More drama than sci-fi, should have been better.

Rating: 5/10 (8 November 2014)

Christopher Nolan has made some great films, but alas, this isn't one of them. It's not a bad film, but as sci-fi, it misses the target. A film about alien life forms is credible, because it's possible, but a film that mumbles abstract nonsense about a relationship between quantum data, time and five dimensions, that puts a primary character behind a bookcase to observe what's going on in front of the bookcase while unable to communicate through the books had me shaking my head. And then, in what seemed like an eternity later, in a silly and inconvenient way he does communicate. Also, I'm still wondering about the significance of the drone chase sequence. Particularly distracting was when HE rose from the pod. Maybe if I'd known he was in the movie would have prepared me for it, but it came across as an unintended joke. And the constant crying by every one of the characters was just too much. Reportedly costing $165 million to make, the money sure doesn't show up on the screen. For all the questionable raves about the effects, among other things, I wasn't wowed by them at all. A dark color palette full of dull grays was far from inspiring, as good science fiction should be and it came across on the screen as being low budget to me. Visually, it was no Oblivion. The relationships and drama between the characters is the main focus of the film with space and time travel serving only as a device to advance and put some quirkiness into that plot line. As I said, it's not a bad film. Without the lofty expectations of seeing top notch sci-fi from a great film maker, it still had some good dramatic and emotional moments that held my attention, largely because the actors threw their all into it and because Hans Zimmer's great score made some overly long sequences seem way more exciting that they were. Here's hoping Mr. Nolan gets back on track next time out.