Interstellar is the new baby from Christopher Nolan - he who gave us
Memento,
The Dark Knight and
Inception. The geek world's number 1 director at the moment goes for an epic 3-hour movie about human nature, climate change and interstallar travel. Is it worth it? Let's dig in ...
Starring Hollywood's current hot property Matthew McConaughey, fresh off his Oscar win and great turn in True Detective. We follow McConaughey's Cooper having to decide at what cost and length he is willing to go to save his family.
We have Anne Hathaway along for the ride, a very serious Michael Cain and a surprise turn from one Hollywood A-lister that I won't mention. So the cast is impressive, but give very meted out performances. The script does not ask for Al Pacino theatrics of
Devils Advocate but more the Al Pacino performance from the first two Godfather movies, there's a lot of restraint in the performance and script.
The restraint also extends to the sci-fi element. At one point I thought the film will go all H.A.L from
2001: A Space Odyssey on us but Nolan keeps it strictly about the flesh and blood people in the film. The great sci-fi themes of inter star travel, moving through worm holes, space-time continuim play second fiddle to what is at stake for the humans.
Interstellar has plenty to say about human nature - it gives the good, the bad and the darn ugly about our species. The film really gets going when it deals with this theme head on. But be warned ... this film is a slow cooker but once it has you, it has you. I wonder how different it would have been if Spielberg had stuck to the project before Nolan took it over.
Then there are the images … Alfonso Cuaron created some great space carnage in
Gravity and Nolan does his own bit for space carnage, whilst creating some wonderful worlds and space travel imagery that does not feel artificial like Star Trek or Star Wars.
There's no unnecessary super-fast imagery for space travel, no ray guns and little green men - everything is locked in the films own sense of realism. Then there’s the score by Hans Zimmer that you can't ignore even if you wanted to.
I honestly don’t think Interstellar is going to be everyone's cup of tea 'cause of its pacing and the fact there are no little green men shooting ray guns or giant robots spewing fire ala Transformers - 'cause that’s what sci-fi has become of late - an excuse to put up action sequences in alien environments (here's looking at you
Star Trek: Into Darkness and
Transformers:Age Of Extinction)
For those of you who want something meaningful on the same scale as
Blade Runner, 2001 and
Moon then Interstaller is for you; it's "deep", has a great story and it takes its time to tell its story without getting lost in space and special effects. Maybe there is still hope for storytelling in Hollywood.
Rating ****1/2
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
index
* Junk **Almost bearable ***Now we cooking **** Almost perfect ***** Classic
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Trailer Watch
Chappie
Neil Bloomkamp is back with something that looks to be a better follow-up to District 9 than Elyseuim with Chappie. Based and shot in Joburg like D9, Chappie is a sci-fi but this time set in the not-so-distant future and the trailer showcases some cool action and emo moments.