Is this flick really about space exploration . . .

Rating: 9/10 (12 November 2014)

. . . or is it more of a high-tech remake of 1960's THE TIME MACHINE? That is only one of many questions raised by INTERSTELLAR (beginning with, "Is it really so easy to drive a rusted-out Dodge Ram pick-up truck on flat tires through green, roof-high corn stalks?"). Conflating galaxy-connecting worm holes with galaxy-destroying black holes is the least of INTERSTELLAR's brazen pseudo-science. Giving the Astronaut Cooper character the ability to travel back decades in time, by-passing all the Eloi-munching Morlocks, and then communicating with his daughter via a wristwatch that doesn't look very dust resistant (and which has been on a shelf all that time, in the Superbowl of Dust) may strain the belief of some viewers. Furthermore, since Astronaut Romilly knew in advance that he'd be alone in the mother-ship while his buddies were gone a decade or two, why didn't he keep the gray out by setting his sleep capsule on the "hibernate indefinitely" setting used by Matt Damon's "Dr. Mann"? The characters here state that humans were used for this mission rather than robots exclusively because the former improvise better. But you don't see C3PO wrestling R2D2 at the drop of a space helmet as each new frontier is reached in STAR WARS. (This is NOT the case for the people of INTERSTELLAR.) So give me those old time robots, give me those old time robots, give me those old time robots, they were good enough for Luke!