Good, but didn't quite meet my expectations

Rating: 7/10 (22 August 2016)

I tried to keep my expectations realistic for this movie. And the movie was certainly quite good and very visually gratifying. However, as a Nolan fan I was left a bit disappointed. Inception and Dark Knight are some of my favorite movies of all time. Prestige, Insomnia, and memento are also great flicks as is the entire dark night trilogy. But while those movies were more well-rounded, (bringing elements of intrigue, fascination, humor, action, great characters, twists, etc.), this movie left me wanting more. It had wonderful potential. Early on I was hoping the pace would pick up some, which it did, but even though things were moving slowly I was still interested in what was happening on screen. Unfortunately, other than McConaughey and Hathaway, there weren't really any characters I cared about. I suppose if you are mostly interested in seeing some really fantastic footage of space and planets and hearing a little physics talk then this could be a great movie for you. There were certainly some bright moments that were full of suspense and wonder. The soundtrack also played great. But there was the potential to do much more here and at a faster pace. Some great actors were in the movie, but the early scenes really didn't do a lot to make the audience feel connected or even like many of the characters. Also, I understand not all movies can be rainbows and puppy dogs, but the movie was a bit bleak and depressing. Heck, the funniest lines came from the robots of all places! They certainly could have used more humor and smiles from the actors interspersed throughout the movie. Also, the dialogue was a bit tricky to hear at times and somewhat difficult to understand as well. Another problem was that the explanations of what was happening didn't make a lot of sense. Scifi movies will obviously have some aspects that are far fetched, but the movie followed widely accepted theories quite a bit and then all of a sudden there was a very odd, uninteresting final scene explaining how gravity was being used to transcend time for communication. Like how in the world did he end up in this strange 3D chamber containing countless doors to the past through the old bookshelf through which he communicated with Murph? And if humans built this, why couldn't they devise a way to communicate further back in time to warn everyone to treat the earth better or it would be depleted soon. Kind of strange how he didn't even ask about his son when he woke up too. I assume he was dead since he was older than Murph and had lung damage but you'd think a father would at least say "hey what's Tom's status? dead or alive?". It's nice to see that McConaughey survived and all and got to see Murph briefly but a better ending in my opinion would have involved him getting back home to a time when the kids were still young so he could be a part of their lives. I mean I'm no astrophysicist but if time is a dimension and it can move faster in a forward direction for one location relative to another, then it stands to reason that time could move in reverse, just as an object moves from one x coordinate to another and back again, for that one location, while moving in reverse at a much slower rate in the other. If they could have stumbled on some weird black hole like body of matter that's more like an anti-black hole then this could have been accomplished. And although it might have been a bit of a stretch, its far less of a stretch than some of the other events that transpired closer to the ending. Another possible ending that wouldn't have been bad would have been if his kids were still alive, but a bit younger, perhaps in their 40s or 50s and maybe we would get to see a few scenes of McConaughey married to Hathaway with Murph and Tom and their families all spending a holiday together on the newly colonized planet. There are plenty of endings that would have given a bit more satisfaction and closure. All in all, cool to see but If I could communicate with the me from 3 hours ago I'd say don't expect a whole lot,its more of a visual masterpiece than anything else. Not enough story going on. I hope Nolan can get back to his former self for the next projects and create the kind of movies that leave me fully satisfied and thinking for days after.