A film I wish I loved

Rating: 6/10 (17 April 2018)

As someone who loves sci fi, esepcially philosophical sci-fi, I was looking forward to interstellar. And for the first half of the movie I was ready to call it a masterpiece. It was engaging and ejoyable on a surface level, but it also had great themes. I can't call the cinematography anything less than perfect, the score less than entrancing and the performances less then great. The writing is scientifically accurate and well defines the Murph family, but everyone else is given typical Nolan characteristics, in that there too serious to have a personality. But that didn't bother me too much. The whole concept of Cooper having to, in a way choose between his family and the whole universe is interesting and explores human natural and love. It's just a shame then that they can't follow this theme through.
Then there is one particular scene. I believe it is after they enter the wave planet. Anne Hathaway talks about love, and how it is everything. This speech is my biggest problem with the movie. The film wants to suggest somehow that his love for his family is key to solving the crisis on Earth. This doesn't really make sense and is not deep. The whole love thing being important becomes very prevelant in the film, but I think it isn't deep at all. Love being important can be summarised in a sentence, but the importance of love can be analysed. It isn't. If you don't care about philosophical elements of the film that's fine but the film keeps bringing back to it. I can turn my brain off in a movie, but when you ask me to think and I think what you're saying is stupid, then you have made a mistake.
The whole ice planet scene and Matt Damon being introduced is just unneccessary. Yeah, Damon is the opposite to McCaughnehey in terms of ideals, but we don't need a villain. We don't need a fight scene and a villain like him. He's supposed to be a villain that we think is crazy but we ultimately find him to be relatable, however he just comes across as selfish. Wouldn't it be better if say Hathaway was constantly budding heads with Cooper, and then made a rash decision to try to go back to Earth that cost the crew and led to the docking scene? Rather than forced villain that prevents us from thinking and sympathising with his motives we would be able to philosiphise the situation.
The ending is what gets me the most. You've probably heard all the criticism. It being a huge Ex-Machina is not my problem (although it is definitely). I think the ending betrays what the movie was building up to. Instead of leading to an answer or something that gives us more clues or ideas, it leads us to a scene that is obviously meant to pointlessly 2001 style enter this new dimension and conclude that love controls and binds everything. How deep. The ending being an ex-machina doesn't bother me for it being a huge coincidence, but it really doesn't make sense to end like this. Although I don't like the time scene, it is a perfect way to end the movie. The audience anticipates an outcome that they think about. They think about the ending which the movie should do, but once we know everything, what do we think about?
I think the scene should've ended by showing Cooper reaching out to Murph to tell her to tell him not to go on the mission, and she responds, changing time in a way that is very vague so we don't really get what happens.
Human desires could be explored better, but I see them as only partially shown, in a way where I see essays written about them that I feel were evaluated after analysing every scene. If it is shown only a bit then we can't explore it, and as such it can't be as philosophical ad pure sci-fi as say the golden standard 2001. It is enjoyable, but that is all Interstellar will ever be to me. Good but not great.