Nolans 'not quite' 2001

Rating: 6/10 (2 April 2015)

This movie has achieved a very high rating on IMDb and so I had a very high level of expectation before seeing it. My one concern was that I've found Nolan's recent work (particularly Inception) to contain some excellent ideas and cinematography but to be overlong and rambling in places. I found Interstellar to suffer from the same faults. Very interesting ideas, great cinematography, solid cast (although I wish Matthew McConaughey would deliver his dialogue more clearly and not mumble so much. He doesn't seem to have fully recovered from his role in True Detective and I couldn't understand what he was saying much of the time and I was not alone in this. A number of reviewers have used the word 'epic' to describe this movie. I'd be more blunt and say it could have done with some more effective editing. A friend of mind made the comment that it may take several years to get from Earth to Saturn and when you see Interstellar, it feels like you're making the same trip! An exaggeration maybe but the movie is very long and lacks pace at some points. Not all bad news however - some sections are very impressive and visually spectacular, although some ideas have been borrowed from other sources - obviously 2001/ 2010 and Arthur C Clarkes story 'Rendezvous with Rama'. Definitely worth seeing but I don't share the 'masterpiece' line of some reviewers. Good but not great.