2001 Space Odyssey done right

Rating: 10/10 (23 December 2014)

I personally loved the film. It is an impressionist film, it's about feelings and images, and if you try to analyse individual strokes - the picture falls apart. But so is Metropolis (albeit Metropolis has a much better musical score).
Despite the film shortcomings, of which I will talk extensively, I still give it 10 stars, as it's been a while since a movie would really engage me on some deeper levels.
Of course, there are plot gaps, and the film stumbles, sometimes dragging painfully slow, sometimes rushing through skipping over. But even despite the lack of consistency and attention to writing, it brought me to magical places, and I consider it to be one of the greatest movies I've seen up to date.
Interstellar is evidently inspired by the 2001 Space Odyssey, and I think Christopher Nolan in his attempt perhaps moved one step closer to making some of the ideas that Kubrick expressed more palatable. In case of 2001 Space Odyssey, I appreciate the idea and feeling behind it, but find it excruciatingly painful to endure long minutes of watching one cardboard piece slowly sliding on top of another - especially in this age, where the audience is spoiled by the hyper-realistic CGI renderings.
Just in case one have heightened expectations of the movie, here are things that are 'wrong' about Interstellar, and one should be prepared for it, since the film is not about space at all - it's about human emotions, and also circumstances where our humanity would fall apart and reassemble itself differently.
Interstellar is inherently impressionist and symbolic (like Metropolis), where form and meaning of symbols take precedence over their literal meaning or technical implementation. Interstellar sacrifices a lot. Here are some of the things that are 'wrong' with the film:

Over-exaggerations and often stretched emotions where normal people would behave differently.

Massive plot holes and often lack of reason on behalf of the characters.

Bearable but mediocre musical score

Sketchy and shallow characters, unreasonable immature adults behaving like spoiled teenagers.

Science touches some advanced topics while falling short at basics.

Strictly speaking, the movie is not science fiction. I wish that Christopher Nolan for his next project would involve more mature and qualified people in writing, pay attention to detail and spend more time in making characters more believable - I think by now he can certainly afford it. That being said, in my opinion Interstellar is perhaps his best work up to date, where for me personally it's certainly more important than his other masterpiece 'Dark Knight', as the latter was a form of high quality entertainment, while Interstellar is something to be inspired with.
Speaking of the film score, Hans Zimmer is definitely among my least favourite film composers. He is not a composer at all. A good sound designer at times, but he can't do any music. The loud minimalist score with organ chords, sketchy piano notes and synths at times was reminiscent of 'Also sprach Zarathustra' used in the Kubrik's movie, and that created a certain atmosphere, but the rest of the score, if one would look for a positive word to describe it, is hardly anything more than 'bearable'.