Christopher Nolan's Interstellar

[Silrian]

Imo it's Nolan's worst film since following, solely excluding the fact that the production design is undeniably good, that clearly is where the money went. That and the trailer for McConaughey's ego.

Hey, if you disagree, thank me for lessening the overhype.

For reference of anything I say:

Spoiler

My opinion on Nolan's films:
Masterpiece: Inception
4 Brilliant films I don't know how to rank:
The Prestige
Memento
The Dark Knight
Batman Begins
Good core, but sloppy execution: TDKR
Okay with 1 great performance: Insomnia (Williams, RIP)
Great production design wasted on a terrible script/ hit n miss acting: Interstellar
And lastly Following but hey it's his first film, whatever.

 

[Deckard]

I'm planning to see this soon along w/ Birdman & Big Hero 6 afterwards. It's really good?

IMO Birdman is the better flick. Didn't see BH6.

 

[Johnny Utah]

Hit and miss acting...what the hell are you talking about? Watch the scene where Cooper leaves his family again.

Jesus.

 

[pturtle]

Hit and miss acting...what the hell are you talking about? Watch the scene where Cooper leaves his family again.

Jesus.

That scene was great, but I thought he did an even better job when he's watching the recordings from his son, that scene was incredible in my opinion.

 

[Silrian]

Yeah exactly, hit n miss acting. There were moments where he really hit it, and moments where he really didn't imo.

Isn't that what the expression means...? There were oscar level acting moments in this, but there were also a lot of extremely cheesy terrible line deliveries. It was all over the place honestly.

But great production design, a few great scenes, and a score that definitely befits the material, can't offset the many negatives for me. Including the fact that this script is pretty much Nolan

Spoiler

repeating all the different plot twists from his previous movies poured into this one. Except here they weren't solid consequences of a good layered story, here they were deus ex machines, nothing but plot devices, and the morse code watch thing is just the worst. Nolan's pulled of some suspense of belief before but that was just eye-rolling.

 

[Johnny Utah]

Ignoring the nonsense above this post. I loved it, love all of Nolan's films. I look forward to watching it again on bluray.

 

[carbo-fation]

Ignoring the nonsense above this post. I loved it, love all of Nolan's films. I look forward to watching it again on bluray.

ANyone who misses this movie solely based on comments in this thread is doing themselves a disfavor. Movie is a must-see; my favorite movie of the year. Simply spectacular.

 

[DiFabio]

I saw this a while back and sort of forgot about it not long afterwards. Never even felt the need to comment on it really. I'm seeing all these debates on whether it's good or not. I personally thought it was okay. I went in not expecting much. I thought it was good, the visuals and effects were spectacular. I particularly enjoyed the docking sequence. Also, would have thought those crappy designed robots would steal the show? I certainly didn't. I loved them. Figures that Nolan's best written characters would be friggin' robots! Those bits are where the movie excelled. The story and characters though? Nah. It felt like the typical melodrama that Nolan is known for. I really hated the end with the revelation, return and "go find her and help her with Plan B". Nolan is a great visionary director, no doubt, but I think his writing and dialogue is a crap shoot most of the time. The whole love thing with Brand made me cringe as did most of Caine's speeches. Nobody felt real to me. Oh and the sound mix, I also thought the sound mix was one of the worst I've experienced. First I thought it was just my theater until everyone started to complain about it.

But yeah, I dug the visuals. It wasn't nearly as bad to me as TDKR was. Do I think Nolan and Co. are a bit frivolous with their "huge, ambitious, blockbusters", sure, but it did feel like they put a lot of work into this one, even if it's not perfect. Far from movie of the year though. That would go to Birdman (or Inherent Vice, which I assume could also take that spot considering it's a character study first and foremost like all of his films). Those contain real, living, breathing characters. Not ideas used as sound pieces to tell what ever it is Nolan was trying to say.

 

[Deckard]

I saw this and sort of forgot about it not long afterwards. Never even felt the need to comment on it really. I'm seeing all these debates on whether it's good or not. I personally thought it was okay. I went in not expecting much. I thought it was good, the visuals and effects were spectacular. I particularly enjoyed the docking sequence. The story and characters though? Nah. It felt like the typical melodrama that Nolan is known for. I really hated the end with the revelation, return and "go find her and help her with Plan B. Nolan is a great visionary director, no doubt, but I think his writing and dialogue is a crap shoot most of the time. The whole love thing with Brand made me cringe as did most of Caine's speeches. Nobody felt real to me. Oh and the sound mix, I also thought the sound mix was one of the worst I've experienced. First I thought it was just my theater until everyone started to complain about it.

But yeah, I dug the visuals. It wasn't nearly as bad to me as TDKR was. Do I think Nolan and Co. are a bit frivolous with their "huge, ambitious, blockbusters", sure, but it did feel like they put a lot of work into this one, even if it's not perfect. Far from movie of the year though. That would go to Birdman (or Inherent Vice, which could also take that spot). Those contain real, living, breathing characters. Not ideas used as sound pieces to tell what ever it is Nolan was trying to say.

Nolan, like Kubrick, wants to advance the entire industry. But unlike Kubrick, he is sacrificing quality to do so. IMO of course.

 

[Silrian]

I wanted to say I largely agreed with DiFabio on this occasion, but I feel above all you nailed it with that sentence Deckard.

Yes Nolan's ambitious, but I agree that it came at too high a price here, and I'm not sure if that's due to his inability to balance the two, or whether it's intentional, because I for one find a lot of the moral and political content in, but also surrounding the film, BS. And Nolan's very explicit about it in interviews.

What do you mean 'We're not meant to save the earth, we're meant to leave it?' Whether we stay here or not is at first purely a practical assessment, and secondly, I feel this film's message of the fundamental moral goal of having to explore is honestly just nonsense. Exploring isn't a moral goal, it's a practical means and an enriching endeavour. But it's not some code humans should live by, and even if it was, Nolan defends that notion very poorly.

This movie, and especially the marketing surrounding it, is blatantly ignoring a lot of existing science and research that positively states we could survive here for milions of years, if we ****ing got our act together and kept our planet in shape. If the film wants to setup a lackluster premiss of equating being pro-science with 'we gotta be explorers', okay within the film, fine, it's thin, and calously done, but fine, it's your film it sets up the plot you want, I'll accept it. But Nolan is REALLY hitting that note hard in his marketing campaign for this and in the real world that's just narrow-minded nonsense. I'm sorry but I can't agree with some fundamental pseudo-moral idea of 'it's in our nature to explore so we should focus on making space technology'. No, we should focus on getting our act together and keeping this world, which has great beauty to it still, intact. And there's plenty of research, science and ways that both emphasise that possibility, as well as actually make it possible.

I'm fine with a fatalistic premiss for story purposes, but Nolan is using it, in and outside the film, as a forced justification of sacrificing a lot of things in order to go play space cowboy. That's where I get off honestly. I didn't buy it in the film, but I sure as hell don't buy it outside of it. This film is way too much on the nose, it's forced, and it ends up doing what Deckard said, sacrificing quality in a multitude of artistic aspects of the film.

Though yes the robots rule. They had a much larger and cooler role in Jonah's OG script though. His script wasn't human-centric, and involved saving more than just the human race. It had a very different emphasis, and a way more ambitious, yet technically laid out use of time dilation. I think I'd much rather have seen Spielberg making Jonah's script. But that's a typical hindsight opinion.

Spoiler

the use of time travel was also MUCH better in Jonah's script. In Jonah's script there actually is a time machine and they send back the drone Cooper finds in the beginning, and the thing he rips out of it has the gravity data, that in Chris script gets transferred by more code from that tesseract thing.

For those disappointed in the narrative of this film I suggest looking it up. If you want a funny audible summary of it, check out the screenrant podcast about Interstellar, at 2:14:20. It also explains a few odd things in Interstellar that were setups for payoffs which Chris ended up cutting out of it. Chris immensely simplified Jonah's script. Imo not for the better.

 

[Scurvy26]

It's incredible how divisive this move has been. I fall into the camp of loving it due to its scale and awe-inspiring moments. While there were some issues with it, I think the positives far outweigh them and this is definitely a movie that should be experienced in a theatre (preferably IMAX). This movie ranks as one of the best movie theatre experiences I've had in a while. I've seen it three times in IMAX and can't wait for the Blu or 4k Blu.

 

[Johnny Utah]

There were moments that you will only really appreciate on a big screen, like the 'mountains' sequence.

 

[BB&WSF]

+1

It was a visual treat for me. Doubt I would have liked it (as much as I did) if I watched it on my TV (even if it was blu). Couple it with the score, that's what made it a fantastic experience for me.

 

[abake]

I find it genuinely surprising that people see "twists" in this movie.
To me it was perfectly clear from the get-go who was sending the messages, as well as Dr. Mann's role...
What other "twists" where there?

 

[SNIKT1950]

Hit and miss acting...what the hell are you talking about? Watch the scene where Cooper leaves his family again.

Jesus.

More like every scene McConaughey is in.

I've seen it three times in sold out 70mm screenings and the moment where he watches the 23 years worth of messages has everyone in the theater crying for a good five minutes. Same goes for the scene with him and the elderly Murphy.

Only on message boards do I hear the movie "fails on many levels".

When the credits rolled for the opening night screening everyone in the theater applauded the film. Hadn't encountered that since The Dark Knight in '08.

 

[a-dev]

There was mild applause at the end of my showing - admittedly any applause at all is rare in Ireland. Or maybe people do it at IMAX all the time, I dunno.

 

[rushmore223]

There was mild applause at the end of my showing - admittedly any applause at all is rare in Ireland. Or maybe people do it at IMAX all the time, I dunno.

I think this is the customary reaction to a good Imax film in Ireland.




And sometimes this...

 

[Irvy]

Stunned silence at the cinema I was in. I think one man had to nudged awake by his wife.

 

[rushmore223]

Stunned silence at the cinema I was in. I think one man had to nudged awake by his wife.

For the last time, stop following me.

 

[RIDDICK]

There was mild applause at the end of my showing - admittedly any applause at all is rare in Ireland.

Guess it was like this...