Do not go gently into that good night

Rating: 10/10 (15 November 2014)

Since completing the Dark Knight Trilogy writer/director/God-to-Nerds Christopher Nolan was free to make any project he wanted and chose to work with his brother to make his sci-fi epic and his own version of 2001: A Space Odyssey, a bold and fantasy film.
In the future Earth is dying, the best and brightest have to become farmers. Most crops are failing and the only thing people can grow is corn. Dust storms are constant and Earth is slowing becoming uninhabitable. Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) is a widowed astronaut turned farmer with two children who ends up being asked by NASA to pilot a mission to save mankind by going into a wormhole on Saturn and find a habitable: but doing this meaning leaving his family and possibly never seeing them again.
Interstellar is a highly ambitious film and like Inception Nolan threats his audience with the intelligence they deserve. Interstellar is a very complex films with its look at quantum physics, space travel, wormholes and black holes and time and it will require several viewings to truly understand it all. But on a basic level Interstellar story is easy to follow as it is both a story of astronauts going into the unknown to find a way to rescue humanity, the personal story about the relationship of Cooper and his daughter and the important choices people would face in this scenario.
The story elements borrowed from 2001: A Space Odyssey as humanity explore an phenomenon left by an mysterious force and a man having to comprehend something beyond human understanding. There is also a similar premise to Danny Boyle's Sunshine as one last crew are sent to save humanity and the Matthew McConaughey sci-fi film Contact.
The special effects are fantastic as you would expect and looks glorious, particularly the ice planet. The look of Earth is very much like Looper as Earth as fallen into a state of regression, society looking just to survive and scientific advancement and questions are discouraged. Environmental issues are also touched on as humanity has over used Earth's resources and forced into austerity because of it, people being forced to make do and with the government not investing in research. Interstellar could also been see as a criticism of certain interest groups in America that want to tell children a inaccurate world view and stop scientific research that they see as an offend to their viewpoints.
Like 2001: A Space Odyssey Interstellar has themes about human discovery and need for advancement. There are also plot ideas from 2001: A Space Odyssey, Sunshine, Contact and even the Lost in Space film.
As well as the sci-fi story there is the human, Earthbound story about the relationship between Cooper and Murph, Cooper's desire to return to Earth and the love the characters share, turning into the love into something quantifiable. The relationship between the two is where the film is most like Contact, as well as its themes about science on Earth. One of my favourite scenes in the film is when Cooper watches a series of videos and he is slowly overcome with emotion, with the camera focused mostly on McConaughey while as he comes overwhelmed.
A criticism that has been laid onto Interstellar is that the film sound mixing, with Hans Zimmer's score being very overpowering. But it is fantastic music and Zimmer does some of his best work with Nolan. The music is organ based, being unique and influenced by Bach. And there are times where the film uses silence in space, a homage to Kubrick's sci-fi classic.
Interstellar is an ambitious, complex sci-fi film that is rewarding. It is complicated with its scientific theories about space travel and time, yet its story and themes are still accessible for most audiences. A must see for any sci-fi fan.