Visually Amazing. Nolan hits the mark again.

Rating: 8/10 (9 November 2014)

Knowing nothing about the film other then the obvious hype, we went to an early Friday showing to avoid the crowds. The theater was staffed to the rafters in expectation of the Big Hero 6 and Interstellar crowds. Sort of cool because the patronage in the early afternoon hours was light which meant our concessions at any register was well cared for...even after I muffed my first bag of popcorn against a fellow patron. Regardless, the review.
Stunning film. Visually stunning. You sit there and wonder how does someone film something like this. At first the "GoPro" shots from the end of a rocket or spacecraft was really weird, but the music that accompanied the shot was amazing. Show up with no inhibitions, no thoughts of anything you have read online or what you've heard about this movie. Show up blank and absorb. It is not your normal three act movie. It builds, it blends, it drags you along, it commits and it finishes with tears in your eyes.
The soundtrack and some shots will remind you of Kubricks' 2001 A Space Odyssey. In fact, there are many scenes that will remind you of 2001. So many that at some point I was waiting for a Monolith to show up sans the monkeys. The use of silence on outside space shots, the crescendos of the music to immediately drop to a diminuendo. The weirdest thing, the robot named TARS that, crazy as it seems looks like a monolith from 2001 and acts like HAL! Also, it is a blocky, Lego-like black object. Who would take something like this on a trip? No idea how it moved into the ships and on land. I expected it to just fall over like a turtle and squirm on its hard square shell.
Okay, the movie. Matthew McConaughey. Ugh. If you've seen the Lincoln car commercials or True Detective, this is the Matt you get. Slow talking, pausing between sentences, hell, pausing between words. Does he deliver? Yes and no. I think the 169 minute running time could have been shortened to 141 had Matt just finished a sentence like any normal person in this world. Maybe he forgets what he was doing? No idea. Anyway, so the movie. Incredible. You sit there and wonder how such a movie is made. It almost seemed like the characters of the movie were secondary actors to the visual and audio of it. I think the robot, TARS had more emotion then anyone in the film.
The film really is about love. Not a love story but the story of a father trying to get back to his family. That is moving. Maybe even heartbreaking. Matt Damon is a freak in this film and I wish they had cast someone else because he is a great actor. His part brings so much tension to the film, it takes another 30 minutes to relax and finish the rest of the film. Thank God it is 169 minutes because at this point, 30 minutes to relax is just another drop in the bucket.
The science is great. You really will go home an Google a bunch of terms you didn't know before seeing this movie.
Spoiler here. The ending - a nice 2001 or 2010 Space Odyssey (not sure) flyby through space and time. Blurred stars, tunnels, etc. Then into a very strange scene that totally takes the movie into such a SciFi spin that you feel cheated. In Act 2, you already (if listening) figured out who the "ghost" was and in Act 3, you laugh to yourself because honestly, Nolan gave up.
Go see the movie. It is great. It has emotion, science, love, and is a sort of an original concept. The best thing is the visual and sound and I would not doubt that they get awards for both. There are some twists, some turns and a lot of "WTF's" as you try an piece things together.