Interstellar: sit down, this is a long one. Respect should be given to Nolan for even attempting a film of this magnitude, and in my opinion, come very close to succeeding. Lets get this out of the way. This is Christopher Nolan going full Nolan. Beautifully shot and composed film. Check. Profound dialogue that can easily be lifted from the film to make amazing sound bites. Check. Heart pounding action sequences that may or may not be completely necessary. Check. Perfect music cues to tug at the heart strings. Oh boy, big check. If you are a fan of Nolan, as I am, you will enjoy this movie through and through. This is where the big however comes in. The film sets its sights on the profound but could never quite grasp it. The thoughts of time, space, love, the after life, the human need for survival, quantum physics, its all in there. Which is a big premise to deliver on. However, the film cant decide if it wants to be a space travel epic the likes that havent been seen before, or the tale of one man, just trying to save his daughter, and so happens, the world. (Side note: is blue collar astronaut a sub-genre on Netflix yet?) There are beautiful sequences in the film that have this remarkable momentum and build to an immense crescendo, what I think is Nolans forte, but after the cacophony of organs and strings abruptly cut, many times I was left unfulfilled. This movie could definitely benefit from a shorter edit or even a longer 3+ hour complete edit. The edit and story structure definitely felt like it took cues from video game style story telling: 1. Craft an amazing and engrossing first chapter. 2. What are the big sequences we want the player/viewer to experience 3. Lay them out in order and build the connective tissue. Filling those links with exposition. 4. Big finale. 5. Epilogue (last minute revelation optional) This is Nolans space epic. This is his 2001. This his Close Encounters. And yet, I feel like it will nowhere be as iconic as those. This film shows Nolan at his best and at his worst. And unfortunately, his worst shouts louder than all the good he does. One being that, the movie over simplifies the complicated and over complicates the simple. This movie could have benefitted from a lighter hand. With all this said though. The movie as an experience as a whole (I watched in an IMAX theater but not the full 70mm experience) comes few and far between. Very few movies strive to be as epic in scale as this movie does, and this movie achieves. I would recommend seeing this one in the theater just for the sheer force of the soundtrack. Bottom line, I enjoyed this movie. This movie will make people mad, it did get a little bit of a rise out of me at a couple points, but I wasnt ever just watching. It engrossed me, warts and all.
Posted on: Sat, 08 Nov 2014 21:03:09 +0000
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