Thought-provoking adventure,

Rating: 8/10 (5 November 2014)

This movie felt like it tried to accomplish two simultaneous and somewhat incompatible endeavors.
First, it was thought-provoking. Many questions were raised. What would life on earth be like if our climate runs amok? What happens to government when we all have to live hand-to-mouth? Are "they" out there communicating with us? Is it the essence of humanity to survive, or is it to pioneer, and, by extension, evolve? Second, it was also an adventure. I watched this in a full IMAX theater, with eighty bajillion watts of Super Thunder-Round Sound, or whatever the kids call it now. The visual effects definitely shine on the IMAX screen. The format switches occasionally, and usually imperceptibly, between 70mm for the scenes with dialogue, to IMAX format for that full-on dose of retina-overload spectacle. This movie is a wonderfully fun ride through a strangely familiar extra-galactic world. There are also plenty of tense moments, after which you realize you've been holding your breath.
I'm glad I went to watch this. That said, I think the film suffers a little from trying to be both an adventure thrill about the dangers of space travel, let alone an actual confrontation with a nemesis, and also a multi-layered allegory involving the dimensional tangle of time, gravity, love, and what it means to survive.
It asks more questions than it explores. While it fills in for the missing answers with white-knuckled brushes with death, it wasn't as intellectually satisfying as I hoped. I spent an hour discussing the thoughtful components with a friend. In the end, we were grasping to find symbolism, metaphors, or other messages about humanity. We never coalesced "the message" of the movie.
But did we need to? It was, as I said, also a thrill ride. The adventurous climax was a little less than terrifyingly dramatic; I can't say I had the same post-climactic cathartic experience as I've had for other movies. But it was a definite end, closing most of the open plot points. I certainly felt moved by the characters' resolutions.
I was suspicious that Matthew McConaughey could convince me that he was a space-ready engineer; it turns out that he didn't need to, because he did convince me that he was a dad that loved his children as much as any dad could. I think all the leads delivered solidly: Caine, Lithgow, Hathaway, Damon, Chastain, Affleck... I connected with the characters and felt their pain and happiness.
Hans Zimmer played up the drama in the music a little heavily, I thought, and unnecessarily. It wound up creating the opposite of the effect I think he intended. Many of the scenes could have used a lighter touch, musically. Some of them worked brilliantly.
Although I had my quibbles, the final analysis is that I would definitely choose to watch the movie a second time, but I'm not making plans to, for now.