Interstellar

"Mankind was born on earth, it was never meant to die here."

From what I can go on, Interstellar seems to have divided audiences slightly. Not on a great level like 2001 or Blade Runner did upon their release, but it has split some of its biggest fans much more than I expected. One might argue that Interstellar drifts between, an explorative journey that will take the viewer further than any other science fiction adventure before it and a film stuffed with too many ideas and a narrative disconnect.

In the distant future the Earth is dying, massive shortages of basic resources have made living conditions impossible. To make matters worse the only produce left is starting to die as well. The only chance for humanity is a mission to discover another habitable planet  by voyaging through a wormhole.

Interstellar is a quintessential Christopher Nolan film. He could be the only recent director to have his name become a vocabulary, the term Nolanising refers to adding more realism, and that is certainly present in Interstellar. It takes two years just to reach the wormhole in the first place, that is just one harsh inevitable fact that is unavoidable. As well as this the film is undoubtedly beautiful, its director puts a truly seamless blend of practical and CGI effects. There’s a pioneering effort to combine all elements of filmmaking that have come to define modern films at their best.

As well as being thrilling Interstellar manages to play with some heavy and head-scratching theories of time. Don’t mistake this for a time travel film, but the concept of time itself is a major part in adding to the tension the film generates. These theories are based mostly on real scientific theories but you can easily pinpoint the moments where realism is abandoned in favour of plot devices. The last act feels a bit disconnected. It breaks away from the narrative and plausibility that the rest of the film maintains really well. But then again this is called science-‘fiction’. You can add more fantastical elements alongside the space travel and science mumbo-jumbo.

Much of this story delves into the realm of the unknown. Inevitably you will draw similarities between this and Kubrick’s masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey. Rather than asking questions that you do not know the answers to though, Interstellar seems that ask questions that you do not know how to say in the first place. Near the end it seems to defy its own laws of logic, or at least rearrange them to suit its own plot. But like I said before, what is the point of making a film like this if you are going to abide perfectly by the laws of physics. And without wanting to spoil it, but no one really knows what would really happen should the events depicted actually be carried out.

This film is perfectly cast and every performance works. That is a simple fact. Michael Cane delivers, so does Ann Hathaway. But without a doubt Matthew McConaughey is the stound-out actor here. He leads this film as well as he has any other of his recent comeback, it makes you glad that he did make a comeback. He plays Cooper, a single dad and that is normally an annoying cliché in a disaster scenario. But here the relationship between Cooper and his daughter is the driving force of this film, it’s what motivates the main character and their relationship spans across the cosmos to such a point where you want Cooper to succeed purely for her sake, never mind the rest of humanity.

Additionally the soundtrack is really effective, like hairs-on-the-back-of-your-neck-stand-up-good. Hans Zimmer has never failed to compose an immersive piece of music when working for Nolan and he has done so again here. There is even some great humour woven throughout, especially in the form of TARS, a slab-formed robot that interacts so well with Cooper that you want them to be the only people on the mission.

It is difficult to review Interstellar because if you have to explain any elements that you do not like then you give away what the essence of Interstellar is, it’s an experience. And it is one worth having Nolan successfully reaches a mass audience while maintaining an intelligent backdrop. For those of you who have issues, all I can say is that you’re probably the kind of person who would have walked out of 2001 upon its original release. If you don’t agree then you should love and admire this film.

I would put Interstellar up there with the great works of science fiction like Star Wars, 2001, and Close Encounters, and that means that Nolan is up there with the great science fiction visionaries like Lucas, Kubrick and Spielberg. It’s spectacular, entertaining, emotionally resounding and visually stunning throughout. In the simplest terms, it’s out of this relative dimensional time zone.

Result: 9/10