cult film freak: REVIEW OF CHRISTOPHER NOLAN'S INTERSTELLAR

Written by James M. Tate / 11/07/2014 / 1 Comment / 2014 , christopher nolan , jessica chastain , matthew mcconaughey , michael caine , science-fiction

REVIEW OF CHRISTOPHER NOLAN'S INTERSTELLAR

11/07/2014 | 1 Comment

year: 2014 rating: **

At one point during INTERSTELLAR, Matthew McConaughey’s Cooper is being told that a fifth-dimensional being is trying to logically communicate something to three-dimensional humans, and a mindblown Cooper says aloud that he still doesn’t get it: So this time around, writer/director Christopher Nolan outsmarts and outfoxes both his audience and main character... Although there is a fair share of down-home simplicity...

A tale about a rural farmer, longing for a purpose in life and who ends up in the far reaches of space, might seem a tad familiar... And just as we get to know Cooper and his children – living on an Earth devastated by ferocious dust storms – he alone winds up soaring to the mysterious heavens.

For a three-hour film, it’s a surprise that any aspect could be “too rushed.” Yet the amount of time our potential hero goes from the ground to the sky is as quick as a few instructive paragraphs spouted by the chief NASA scientist (Michael Caine).

While super-intelligence is essential in any genuine sci-fi flick, and wormholes and black holes are always an intriguing premise, there's so much explaining and anticipating what needs to be done that surprisingly, very little actually happens: These intrepid voyagers, including Anne Hathaway’s straight-laced Amelia and a sarcastic robot, experience some extremely close calls and a tremendous amount of docking and spinning, but no real adventure. And whether in space or back on a future Earth… two stories fusing into a M. Night Shyamalan style twist… there’s no one to completely root for except McConaughey, who can make any character likable.

Christopher Nolan's power can't be denied: His DARK KNIGHT TRILOGY created an immense fan base nearly equaling the nostalgic likes of Spielberg, Lucas, Kubrick or any iconic director you choose… But his ambitiously epic INTERSTELLAR both overreaches and overwhelms… Not just the audience and characters, but the genre itself: With so many complicated instructions we hardly see the damn thing work!

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Tags : 2014 , christopher nolan , jessica chastain , matthew mcconaughey , michael caine , science-fiction

James M. Tate

1 comment:

Ripper MadnessNovember 8, 2014 at 7:46 PM
I saw this last night. One thing I have noticed about new movies, is the volume. I dig loud, don't get me wrong, but I actually still have some hearing left in my ears, and I'd like to have some left after I leave a movie theater, but after last night at the movies maybe not. That's one thing I've noticed the last couple years especially. The volume isn't cranked up to 11, its at about 35. Some movies are cranked so loud the speakers are distorting for the whole movie, and obviously some of the speakers are blown in the auditorium. Doesn't anybody hear that? Oh, right, their hearing is trashed already, even the kids. I seriously can't stand it any more. I'm almost done watching movies in movie theaters. I love my classical music, I enjoy listening to people talk, I enjoy the birds who sing and squawk away at all hours of the day and night around my house. What I don't enjoy is being physically assaulted by sound in a movie theater because half the people are deaf and under the age of 25 from jamming headphones on their heads for all their lives cranked to infinity and beyond. Old people don't care, they just lean over and talk really really loud during the movie because, well they think you can't hear them. We hear you!!

Oh yea, Interstellar. Loud, bombastic, did I mention loud? So glad I didn't go to the IMAX, my eardrums would have burst. The dialogue in the script would have been better if they had 1000 monkeys, and I mean furry short human-type creatures, slamming away at a keyboard for 10 years, than what came out of the casts mouth. And really, the only relief I had from the whole LOUD mess was when the COMPLETELY unnecessary appearance of a certain actor shows up near the end and my friend leans over to me, and imitates the voice perfectly from the movie TEAM AMERICA: WORLD POLICE, and says and I quote, "Matt Damon." - I missed five minutes of the movie as we both couldn't stop laughing. Was I supposed to put a spoiler alert before I quoted Team America? Believe me the movie going experience is spoiled long before that.

Great review James!
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