Interstellar Review

Rating: Null/10 (7 November 2014)

(Spoiler alert: Some of the details in this post are spoilers for prospective viewers!!)
When Nolan takes a movie, he transforms it into a legend. In Dark Knight trilogy, the Batman was raised to the level of an epic hero. This time, it was the turn of Space and Time travel for Nolanization. Interstellar is a movie for space buffs. It's pure bliss. I don't think it's gonna be a commercial success like the Dark Knight Trilogy or Inception or MachinistBut it's much more than thatIt is a classic, a work of art.
________________________________________ Without giving much spoilers, the Movie showcases a team's Quest to find some inhabitable planet because Earth has started to become unsuitable for human survival. And such an opportunity has been provided by certain unknown entities referred to as 'Them' through creating a worm-hole (A short-cut for space travel) near the planet Saturn. The First Half of the Movie was building up slow. It reminded us of Manoj N. Shaymalan's 'Signs' – philosophically oriented dialogues, strong central little girl character, emotions super-imposed on scientific theme – all Shaymalanique. But it was Nolanism too! The story involves a girl as the Central character – just as in 'Signs' or 'Contact', or 'War of the Worlds' etc. Trauma has been very well portrayed at personal, family as well as on Global levels. The movie well balances emotions with scientific-fiction. And it's not a mindless sci-fi. There is an intricate story and rock- solid plot woven onto a scientific thriller. The mix of scientific content and emotions are difficult, but the right balance has been achieved by Nolan, The Great. ________________________________________ The actors were mighty good. Though one does not like the face or the put-on husky whispers of a haughty Matthew McConaughey, but still he has done justice to Cooper's character. I wished Wes Bentley had a longer appearance, but the Particle Physicist did not last the first encounter with adversity. Nolan's fav actor Michael Caine was good as a eccentric but misguided scientist. And frankly, I don't know why Matt (Damon) appeared in a negative cameo appearance. Matt does not fit into that kindNot done, Nolan. ________________________________________ The Movie is like a painting..Like Walking on to the edge of the Universe, as if Cobb-Arthur from 'Inception' have woven a dream sequence where you are transported to outer space – touching Galaxies, Nebulae, Gas clouds, and infinity. The visual graphics were terrific. Much better than dream sequences of Inception or, hyper-real scenes from Dark Night(s). Nolan has showed the Viewer what would a Wormhole look like (Spherically projected in 3-D space), The travel through a Wormhole where the Universe from the window appears curved due to Gravitational lensing, the Black Hole from outside as surrounded by gravity-twisted accretion disks, the interior of a Black Hole where there is non-devastating Gravitational pull towards the Central Singularity, and the view of the Singularity itself as infinite possibilities in time – past & future compressed into 3 dimensions!! All delectable. Nolan has made it a delicious eye-candy – even details like gravitational lensing and accretion disks surrounding the protagonist Black hole Gargantua, have been carefully worked up and built in into the CGI.
The shot where the Singularity was shown as a Book-shelf within a Book- shelf, around another, was just breath-taking. It was the Ultimate movie shot for an Astronomy freak. Nothing could ever surpass that experience. Locales – which are impossible to create off-screen, were artistically as well as scientifically created by Nolan. Nolan showed alternate Worlds where there were sky-high tides on Seas, another where there was perennial snowy winter in an Ammonia atmosphere! Those seemed so real.
________________________________________ The idea that another Universe existed just across the other side of the book-shelf and the space-time continuum is extremely thin and unpredictably accessible; is very touching and grand. Just to imagine, as we live our mundane life, there might be future Us trying to contact us from behind our modest book-shelf. ________________________________________ The movie has stuck to the letter and spirit of theoretical physics on Black holes and Worm holes. It has been reported that Nolan has taken professional assistance from a theoretical physicist to understand relativity and astronomy. As a Method of space travel – FTL (Faster- Than-Light) travel was not shown only, Worm-hole travel was visualized. ________________________________________ Focusing on Music, predictably, its Hans Zimmer again. But the soul of the music has been redesigned this time, much re-invented and re- incarnated. It was not loud like 'Dark Knight' series, nor silent like ' Gravity'. The music was spacey, and jazzy. ________________________________________ The message in the Movie is 2-fold: 1. On the scientific front, Gravity is the essence of Creation and Gravity can override time and still be intact; 2. On the human side, Love is the most natural, pure and accurate instinct since comes on its own and unconditional.
The Movie had 2 typical Nolan moments: 1. Where Murph figures out the importance of the second-hand of the wrist watch as the transmitter of Signals across the space-time barrier; 2. The closing Nolanesque scene where everything falls into place – Brand setting up colony on Edmund's planet, Cooper refitting TARS and embarking again on worm-hole travel to find Brand. The title of the Movie has been aptly given as 'Intestellar' meaning 'Across the Stars' since the key communication has been made between Coop and Murph through the book-shelf, across Stars. _______________________________________ Overall Assessment: I have seen scores of Space Travel movies and Series' like 'Event Horizon', 'Contact', 'Armageddon', '2001: A Space Odyssey', 'Apollo 13', 'Moon', 'Elysium', 'Star Trek – All Series', 'The Right Stuff', 'War of the Worlds', 'Independence Day', Dr. Who (Series), Stargate SG-1 (Series), Fringe (Series), 'The Andromeda Strain' (Series) 'Prometheus' and the latest 'Gravity' – but nothing comes even Light years close to this one. It's a Super-nova, Man! It was only 2 hours 50 minutes. I wanted moremuch more.. 9.8/10