climax with the right words, visuals and music, Nolan again elevated his film making. He has it down to a science and formula himself and it works. Very similar to Prestige, which also involved a key to deciphering a "real" magic trick, and a daughter being returned to her rightful guardian.
I won't get into Nolan's Batman trilogy. All three were great films that elevated the superhero genre. But I didn't care for Memento. Any film that uses nonlinear time as a gimmick like that (or like Pulp Fiction) just makes me feel like the director lacked the ability to make the story interesting if told sequentially and it bugs the crap out of me to see this approach taken, but that's more of a personal pet peeve.
Edits: 11/11/14
...and liked it a lot.
No Gravity or 2001, but interesting and entertaining none the less even with the near 3 hour running time.
I saw it on a large XD screen and it was very LOUD, although I could make out most of the dialogue.
There are still some things in the plot that don't make sense or I found very strange, even with the Inception scene toward the end, but overall I'd give it 4 out of 5 stars.
Great effort, almost a home run - one of the most ambitious and best films of the year.
From Washington Post review:
(One of “Interstellar’s” producers is the theoretical physicist Kip Thorne, whose research undergirds many of the film’s most fascinating ideas about time and gravity.).
Thorne as I mentioned previously was the one who suggested to Carl Sagan he change the mode of transport from black hole to worm hole. Ironically perhaps it is also Kip Thorne who wrote in his book about gravity and worm holes that effectively worm holes won't work as they are depicted in films such as this one.
I just returned from the multi-plex. Saw it in IMAX. The sound system was set to "LOUD". However it seemed that, mostly, it was the lower frequencies that were amped up. Amped up enough to rattle yer insides. The loud sound system did not hurt my ears. I thought the 'rattle yer guts' effect helped to create the illusion that we in the audience were going along for the ride. And at times it did feel like some kind of experience. At other times it had me standing back and analyzing what was happening up on the screen.It is a science fiction movie 'with' the science. Or maybe it just wants to tell the audience that it is a sci-fi movie 'with' the science. Einstein's Theory on Relativity is explored. At the speed of light and greater, the time experienced by the travelers is not the same as time for those who stay at home. A major theme in this 70mm flick.
At movie's end, and with every seat in the theater taken, there was some minor applause. But it seemed that the majority of movie goers seemed to choose not to applaud. For myself I chose not.
At this point I can't say what I think about the film. Was it a great movie? Was it a profound sci-fi movie? Is it a movie that when it comes out on Blue-Ray will I buy a copy? I'm undecided on the first two but on that last one I just may take a pass.
I do think it was a sci-fi movie that 'wanted' to be profound in a Kubrick sort of way. But right now I am not whole-heartedly thinking that it succeeded.
Pretty good visuals. Not Great, just pretty good. Acting was good. Some characters had my sympathy. Obviously a big budget film. Well produced. Top quality visuals. A-list actors. Who cares. meh
-Steve
Edits: 11/10/14
may notice towards the end of the film a book sticking out on Murph's self with the partial title of "...Willoughby."
Still spinnin'...
;^)
boring, a lot of mumbo jumbo without the mumbo. In other words, a 3 hour movie that never quite achieves lift-off.
The same as Batman 3, I couldn't hear a damned thing during the drama/action sequences. It's time Nolan learned to use his directing and actors to amp up the action rather than have the sound engineer do it. What is it with this guy?
The movie left me in a state of okay but certainly not impressed nor knocked over. SPOILAGE: Too long, Matt Damon's sequence should have hit the editing floor. It served nothing in advancing the cause of the story. Plus, points off for Nolan using 'Inception' CGI to WOW us with. Not so wowed, myself. The real star was the three-legged robot and his ability to do anything despite his cumbersome shape.
I was not too impressed with the script which is ESSENTIAL to space movies because if you've seen ONE good space movie you have seen them all. This just didn't have the gab or story to come forward as best space movie of all time. Based on what I saw Nolan is getting into the one-trick-pony saddle. Chris, don't recycle all your stuff, k?
Well, I now turn it over to all the Internet Pseudo Scientists to discuss every detail and nuance of the science presented and misrepresented. It's only a movie, boys, it ain't even Prometheus.
Come again? The whole story was about a man sacrificing himself for humanity, his daughter, his colleague and his pursuit of truth.
Juxtapose that with Matt Damon's story which was about a man potentially sacrificing the future of mankind for his own selfishness and lies.
...ok, Michael Caine didn't age over the 30 something years - he looked the same in his first scenes as when he died.Why was Caine expecting Murph to show up so he could fly the ship?
How did Coop make the watch's second hand send the message to Murph and what was the message?
What did Murph discover that changed space travel - after all it appeared they just built space stations outside Saturn's rings, not through the wormhole. That was only a 2 year trip when Coop made it and they already had hibernation.
When Murph was on her deathbed, why didn't the rest of her family acknowledge Coop?
How did Coop know how to fly the small ship from the future?
Edits: 11/09/14
I noticed Caine not looking older. Maybe there was no way to actually make him look older? I dunno.
I noticed the presumption on the part of Caine but didn't give it much thought. Maybe Nolan will make a movie on that: "Presumption".
The magic watch was the work of TARS I thought. Coop just had the idea. It would have been a doo-doo load of data for him to remember.
Murph corrected the gravity formula. Remember Caine faked the end of it so it would look like he was stumped. When I first saw the formula on the chalkboard I knew it was incorrect and wouldn't work.
Murph's kids didn't know that much about him. They would have been looking for some old fart.
"THEY", who Coop thought was really themselves, apparently tucked him right back into the ship. When he shook hands with Hathaway he was on his way back before he even got there.
This whole thing sets up cycles of endless repeats.
PS. Those nice space colonies couldn't possibly have accommodated billions of earth people. SO, Plan B was always in place.
...the gravity formula correction Murph discovers led to what exactly?
I got all that about Caine faking it, but unless they were going to colonize a planet in the wormhole, I don't understand the relevance of the formula to what they ended up doing just outside Saturn.
I got the part about his hand that Hathaway saw on the ship.
"They" were the beings through the wormhole living in 5 dimensions instead of our 3, who left the wormhole for them to find. Coop passed the ship (in time) as "they" were taking him to the hospital room on the new space station.
Plan B was starting a colonization with the frozen embryos and astronauts on board.
If it wasn't Plan A that happened, how did Murph and her whole family end up there?
...ok, so I figure adding the 5th dimension, gravity, to solve the equation is what allowed Plan A to progress with everyone leaving earth to the string of space stations which were created near Saturn.
The space station was spherical and the bent gravity allowed the baseball to arc up to a window at the top.
Makes perfect sense...
Ok, Coop hijacks a craft and decides to go find the apparently lonely Brand. In the next feature he will land, hook up with her, and have kids. The tentative title is: 'Insertion'.
grip in the theater. I'm gonna stay with my 7 rating I gave it at IMDB just for the effort and spectacle. But this sumbitch breaks down on close inspection.
Spoiler -
Damon's character was out of synch with the rest of the movie, kinda like Tim Robbins' character in the War of the Worlds' remake. Not as bad but the character added what exactly?
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I can hear that after movies are over. Gooowleee, that was great!
...I thought Damon's character added a nice twist.Coop's bad choice was a counterpoint to Hathaway's at the previous planet (how did he survive so long without oxygen?) and provided more edge of the seat drama as Damon escapes and then they have to dock.
And it moved the plot along - not enough fuel so where could they go and what would they do next?
Edits: 11/09/14
Dr. Mann also provided a key proof-point to Brand's thesis that love had to enter into the equation somewhere. Without love, scientists like Mann are nothing but self-serving black holes themselves.The idea that the Mann sequence was filler or just to move things along is totally wrong. The message is that it takes love to save humanity, and that's what Mann lacked.
relativity, like this:
blah blah gravity mumble mumble time something something space blah blah relativity blah blah....
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they go where no imagination has gone before. Muahahahahaha.
Carl Sagan's original Contact was going to use a black hole as the means for Ellie to get to Vega but we all know how that would have worked out. Even though Kip Thorne suggested to Carl he use a wormhole as the means in his novel to get to Vega instead of a black hole he knew deep down inside wormholes are totally unreliable and probably not even real. At least the science in Alien and Prometheus makes sense. :-)
Edits: 11/08/14
...the other issue the film addresses is Einstein's theory about time slowing at the speed of light, unlike Star Wars, Star Trek and other sci-fi films.
Nolan's films, I always struggle to her the dialog...
Going to give this another look...more so a listen...
Thanks
Mark
I have problems with dialog in his movies as well. I liked Inception a lot more when I was able to see the subtitles.
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The only part where I struggled to hear the dialog was when MC was on his deathbed. There was a young couple whispering behind me for 2/3rds of the movie until things got really hairy with good ol' Matt Damon. Speaking of which, he was perfectly cast.
See linky Greg
Go over to the Interstellar thread on Hoffman's bored where civilians and pros weigh in. Perhaps there has been a fix prior to your seeing it.
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Add to that the crowd noises, and I miss things on most movies. I miss things on every first viewing, both audio and video. Good movies that are dense and have much meaning can be mined for new content dozens of times. That's why I enjoy movies that reward repeat viewings.
But the idea that Nolan's films, densely layered in every way (emotionally, intellectually, audio, video, etc.) are going to be resolved by most cinema audio systems is a bit oversimplistic. The real problem is that no one in a single viewing is going to fully understand or catch everything in a film that the Nolan brothers and an entire crew of hundreds of people dedicated a year or more of their lives to.
Heck, I go to jazz clubs and am appalled at their sound systems, and those are much better than the average movie theater. Really, it isn't until I see a film four or five times in the privacy of my home that I can say I've caught everything. I commend Nolan for striving for multilayered audio production and not mixing it for FM radio just to please some asshole critics on opening day.
The time dilation occurs on a reference frame moving near light speed relative to a reference frame at rest. The intriguing thing is that the system at rest can also be considered the one moving and the other system can be the one at rest. It's all relative. So, what does that mean? Well, it means that the astronaut who goes out at near light speed and returns to find everyone has aged much faster than he has might find that he was the one to age faster. It depends on which system you pick to be the one at rest relative to the other one. That's the time contraction paradox.
Edits: 11/06/14
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the emotional punch in the gut of Contact (not withstanding a couple of big time lump in yer throat moments).
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...one gave it 3 out of 4 stars saying it was visionary, but the ending was weak, that the plot twists were too simple/obvious and it was too long.
The other gave it 3-1/2 stars saying that even at its length it was a space opera worthy of Kubrick.
At 2 hours 49 minutes, one said be sure to use the restroom before it starts.
...gave it 5 out of 5 and said don't miss it.
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I was hoping for some good words on this one.
Not that it matters much. I'm going to see it anyway.
Apology to Will Rogers; I never met a wormhole I didn't like.
There were some very good parts. I'm bettin there'll be very few "pans", but a lot ofs, "it was a near miss at greatness".
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Casting was good across the bored with the possible exception of Anne Hathaway. Any of dozens of actresses could have done as well or better.
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and she can be mousy to scary without make up (not as bad as Diaz).
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and needs to keep to the light side of film (which she pretty much does).
McKenzie Foy, looks like she'll be a player in the years to come. Looks like a young Anne Hathaway
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her emoting and looks will take her far.
was Marvelous.Hathaway was -----present and accounted for-----
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Edits: 11/07/14
everything. He must be the hardest working actor in the business, even at his age.
It hasn't started here, btw; I assume it's coming on Friday.
McConaughey & Chastain. Miscasting? Dunno. I was just left feeling someone else could have done a better job, Bullock, Cottilard, Theron, etc? Interested in your post movie comments.
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