Director Christopher Nolan brings us a space-exploring epic with this almost three-hour feature film “Interstellar”. It begins with humans on Earth in a state of endangerment as there has been a shortage of food and there isn’t enough for everyone to survive. Matthew McConaughey plays the main role of an intelligent and trained pilot who farms for a living. The exposition in the first act of the film is eloquently done as we gradually stumble upon relevant information rather than having it force-fed down our throats, which frequently happens in the science-fiction genre.
Additionally, the science fiction is rather dimensional and goes beyond the general Hollywood style of making things sound scientific rather than actually referencing science. Visually, the film appeals to the cinematic aesthetic and clearly follows in the footsteps of Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey”.
There is adequate dimension in the relationships between characters, however I certainly expected these relationships to become more developed than they did. In some cases I felt no emotional connection with characters and wasn’t as moved by their fate as I should have been. Alongside this, I found the overall story to be somewhat lacking. Every obstacle is incredibly easily overcome – in fact, the entire journey seemed a little too easy. I wasn’t expecting any of the twists, which is always a nice surprise, but I did feel as though many things were stretched beyond their limits and left me feeling somewhat cheated.
Being an artistic filmmaker myself, I always appreciate artistic perspective, however, in this case it seemed as though the desire to create a visually appealing film and create elongated curiosity overstepped its boundaries and the emotional weights in the film were tossed around without finesse. I would’ve preferred a stronger storyline with heavier consequences and difficulty solving the problems presented. Life just isn’t that easy – especially in an extraordinary adventure such as this.
The film rates a 73% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer and an 87% on their audience score. IMDb gives it a 9/10. These ratings are quite different and I’m more inclined to agree with the Tomatometer. While I appreciate the perspective, the refusal of classical Hollywood style, the beautiful cinematography and graphics, and the spot-on acting performances, I think story reigns over all and in this case fell a bit short. I wouldn’t necessarily say this film is for everyone and its’ length goes beyond what it requires, but if you’re at all interested in astronomy, epics, stories about saving humanity, science fiction, or artistic films, then I recommend seeing it. But overall it really depends on your personal taste and for that, I rate this one a MAYBE-SEE.