With our time on Earth coming to an end, a team of explorers undertakes the most important mission in human history; traveling beyond this galaxy to discover whether mankind has a future among the stars.
Christopher Nolan’s latest film opened this weekend, offering theater-goers the kind of beautiful, hyper-realistic view of outer space made possible by the best special effects available coupled with a compelling story paced along the lines of more recent science fiction offerings like Moon and The Europa Report.
Though anyone with a rudimentary knowledge of science will cringe at my description of Interstellar as realistic science fiction, I do so to differentiate this film from those that are more action/adventure oriented, like Star Trek.
At two hours and forty-nine minutes, Nolan gives those paying movie theater prices their money’s worth, and I for one was riveted to the (BIG) screen for every minute.
Here is where I must admit that, in spite of the title of this post, this in no way will be a proper review. There are two reasons for this: a) it would be far too easy to spoil this film by having any in-depth conversation about it, and b) Interstellar is the kind of film in which I feel compelled to share how I felt about it more than how it played out on screen.
I will quickly point out that the acting was very good, the special effects–as I mentioned–were stunning, and the story hooked me from the beginning and did not let me go.
In terms of pacing I would not be surprised to find some viewers who found the film “slow” and/or “boring”. This story is more realistic in the sense that life is not one long action sequence but is instead a series of seemingly unspectacular events that can culminate in moments that spike the adrenaline and get the heart racing. I applaud Nolan for editing the film in this manner, similar to the way I applaud those who made Moon and The Europa Report. I love to experience that sense of barely-felt tension, right below the surface of what is playing out on screen. You know that something is going to happen, but you are not sure what, or when.
As is apparent in the trailers, Interstellar takes place in a point in our history where the Earth is becoming less and less habitable. It is this need to leave or die that drives the exploration for a new place to call our home. It would have been very easy to present Earth’s demise, or perhaps the Earth’s rejection of us, in strong social/political terms. I found myself grateful throughout the film that this was not the case. Nolan proves that it does not take a heavy, preachy, hand to give viewers something to think about.
There are a variety of takeaways in Interstellar, one being the focus on the relationship between father and daughter and the importance of love. It was this storyline that had the most emotional impact for me, followed closely by what I personally took away from the portion of the film that took place in a “galaxy far, far away”. It is pretty easy to sum up why the personal relationship storyline meant something to me: I’m a father of a daughter and relationships, particularly with those I hold most dear, are of prominent importance to me. I can forgive and overlook much in a story that has a relationship focus.
The impact the film had on me from the aspect of its science fictional elements is harder to get down on paper. It is no where near sufficient as an explanation, but all I can really say with any degree of certainty is that I liked how the science fictional elements of the film made me feel. There was this aspect of the film that involved solitary travel in space that reminded me of so many stories I’ve read and connected to over the years. Walking out of the theater I found myself wanting to go and reread one of my favorite short stories of the past year, The Urashima Effect by E. Lily Yu.
Interstellar also explores how time works differently with space travel, a trope that has been a part of science fiction novels and short stories for a long time, and one that has not gotten old for me despite the number of stories and films I’ve consumed. My greatest compliment for the cast and crew is that Interstellar stirs up the desire to read more science fiction, particularly more classic science fiction. Again, I cannot adequately explain why, but that feeling has been churning in me since seeing the film this past Saturday.
Interstellar looks gorgeous on the big screen. Whether it be a vast field of corn in an otherwise desolate landscape or the black enormity of space, this is a film with visuals that should be seen on the biggest screen you can find. I went to a local theater that has one of the biggest screens around and was pleased with the choice I made.
For those of you who’ve seen the film, I would be happy to have spoiler-filled conversations in the comments below. I ask that you please add the SPOILERS tag to the start of your comment if you do so.
Before signing off I leave you with links to a couple of other reviews of the film. Be warned that these have much more detail in them that may act as spoilers depending on your definition of the word. They are both worth reading if you have seen the film:
I loved that Interstellar was slow and personal, about the love of a father and daughter. I wished the film had had time to go deeper into the second father daughter relationship. I plan to go see Interstellar again on the big screen. It’s a very rich film.
What I really loved about Interstellar is its true sense of science fiction. Sure I have quibbles with it, but it has epic sense of wonder. We need more science fiction movies like this one.
I like that here, and in the comments on your site, you mention the second father-daughter relationship. I had sort of let that wash over me with the focus on the main character. I’ll be keeping a closer eye on that the next time I see it.
I agree, I would like to see so many more science fiction movies like this, despite my love of the more action-packed ones.
I now avoid action movies of any kind. If it’s mainly action I just don’t go. That’s why I’m always surprise when my friends, and even lady friends, complain that movies don’t have enough action. I think they have too much.
I’m reading a book right now, THE SHALLOWS by Nicholas Carr about how the Internet has ruined everyone’s attention span so they can’t read books or even long articles. I think action is doing that for the movies.
I think the internet, and social media in particular, while having some wonderful qualities, have also caused some problems.
On the movie side of things, I think too much action at the expense of story has been present for a long, long time. There are many great writers out there, sadly many production companies don’t appear to be interested in finding great writers. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good action flick, but I want there to be some semblance of a story there…and that doesn’t happen nearly as often as it should.
To me the gold standard for science fiction combined with storytelling is Gattaca. Other good examples are Her and Robot and Frank. For SF action and storytelling, I’d point to The Matrix and Blade Runner.
I think movie makers are trying to turn the theater experience into a thrill ride – something you can’t get at home with your 60″ flat screen TV. Did you notice how loud Interstellar was? If this trend continues there will be fewer movies, and fewer theaters, but they will be big mind blowing experiences. If that happens I’ll probably stop going to the movie. That’s not a criticism of the theater experience, but just an acknowledgement that I’m getting old and don’t care much about thrill rides.
Look what they did to Anna Karenina and The Great Gatsby. They translated story into sights and sounds. That’s cool as long as you get story from other places. But are we raising a generation of humans that only consume spectacle?
Gattaca is great. I have yet to see both Her and Robot and Frank, but both are films I want to see. As is apparent in this post, I’m a big fan of both Moon and The Europa Report, though I’m not sure I’d argue that either has a deep story.
Matrix is a great example of SF action and story…it is a pity the sequels were such a let down in that department.
They had the sound leveled pretty good in our theater. It was loud, but I don’t yet mind loud…though I have been to a couple of ear-bleeders in the past few years that pushed the tolerance threshold.
I just bought a 60 inch and surround sound and it does make me want to have an “experience” to go out and pay movie theater prices…but I don’t want spectacle, I want something that looks gorgeous and does a fair pass at storytelling. Unfortunately too many shows are of the ‘thrill ride’ type. It is one of the reasons I think horror films do so well at the box office. It is a thrill to be scared with a crowd of others, though not one I care to have much anymore.
I’m happy to believe that there are some things happening to fight the spectacle. Like the increasing popularity of table top gaming (thanks to the efforts of Wil Wheaton and others). I think that kind of gaming, the increasing popularity of 5K’s and other types of running/endurance events, etc. give some hope that spectacle is being combated on some level with more “old fashioned”, interactive fun.
Just posted my fairly spoiler free and very rambly review also! I enjoyed everything about this movie. It was slow in parts but I agree that it was meant to be that way and was that way for reason. The science stuff was fun but a bit hard to understand for me. I love talking about it afterward though but find it funny that many just want to say… but but but… how CAN that happen???? I think the appeal of stuff like this is making you think for just a moment that it might COULD happen, no matter how crazy it seems!
SPOILER QUESTION: When he was in the black hole…with all the shelves? There was a a discussion between him and TARS the robot about how they(the shelves) got there. I didn’t get that bit… how do they explain the shelves in the black hole? I understood what they ARE just not how they were THERE!
All I know is this movie begs to be seen again!
Suey, Jim could probably do a better job answering your spoiler question. I just went with it and didn’t pay too much attention to the “how”. Which is pretty much what I do with the science in general as I’m not well versed on the science of space travel, etc. I tend to let that stuff wash over me during the viewing so I can just enjoy the film. It has made me much more interested in getting a little more educated, however, so that is a good thing.
I’ll go check out your review.
Suey, it’s hard to reply without giving a lot of spoilers. The bookshelf room I think was supposed to be a tesseract, where fifth dimension beings represented the 4th dimension to 3rd dimensional beings. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesseract This isn’t true science, but more like mathematical speculation. The concept has been around a very long time. Heinlein used it for “–And He Built a Crooked House–” back in 1941.
The ending of Interstellar will be like the ending of 2001: A Space Odyssey in 1968 – much talked about and speculated on. I plan to see Interstellar again because I think there’s much more suggested than I got in one viewing.
Thanks for the link, Jim. That helps a great deal. I look forward to seeing the film again and also hearing/reading peoples’ thoughts about the end. Wonder how much the Nolan brothers will, or already have, revealed about the ending and what they were trying to say.
I’ve been unsure, based on reviews, if this is worthy of a big screen visit, many reviews have panned the film, giving it C and D grades. But if you and Red both liked it so much, I just may go ahead and blow the bucks.
I’m surprised at the low grades, myself. As long as a person is mature enough to not need SF to be non-stop space battles I cannot imagine how they wouldn’t enjoy it.
There are some films where you just need to ignore the critics. This is one of them for me. Glad to hear you enjoyed it so much! I plan to see it this weekend.
I agree, Kelly. This does have a 74% on Rotten Tomatoes, which is pretty darn good for a SF film.
Hey all, you might find this article interesting. It discusses the science in the film without being high-minded while acknowledging the many great things about the film:
http://www.motherjones.com/media/2014/11/interstellar-movie-science-david-grinspoon-inquiring-minds
By the way, Kip Thorne, a physicist, has written a book for the movie, The Science of Interstellar – http://www.amazon.com/Science-Interstellar-Kip-Thorne/dp/0393351378/
I haven’t read it, but from the table of contents page it seems he finds a lot of science to discuss in this 336 page book.
Thanks for the link. I imagine he does find a lot to write about. There is a lot of science, pseudo-science and outright science FICTION in the film and if he deals with all of those I imagine it would be easy to get carried away. If he writes in layman’s terms, this is one I may need to check out.
I also noticed there’s a novelization out for Interstellar. One reviewer at Amazon said he read it because he couldn’t hear everything that was said in the movie. I’m tempted to get it just to examine the film closely. The sample pages seem to follow the movie bit by bit. It might be an interesting experiment to read the novelization and then see the film a second time.
Like I said in my blog review, this film is a touchstone for discussing the nature of science fiction.
Would be interesting to see if the novelization sheds any more light on things. It has been a long while since I’ve read a film novelization. Used to do it with the Star Wars film novelizations when I was a kid…but in those days there were no VCR’s, so the only way to relive the film outside of imagination was to read the book.
I’m glad you enjoyed it Carl. I found it beautiful, but unfortunately I’m one that found it a tad boring. I wish I could have enjoyed it, because it got so much right in terms of science and focusing on the relationships but it just wasn’t for me.
AS for it being a realistic science-fiction film, I think that is a very accurate description, and if Neil deGrasse Tyson agree with the science behind it the film must be doing something right 🙂
I’m sorry you didn’t enjoy it as much, Fence. I certainly don’t find fault with anyone who found it boring. It is slow, but sometimes that works for me and actually makes me appreciate a film more. Sometimes it doesn’t as well.
I’ve been enjoying learning about the work the production company and film makers did to bring scientists on board early in the process, and throughout. I didn’t know any of that before seeing the film as I was doing everything I could to avoid any hint of a spoiler.
We can’t all enjoy the same things 🙂
I think the science behind the film is really interesting though and the way the extra dimensions were depicted in the film was really good.
Thanks for an honest and introspective review of the film. I know some people were caught off guard by the heaviness and sometimes depressing aspects. And yet – when has Nolan ever made a feel-good film? It had a few holes, but this film prompted my wife and I to discuss it for hours afterwards. It made us think, much like Memento. I thought it was incredibly ambitious and applaud Nolan for tackling such a difficult film.
And I had a difficult time writing the review I posted on Monday. So much that can’t be said, although there is no way anyone would guess how it all comes together.
Thanks Alex, I agree. I haven’t thought about Memento for a long time. Wow, did that film blow me away. I went and saw it with a friend and then turned around that same weekend and took my wife to see it.
Like Rick, I’ve been holding back on seeing INTERSTELLAR because of the mixed reviews. But, now that you have weighed in I plan to see it soon.
It is definitely one for theater viewing, George.
Well, you and Andrea both seem to really like it so that’s pretty much a high recommendation in my book! I confess that I’m not the biggest McConaughey fan but that being said I’ve liked his later films – I need to not let it get in the way. Sometimes I will avoid a really good film for ages based on a fairly flimsy dislike of one actor and then I’ll get over it, watch the film and realise I’ve been really missing out.
Lynn 😀
I’ve done the same thing, Lynn, many times over. MM is not an actor I consider a favorite in any way, as many of the movies he has made are ones I have no desire to see. But of those I have seen, I cannot remember disliking any of them and his performance has always been solid.