An overly ambitious, underwhelming sprawl, salvaged by a few nice bits

Rating: 5/10 (11 November 2014)

Interstellar represents Christopher Nolan exceeding his reach in his obsession with difficult, gamechanging films. What he achieved with Inception he has bungled here with a overlong narrative that alternates between confusing and lazy.
At 2hrs 50, this movie goes on far too long, and I blame the film's ridiculous indulgence in unnecessary subplots. Who cares if Brand is in love with one of the missing scientists? Who cares if Cooper's grandson has a cough? None of it contributes to the film's main plot (which itself is hard to describe after all the nonsensical science jibber). No original screenplay should be as long as this film is.
The script is very lazy in some sections - if something needs to be somewhere, or explode, or if a realisation needs to be had, it will happen, no matter whether it makes sense or not. At times, Nolan attempts to explain why it happened but his explanations often just muddy the waters. He indulges in far too many deus ex machina for one film, and the film's final act follows Edge of Tomorrow and Fury to be one of the sappiest and most predictable endings to ruin what was meant to be a sad moment.
The acting is fairly good, though the tanned, drawling McConaughey is horrendously miscast as an intellectual astronaut (though he plays the loving father with far greater conviction). Michael Caine plays Michael Caine for the 6th Nolan film in a row, and despite being seen in scenes 23 years apart he looks exactly the same. At this point, Michael Caine needs to start demonstrating some range or be remembered as one of the weakest recipients of two Academy Awards in history. Matt Damon and Casey Affleck are very memorable in brief scenes, with well-defined and motivated characters. Anne Hathaway is the film's highlight, as the film's female lead, she is fully at home in a spacesuit and providing much of the film's emotion. Jessica Chastain and McKenzie Foy are both hauntingly effective as Murph, with Chastain in particular giving a very impressive and emotional turn.
Soundwise, Interstellar plays one giant crescendo, but once your ears adjust its a rather nice score. Visually, I am disappointed to note that Interstellar brought absolutely nothing new to the table - everything they did had been done before or better in Inception, Gravity or even Apollo 13. The plants looked beautiful, but there is nothing groundbreaking about creating water or ice through CGI. The visuals of outer space were lazily constructed save for the black hole, which would have been forgivable if Gravity wasn't such a recent memory.
However, at the end of the day there is something unshakeably beautiful or memorable about Interstellar, and that feeling is the only thing that keeps Interstellar in positive review territory. Ultimately, this film will become one of those "I'm glad I saw it, but I won't watch it again".