Saturday 15 November 2014

Interstellar (2014) Movie Review

Christopher Nolan is quite possibly the biggest director working in the industry right now. After scoring big with the Dark Knight Trilogy, particularly with 2008’s The Dark Knight earning near-complete praise (it currently sits at #4 on IMDb’s top 250 film list) and a posthumous Best Supporting Actor win for Heath Ledger as the Joker – the first and only award to date in the category for a superhero film. With 2010’s Inception also doing incredibly well proving he can do big-budget originals as well as adaptations. But with the release of The Dark Knight Rises came mixed results; Nolan’s fans became overprotective of the film if it got a bad review, but there was still vocal cries stating that the film was worse than the previous instalments or just terrible. It has overall strong reviews, but it gave off the notions that the infamous director had started to fumble. Add the lukewarm response to last year’s Man of Steel – which he produced – and his lifelong cinematographer Wally Pfister failing to succeed as director on the Nolan-produced Transcendence, it means that Interstellar could well have a lot riding on it.

But not all is lost, having bagged two recent Oscar-winnings actors in the form of Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway as the two leads. McConaughey is undoubtedly the best of the entire cast, continuing the McConaissance with ease in his biggest role to date. The Texan is superb in all environments; from in the comfort of his character’s home with his family or in the deepest confines of space. His character – Cooper – brings the story along with great ease and is a good anchor for the more emotional moments like his contact back to Earth. It’s unlikely he’ll earn an Oscar nomination so soon after his win, especially with so many good male performances coming this year, but some recognition is definitely required. Hathaway as Amelia Brand is also good, but she does suffer a slight identity midway through for the sake of the plot. It’s a very noticeable change, and is quickly redacted in later events, but the placement has obvious intentions. The remainder of the space crew are good enough, particularly David Gyasi as Romily as the main scientist of the bunch, and the robotic duo of TARS and CASE (voiced by Bill Irwin and Josh Stewart respectively) are both visually stunning and great characters, even if they mainly explain what happens or help the human crew when under threat. There’s also an appearance by Matt Damon, but his role is one shrouded in secrecy so the same will apply here aside from being good in the role. It was a little distracting figuring out that it was Damon in the role, so beware of that.

As for the survivors on Earth, we go across two-three timelines as they try and survive the dying of the light. Starting with Cooper’s kids at their youngest we have Mackenzie Foy and Timothée Chalamet as Murphy and Tom. Alas, Tom has little impact in this segment as the force of love throughout the film is towards Murphy instead, so poor Chalamet does his best with the limited lines given to him, whilst young Foy, whose most noteworthy work prior to Interstellar was Breaking Dawn Part Two where she would later share 2 Razzies with the rest of the cast, mixes her acting range between okay and good. Understandable for a young actor with little experience, but perhaps the role was too much of a jump for her. Michael Caine as Professor Brand, the kick-starter of the whole project, is more of an exposition revealer than a full-blown character as he explains just about everything that is going to happen. Basically, repeating his role of Alfred in The Dark Knight Rises; but as ever he does a terrific job. John Lithgow also has an appearance as Cooper’s father-in-law, but he doesn’t add much to the overall story.

Fast forward a few decades and Cooper’s children have grown up into Casey Affleck and Jessica Chastain. Again, Murphy gets more focus as Brand’s protégé, but this time round Tom represents the old-fashioned way he was brought up by staying in the same house he grew up in – the fact that we humans don’t like severe change and would like to continue things as they were – and as such Affleck is very sinister in the role. Meanwhile Chastain is superb as the scientist who won’t give up but somewhat has already. Again, much of her role is shrouded in secrecy so it’ll be left secret.
Perhaps the main highlight for the film is its visuals, as it’s absolutely beautiful to watch. Nolan uses a blend of visual and special effects, with the prop work particularly standing out as great marvels. It was already known that he works well with visuals, and Interstellar is no exception. Sound design is also well done thanks to sticking the logic and keeping shots placed in space silent. It follows the same pathway as Gravity did a year prior, but features less of the loud vibration. One criticism is that at times the sound is a little noisy for a 2D standard showing (god knows how it would have been in IMAX surround sound), but apparently it’s an issue which varies across cinemas worldwide, so it’s essentially a game of Russian Roulette for your ears.

The biggest criticism the film has received is that the plot focuses less on the scientific know-how that Nolan has previously been famous for and gone with a silly outlook on love, and whilst I have complained about love’s use in its instances in Doctor Who, here it’s okay. It does contrive too much and is a bit too ridiculous for the story, especially the way it comes across, but it isn’t as big of a deal as you’d expect. It’s sprinkled across the film in little hints and teases (one of which unfortunately being easy to predict) and doesn’t harm the final product as much as expected. The only thing which really harms the film is its length though, clocking in at nearly 3 hours. There’s plenty to cut and at times the film does stop to a standstill, so with a few scenes removed it would benefit the overall quality.

Interstellar is a film which follows in the footsteps of Inception, Avatar and Gravity before it – the science fiction nominee for Best Picture. But it’s a nomination well deserved, as while it does outstay its welcome and some roles are just exposition you do have a thrilling adventure through space and time. “Do not go gently into that good night” Interstellar, with your 8/10.

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