To boldly go where no one has gone before.... I had to say that
This is Christopher Nolan's second foray into science fiction. The first one being Inception, which in many ways was more of a love letter to the anime film Paprika and heist movies than actually dealing the legitimate science. This film on the other hand is meant to be more about the science, and how it can possibly save humanity from extinction.
The Plot
The world is dying. Militaries have been disbanded. All technology and education are dedicated to turning people into farmers. And the only food left on Earth, is corn. But when ex-pilot and aeronautical engineer Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) discovers a message produced by an anomaly in gravity, he discovers the location of a clandestine branch of NASA called Lazarus. There, he is recruited by Dr. Brand (Michael Caine) to lead an expedition through a wormhole that appeared within their solar system to find a new home for humanity. Cooper leaves behind his family in hopes of finding them a chance for survival. Humanity was born on Earth, it was never meant to die here.
Analysis
Christopher Nolan is right. We no longer appear to look up to the stars. Instead we are more concerned about what is happening here on Earth.
The Space Age during the Cold War may have been an age of dreams clashing in a time of potential disaster, but it was still an age of dreams. After we made it to the Moon, it seemed like the world was ready to conquer the galaxy, and then maybe the universe. But instead we're still here. Still having ideas and fantasies, but never anything that can be reality. Of course there have been probes and satellites sent to Mars, but for some reason it didn't seem to inspire many as it did when we first landed on the Moon. Even the European Space Program, Ambition, sets out to catch a comet and succeeded. While it is a small triumph on the road to space travel, it feels like it doesn't matter.
What happened to us? What happened to the ideal of reaching the heavens? I believe it is because there is this feeling of, we've been there and done that. Reaching the Moon seemed to be the greatest thing this planet has achieved. But honestly, it made everything we've done after that seem pointless. If there is anything that I hope this film will do, I hope it does inspire some to travel and seek out new worlds. But till then. We will watch as satellites do the work for us, and forget about a major achievement as if it was nothing. At least not yet. But for now, it is nothing. And that is sad.
Review
This is the movie that people who are not fans of Nolan will use as their ammunition to unmask him to the world as a fraud. Because there is definitely plenty of things wrong with this film. This is also the movie that people who are enthralled and worship Nolan as the god of cinema will use as their torch to continue to ignite the flames of genius that he supposedly is. Because there is a lot of this film that is utterly breathtaking, with a message that is extremely powerful. So which side of this war between Nolanites and Nolan haters do I stand on? Somewhere in the middle.
This is Nolan's most ambitious film with the most ambitious ideas that have not been explored since 2001: A Space Odyssey and the original Star Trek series. The dream of space travel. The scientific theory of wormholes. The theories of what would happen to someone inside a singularity? All of these things are tied together by a simple and unscientific concept. The love of a father and his daughter. Matthew McConaughey continues his spree of being a force in acting as he delivers a powerful performance as our reluctant heroic astronaut. Mackenzie Foy plays his daughter, Murphy, and shows that she is definitely a young one to look out for in the future. Their relationship is what binds this movie together and it is one of the strongest points of the movie.
The other strong points of the film have to do with the space travel sequences, the new planets, and the surprisingly breakout characters that were not really promoted in the previews. One of the things I love about Nolan's take on film is how he uses old school techniques in modern filmmaking. All the spaceships in the movie are real. Whether it be models or gigantic moving sets that the actors can actually step inside of, they are tangible objects and not made out of computer generated imagery. I could easily tell this from the way the moving parts of the docking stations and the shuttles worked. In CGI there is a slight delay and an unintentional grace to movement, even if it meant to be a small one. With models it feels more alive and the eye knows that it is a real thing. The same goes for the creativity of the planets from the water planet to the ice planet to the desert planet. All of them were filmed in actual locations with some CGI in order to enhance the otherworldly feel. And who are the breakout characters that I am talking about? The robots! TARS and CASE, two rectangular robots that I was not aware would be in the movie, and I'm so glad they were. These two robots are pretty much where most of the humor comes from, in an ultra serious and dramatic film. They are a relief as well as a breath of fresh air in terms of design on how a robot would look like. They are pretty much a direct reference to the Monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey, with the exception of being able to transform and are a lot more helpful.
Where this film falls apart though, mainly has to do with the need to beat science over our heads as well as the message of love being a transcending variable. Nolan took the ambitious idea of explaining all these scientific theories to an audience who would watch movies like Transformers and expect them to want to take in every second of information. The problem is, there is too much information. Now, some films have a lot of exposition in them. Look at David Fincher's films. But Nolan and his screenwriter brother, Jonah, put so much exposition that unless you are aware of the type of science being spoken (like I do) then it is very easy for the average movie goer to get lost in what all the science means. And it is a shame that the exposition is given to the supporting cast consisting of Anne Hatheway, Wes Bentley, and David Gyasi. While Hatheway's character, Amelia, gets to have more of an emotional character arc, she still winds up being just an exposition person along with the other astronauts. Their characters could've been handled better, as well as all the other characters in these films who are not the father and the daughter.
There is even an appearance by a well known actor, who will be a welcoming surprise to audiences, but quickly devolves into a villain that ultimately seemed forced. But because of who it is, it was a nice character change for this actor. Still, it seemed unnecessary to give this movie a human villain.
While I was able to get by with the massive exposition and was fine with the appearance of a villain, what I didn't buy and nearly took me out of the film was the final 40 minutes of the movie. The build up of the film was built around real science and things that we do know. The final 40 minutes enters the realm of extremely weird science fiction that almost dissolves all the realism that this film is built around. While I understood it, it will definitely be a major turn off for the audience who will view it as too weird and too convenient. And I mean really convenient. In fact, anyone who is smart enough to see the massive foreshadowing in the beginning of the film will be disappointed by how convenient and weird the trigger for the foreshadowing is. It was just too much of a "WTF" moment that it really does not sit well for me.
Then there is the true resolution. It wasn't the way I wanted it to end, emotionally. That sounds like a pretentious thing to say, but if one were to think about the ending, everyone who watches knows there is a proper way to end the movie. And the way it does in this film is definitely the right one, but executed improperly.
Final Thoughts
This film could've removed a lot of characters and a journey to the water planet. It also could've gotten rid of half of the science talk and half of the "we need to be better" talk. If those were not in the film, this movie would've been a thousand times better. That's not to say that it isn't a thousand times better than other movies that have come out. Because it is, yet it isn't. This is an incredible film that reached too far and was incapable of doing all it set out to do. And that is fine for me. It is also fine for Nolan haters who see it as the living proof of him being a hack. It is also fine for the Nolan fans who admire the ambition. In the end it is still an incredible film that suffers with a horrible ending and too much exposition for its own good. This is the movie experience of the year, but not the greatest movie of the year.
SCORE: 7.5/10 - This movie will become a classic, but in 30 years from now
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