Not Nolan's best work but still light-years above the average

Rating: 8/10 (13 November 2014)

I can't help but miss the early days of Christopher Nolan's work with the likes of 'Memento' and 'The Prestige' where his movies were purely mind-blowing, incredibly original masterpieces based purely around story. His Batman trilogy was astonishingly brilliant in it's own way and 'Inception' combined an amazing story with stunning visuals. With 'Interstellar' though I feel he's gone too far towards relying on the visuals and not enough story driving it along.
Don't get me wrong, there's a story there, but it doesn't feel original enough by Nolan's standards. The 'space mission to save Earth' thing has been done and whilst admittedly Nolan puts his own twist on it, it still can't be saved from feeling like we've seen it all before (some parts even as recently as Alfonso Cuarón's 'Gravity' just last year).
I wouldn't say the near 3 hour run time flies by, but Nolan paces his films so well that he can still get away with a much longer run time than others. 20 minutes probably could've been shaved off this one though to be honest.
It's Matthew McConaughey's show from start to finish and we all know he can carry a film. He's as charming as ever and really shows his emotional range at times too. He just seemingly can't make a bad film at the moment. Anne Hatheway on the other hand was a real let down for me. After being absolutely brilliant in Nolan's 'The Dark Knight Rises' as Catwoman I hoped she would equally blow me away in this one. It wasn't to be though. I felt she was flat and almost complacent in the role. The rest of the cast are strong in their performances without anyone stealing the show.
It's tough to hold films like this against Nolan. He's got the budget these days and God knows he's earned it. Whether we'll ever see films like 'Memento' from him again remains to be seen. But what I really hope is that he doesn't fall back and become reliant on the big budget carrying his films. I really do trust he's better than that. What project he signs onto next will be very interesting indeed.