Good, but not THAT good!

Rating: 6/10 (22 March 2015)

Interstellar is a science-fiction film directed by Christopher Nolan, starring Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain and Michael Caine, soundtrack by Hans Zimmer and cinematography by Hoyte Van Hoytema.
In a near future, Humanity is close to exhausting the planet's natural resources. The Earth is now an inhospitable place, pests and constant dust storms destroy the little food that remains and life is becoming unaffordable. Cooper (McConaughey), a former aerospace engineer, now works as a farmer. He lives with his father-in-law and his two children, Murph (Mackenzie Foy) and Tom (Timothée Chalamet), to whom he tries to teach the entrepreneurial spirit lost by a society that only tries to survive. It's because this way of being that Cooper is eventually chosen to lead an expedition through space-time with a mission to find a planet that has conditions favorable to life and where the human race can continue to write its History.
The first section of Interstellar has a very slow pace which is actually alright, because the acting of Matthew McConaughey and the editing of Lee Smith make the ride worthwhile. There's also some interesting cinematography but all this don't really compensate for one of Nolan's endemic flaws: the uninteresting, basic and anti-natural writing.
In the second half of the movie, we witness some brilliantly orchestrated action scenes and a very clever usage of CGI. This is complemented by an impressive use of the sound atmosphere in which the total silence in the scenes in space contrasts with the intensity of a soundtrack that brings together all the typical elements that Hans Zimmer already showed us in the past. Casey Affleck - as adult Tom - and McConaughey show us some really good acting but is Jessica Chastain as Murph in adulthood who really steals the spotlight. On the other hand, Hathaway is the less shining star, lacking strength and sincerity in some moments.
Nolan referred to 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) as the biggest influence to the creation of Interstellar, and it shows. This affinity is both conceptual and visual and even the robots in Interstellar are a clear reference to the mysterious monolith of 2001. However, Nolan forgets the reason why 2001 is such a masterpiece: Kubrick didn't want to make it easy for the audience to understand. The beauty of 2001 is its ability to be interpreted in various forms, as every work of art should be. Well, Interstellar fails big time on that chapter!
Although it's a daring work in view of the current reality of Hollywood, this film does not break completely with all the premises of the American film industry as it should, in my opinion. You may leave the theater completely overwhelmed by it, but it's highly likely that you start liking it less and less, the more you think about it. If that's the case, please go back to IMDb and change your rating (8,8 for this film is way high).
Nevertheless, Interstellar presents itself as a breath of fresh air in the science-fiction film production of the last two decades and that is worth something.