Just watched Interstellar last night and had a very mixed reaction to it. There are some things I really enjoyed about it and some things that I experienced as conspicuous fails.
Overall it is an inventive and engaging story. The CGI is impressive. But at times also both McConaughey and Hathaway (who, interestingly, are it seems just doing their jobs as directed) come across as overacting. It's a little like some of Jodie Foster's lengthy reaction shots in Contact (see at 2:41 below):
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I mean, maybe the stark setting of deep space tends to exaggerate emotional nuances of a performance, or something. It was sort of immersion-breaking for me, though.
And then the theme of human bonds and connections being so strongly at odds with the imperative to complete the mission by accepting that such a mission is one-way just didn't sell me at all. I didn't buy it. It felt contrived as a device to drive the drama. It's the sort of thing that probably looked good on paper but in the film it rang hollow to me. So Professor Brand creates a smoke screen, Coop must (no matter the cost) get back to see his daughter, Mann lies to get rescued, and Brand's daughter "follows her heart" to try to persuade them to go to the planet where the astronaut she was in love with went? People are going to behave this way when the survival of the species is at stake? They're going to find it that hard to soberly and maturely sacrifice their own lives and personal interests due the inexorable pull of those personal human connections? Soldiers have been regularly sacrificing their lives for a greater cause since the inception of warfare. It's not to say that isn't difficult--of course it is. But this is not about taking a hill or even winning a war. It's about the survival of the entire species. And actually for that matter, quite a number of astronauts have either died or stared death in the face and still kept their poise and the mission focal. Anyway, I just didn't buy the motivations for all these characters, respectively, to muck up the whole mission.
The whole 5th dimension plot got quite complicated and convoluted, and several times sort of jolted me out of immersion with its succession of new twists.
Like the deeply flawed (at times literally laughably so) Prometheus and Jupiter Ascending (also unintentionally funny), Interstellar is kind of a visually glorious hot mess--but it is ultimately a feast for the eyes.
This movie also felt like Nolan attempting to make his own version of 2001: A Space Odyssey. The latter is truly an effortless feeling masterpiece whereas this film struggles mightily. But in reference to 2001, I really appreciated that unlike the robot Hal, Interstellar's TARS basically became Coop's best bud--TARS was the one "person" that Coop could actually trust and rely upon! Which is also sort of a sad commentary, when you think about it. It seems to reflect a pretty dim view of humanity. (A view that I don't share, but I can respect the artistic statement there even if I disagree with the idea behind it.) The movie does end on a hopeful note. But that doesn't seem to square with the much darker, more pessimistic vision that we're shown for most of the film.
I won't say this is a bad film. Because I also admire how ambitious it was--and I admire it for its risk-taking. I cared about the characters and what happened to them, and I remained mesmerized throughout (overall, despite the occasional immersion-breakers). But it just felt to me very uneven, shaky, and unwieldy. Like Nolan had a tiger by the tail, and he never really got the subject matter to bend to his will.
Had I been able to vote I would have given the movie a score of 7.
