They wanted so so much

Rating: 6/10 (9 November 2014)

First things first, it is not a bad movie. However, we need to evaluate on the promise - it was hyped and marketed as a science fiction done proper, a genre-redefining proposition. It just is not. The same sad feeling I had for Cuaron's "Gravity", where we justify the movie not by how good it was but how bad it avoided to be.
Plotwise, it is a try to merge and recreate both Kubrick's "2001" and Zemeckis' "Contact", bot masterpieces of its' own times. This is not a bad thing in my opinion, both were bold movies with big but ultimately separate themes. Trying to put loneliness of space travel, a critical view of society and mysteries of yet undiscovered science all in one movie could have resulted in something great. Something that for example "Sunshine" and "Moon" missed for being too small in scope.
Unfortunately for Nolan, a tale needs to be told through dialog and narration and that is where Interstellar's stellar cast fails. McConaughey as Cooper is perhaps his greatest ever, conveying some great emotion and unusual attitude for blockbuster lead. Contrary to many other opinions, I find Anne Hathaway equally brilliant, but even more an example of first failure of this movie - the lines these two are given are shallow and often nonsensical. Hathaway's Dr. Brand is acted with such an emotion and such genuine expression that I remain baffled how she was given less then 100 lines to say. I was constantly under impression that her face screams for an opportunity to open up to us, and let's not forget that her tragedy is perhaps greater then Cooper's.
Which brings me to think about what would make a great science fiction movie, and if it's even possible to do it today.
1) Do not mock (established) science in science fiction. It has "science" in it's name for a reason. Oh, I have no problems with flying over accretion disks, falling into black holes or improbable planetary arrangements - it is all a realm of theories, well researched but ultimately not yet experienced. In that sense, there could have been dragons inside the black hole and I'd be OK with that. But to have a three stage rocket necessary to leave earth and then just fly off other planets in what is essentially an airplane is just ridiculous. There are many similar errors in the movie.
2) There is no need to state the obvious throughout the entire movie. There is no need for a character to say "I'm pressing this button" - I can clearly see you are pressing it. Over 75% of all communication is non-verbal, I think filmmakers need to stop worrying that something would not be understood if it's not spelled out.
3) I'd love to see a psychiatric eval of characters in Interstellar. Why is it that humanity's brightest need to act as disordered psychopaths in order to have "character".
4) Do not betray your own premise. Interstellar is a movie much more about loss and grief then space travel. And even that's OK. But why, why did you need to put a ravaged and beaten main character in a position where he could change the past and avoid what he is lamenting the entire movie. Even that could have been a great moment where he could have understood the meaning and necessity of his suffering. Instead he repeats actions that set the entire plot in motion and seals his fate again, while screaming through tears that he does not want this fate. Like his brain and hands somehow became disconnected.
Oh, the robots were a total upside. Such a novel take on AI, loved every line and every scene.
A 6/10 for obvious incredible effort.