So I finally saw the movie last night, after almost a week of anticipation. I had the best seat of my theater experience in my life, in front of the screen and eye is almost horizontally level with the screen. Though I didn’t get to see it in IMAX, the quality of the picture was awesome. The bass level was 100%.
Nolan can’t see to do no wrong any longer. Interstellar is without a doubt amongst his best. I can never fathom how people think this is one his lesser films. We all have our opinions, but just from my perspective, I simply don’t get where the criticisms are coming from. The many criticisms placed upon the film are just trivial and unwarranted. For example, the plot has been attacked because they thought it was jumbled but as a matter of fact the plotting is linear and the heavy exposition allowed us to understand the flow of the plot. How the film is plotted barely matters to me. I don’t concern myself with the thoughts of what happened here, plot holes, and stuffs like that. The only important aspects I care about in the narrative are the themes and the character development. The ending pretty much resolved the events which unfolded.
Now, I like to break the quality of the film into elements. This is how I approach when reviewing a film.
-The sound mixing was not a problem. At times it gets really loud, especially during action scenes, and in some scenes where the music could have been removed and just let the dialogue take over, but it never came to a point where the sound drowned the film out with noise. In fact, I think the silence in sections of the movie equalized the loudness. The score was very good. The film had a main theme. What was it?
-The cinematography is nuts. The film’s colors just look wonderful. Wide shots should have been utilized more. For a film as large as Interstellar, it felt small at times. But overall it was great. The cinematography when they entered the wormhole, the endurance travelling near Saturn, Cooper travelling inside the black hole and his time in the 5th dimension are jaw dropping.
-The editing is the weakest link in the overall direction. Nolan should have bathe on some shots more instead of cutting too much. This is my only real complain as of now.
-Academy award for best visual effects on lock? From the wormhole, to gargantua, TARS and CASE, tidal waves, etc. Damn. Glorious.
-Production design looks epic, thanks to Nolan choosing actual places to shoot his film.
-Interstellar elicited emotions I never felt in a theater before. Cooper realizing 23 years have passed in Miller’s planet nearly made me cry. The father daughter relationship is the most important storyline and Nolan never failed to make us feel for both characters. The mission he undertook was for his daughter, family, and the entire humane race, and the narrative attacked this direction flawlessly. Even though it is a sci-fi film, what lies underneath it all and ties it together is the love we have for each other. The character development was organic and natural, never melodramatic, although there were scenes which nearly came to that point. The dialogue was fine. The heavy exposition is needed to explain how the film would progress.
-The acting is stellar, especially from McConaughey. He stands out from everyone.
I need to see this for the 2nd time around, but financial constraint won’t allow me. Sigh. I’ll have to wait for the DVD then. As for Interstellar’s place among Nolan’s filmography
1-2. TDKR, Inception
3-4. Interstellar, TDK
5. The Prestige
6. Batman Begins
7. Insomnia
8. Memento