Inter... STELLA!

Rating: 3/10 (17 August 2015)

I only give this movie 3 stars because, like many others, I believe it will balance out the mindlessly effusive reviews that IMDb seems to generate for highly-anticipated movies. I must say, however, that I would honestly give this movie about a 5 or 6 and no more. The main problem I see with it is typical of many modern movies - poor screen writing. Doesn't anyone read this stuff between the final draft and filming? At 2 hours and 45 minutes I did not think it was overlong. I wasn't bored so much as flummoxed. I actually believe there is a magical extra 15 minutes somewhere that might steer this titanic disaster away from the critical icebergs that may doom it.
Down to particulars:
Too Much Damn Corn! (In more ways than one)
The future in this movie actually does not look too bad. There's plenty of beer, pickup trucks, and no okra (yay!). So what is the beef? There really is no convincing reason to leave Earth because of some piffle about environment degradation. The effort involved to create artificial environments in space would seem to me to be exponentially more time consuming and expensive than the same effort on good old terra firma. The whole ecosystem collapse story is unnecessary. Why have we gone into, and continue to go into, Outer Space even though wars, famine, and pestilence beset us continually? Nolan should have bit the bullet and gone for the real answer instead of making up a fairy tale - that is, our innate curiosity and desire for knowledge will drive us to the limits of the Universe and beyond. We don't need hokey dust storms and blights (Say, how did those spacelings solve the food blight problem in their massive cylinders - and why position them out by Saturn? Why didn't they just go underground instead of into space? ) And the seriousness of the situation on Earth just wasn't conveyed well except during the massive dust storm. Another odd thing never explained - no dogs, no cats, no chickens, pigs, or cows... not even a crow or a rat to be seen. Where are the animals? Where are the insects? Some of the 15 min. could have been used to clarify these points, but better yet... chuck the whole first hour.
Too Much Damn Noise!
Some people may like Hans Zimmer's work, but I don't see him as the next Jerry Goldsmith or Bernard Herrmann. It was like listening to Philip Glass at 110 db and certainly did not sound as spacey as Vangelis' work for Blade Runner. Especially annoying when it covered up important dialog in the dramatic moments, but that may be due to sound mixing. Overall, I rate him as flat and innocuous at best. And speaking of dialog, was MC channeling Marlon Brando for his role? Some of his dialog was barely comprehensible. For a movie heavy with exposition that is a bit unacceptable.
Too Many Damn Holes!
Speaking of exposition: how the hell did MC learn to fly those new-fangled space machines so fast (everyone else had simulator classes); How did they get all that junk into space to build their starship with no one on Earth noticing dozens of Saturn V rockets blasting into the sky? Why didn't MC just say "Murph" instead of "Stay", he already knew he would leave, because HE ALREADY KNEW HE WOULD LEAVE GRAVITY TRACES TO COMMUNICATE AND SOLVE THE EQUATION! When they surfed down the wave why didn't the ship crash into the surface of Miller since it was only covered with 12 inches of water most of the time? They never did get it straight about the 5-D beings - are they us, or something else? Why? Why? Why? Too many unanswered questions glossed over amid all the physics mumbo-jumbo in this convoluted mess.
I'm sorry, it was a dud, nothing stellar about it.