A New "Space Odyssey" with Another Confusing Ending

Rating: 9/10 (18 June 2016)

Originally a Spielberg project dating all the way back to 2006, it once again tries to answer several age-old questions such as: should mankind continue, why we are here, and what will we evolve into? Set in the not-so-distant future, but in a curious manner. Not written by Arthur C. Clarke. NASA is a secretive organization and yet cars and trucks look similar to today. After we learn all there is to know about Cooper's life and past, we finally "blast-off" after 43 minutes. Cooper is a former NASA pilot and it drawn back into the program by Prof. Brand and his daughter. Cooper leaves behind his family including his children Tom and "Murph". His son remains a farmer and she becomes a scientific genius. As the Earth is now a giant "dust-bowl" where nothing will grow due to a lack of rain and blight-failing crops. So we journey beyond our universe using a worm-hole provided by what appear to be friendly aliens but turn out to be evolved versions of Mankind. Beautiful images of wonder, space travel, hostile planets. Two astronauts die and a spacecraft is lost. There are robotic lifeforms (like "HAL") that can "walk" and remind us of the "monoliths" from Space Odyssey. Rather than even try to explain it all clearly, Cooper is somehow able to transcend the boundaries of the time-space continuum and communicate with his daughter, Murph, back on Earth. He gives her the gravity equations that allow NASA to move Mankind to another home world past Jupiter. Only Cooper and Brand's daughter return from Space. They are still young while everyone else has aged over 100 years. After saying goodbye to Murph, as she dies of extreme old age, he borrows a transport to rejoin "Astronaut Brand" as she attempts to establish a new colony. A good cast including John Lithgow, Michael Caine, Mathew McConaghey, Anne Hathaway, and newcomer Mackenzie Foy as "Murph". It's not a "10" in my book because the conclusion(s) are very hard-to-follow. The future aliens (us) evolve into Casper-the-ghost-like beings and the two astronauts are sort of "reborn" but not exactly as Star-Children. Compelling storytelling with beautiful special effects and action but a bit long and we only get to enjoy about two thirds of the entire intended story. The final answer for our existence is all about love and compassion. War ceased to exist because there was no place for it, as everyone was dying of air pollution and starvation.