Nolan pulls it off again

Rating: 6/10 (18 November 2014)

Minutes after finishing the much anticipated and publicised new film by Christopher Nolan, Interstellar, I started thinking how long would Nolan's gripping "directing formula" possibly continue to carry films and awe audience before they grow tired of it with repetitive use. As in Inception, Batman trilogy and other films by the same director (the brilliant 2001's art-house "Memento" aside), the fast-paced editing with heavy, persistent epic soundtrack, the suspense-rich storyline with an interesting dangling cause and managing the climax with fast- switching multiple narrative threads work again in Interstellar, and with the state-of-the-art visual effects it becomes an enthralling cinematic experience.
In a dystopian future, where Earth is rapidly growing inhabitable, a spaceship pilot with a team of explorers set out in an almost desperate attempt to find a substitute planet to sustain humanity. The storyline, albeit average in depth, was once again gripping with suspense from the first sequence showing the future Earth where human life is facing extinction, all the way to the end, keeping the audience on the edge of their seats, aided by the overpowering background music by Hans Zimmer throughout the journey. However, there was the inevitable predictability specially with the fans of the genre and particularly since it is a major Hollywood production following the guidelines of the genre. Hollywood being Hollywood meant that everyone should expect a happy ending, a reunion between the father and daughter in different ages as hinted early on, the same way the lone survivor in a spaceship managed to eventually return to Earth in last year's acclaimed 'Gravity', and during the intense moments of suspense we know they will make it through the black hole to the other side and back (after a team member absurdly briefs the pilot, or rather the film spectators here, about what a black hole is, minutes before the spaceship goes through it). The plot can be susceptible to scrutiny as well once the dust settles and the effect of the awe-inspiring visual effects starts to fade.
An enjoyable spectacle with brilliant visuals and good acting, that can be quite absorbing at times specially if watched on a big screen and even better on IMAX. An ambitious effort towards an epic space film with human emotions. However, unlike Inception, Christopher Nolan's sci-fi/thriller masterpiece, which I still regard as a modern classic, and one of the top sci-fi films of the century whose value will be retained and even more appreciated over the years, and indeed '2001: A Space Odyssey' and even, to a lesser extent, Gravity, I doubt that Interstellar will live with wide audience for long with its forgettable characters and storyline. A cinematic moment or two might survive but not the film as a whole.
The predictability, the over-reliance on certain elements, the somewhat anti-climactic last few minutes, along with a certain lack of depth, undermine for me the suggestion that Interstellar can pose a challenge to the status acquired by "2001: A Space Odysseys", an idea that I find preposterous to in these circumstances. The overuse of Dylan Thomas's poem "Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night" did not help much in adding depth to the script. It remains, however, one of the films of the year and will deservedly be nominated for multiple technical awards this year.