Interstellar - poetical, poignant- but hopeless

Rating: 6/10 (29 November 2014)

***Warning! This review contains spoilers!***
In the overlong beginning of this film we learn that the citizens of the world have become xenophobic farmers. The people face an unending famine in which the barren world lays dying, and the future holds nothing for them but starvation and suffocation. Cynical man has rewritten science history so that textbooks contain revisionist falsehoods. The hero of the film, Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) know much of this to be a lie, because he was once trained to be an astronaut before everything fell apart.
So now there are constant dust storms in this cold and bleak world. Dust covers everything, killing the crops and choking the people. The subtle message appears to be: man came from dust, to dust he will return.
This is an exceedingly bleak future vision. Despite the surrounding despair, Cooper teaches his children to seek after knowledge, to test every hypothesis. The daughter, Murph (Mackenzie Foy) is convinced that there are "ghosts" seeking to communicate with them from an upper room. Cooper encourages Murph to develop her proof of the phenomenon.
The plot moves along when Cooper and his daughter, Murph, stumble upon a "secret NASA" which has launched an ambitious project to colonize space. The project is called "Lazarus". Cooper makes a cynical remark about the project name. In response, the head scientist, Professor Brand (Michael Caine), speaks of the underlying idea of a resurrection. Cooper retorts, "Yes, but you have to die first."
Professor Brand recruits Cooper for his efforts to explore other worlds that have become accessible by a wormhole in space. The recruitment effort is aided by the presence of the professor's lovely astronaut- scientist daughter "Astronaut Brand" (Anne Hathaway). However he later discerns after the launch of the mission that she is betrothed, and that she yearns to see fellow scientist Dr. Edmunds--who is trapped on one of the planets.
Professor Brand states his own life's philosophy by quoting the 20th century poet Dylan Thomas: "Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rage at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light."
Professor Brand perpetuates a hoax on his colleagues, having personally lost all hope of saving present mankind. He has scientists and astronauts chasing their tails for decades looking for data that is impossible to obtain. The purpose of this exercise is to devote energies to "Plan B"--which is to populate a distant world, while the world left behind dies off.
The vain search for "Plan A" data leads to the sacrifice of crew member Doyle, who does not make it past the first inhospitable planet. As time works differently close to the black hole, 23 years go by on earth while the crew are only a few hours on planet one.
When they get to planet number two, crew member Romilly (David Gyasi) is the next victim, when the revived Dr. Mann (Matt Damon), who is in on the hoax, sabotages the transport and blows him to pieces. Dr. Mann has broadcast a great quantity of false data that his world is viable, when in fact, it is not. This series of events exposes Dr. Mann's ineptitude when he blows himself away in the getaway. Admittedly, this is the most exciting set of sequences in the film and moves the plot along at a faster pace.
Cooper drops Astronaut Brand off at the final planet where she will have the best chance to reunite with her true love. He then takes the bold step of entering the black hole, where strange things happen to his ship. Cooper ejects from his space pod which injects the surreal quality to the final events.
Did Cooper die? Was he preserved by the black hole? Arguably, he could just be engaged in a dreamlike coma before the end. As a consolation prize, however, Astronaut Brand got to her new world so the species might survive after all--maybe.
(Or did he die when Dr. Mann cracked his face plate on planet two?) Either way, if he has died, this means that mankind is not saved, and everyone on earth suffocates or starves, and detrimental for the plot, he is not able to keep his promise to his daughter.
Here are the difficulties that I find are insurmountable: 1. Real farmers have faith and knows the conditions as well as the seasons--then invest in crops grown with hydroponics (unless water no longer covers 3/4 of the world's surface in this future).
2. Real scientists come up with more than two plans. How is it that all these NASA scientists follow Dr Brand and no one ventures to verify his equations. "Hey Doc, let me look at those figures?" Also, how is it that the future of the survival of all mankind depends upon only two plans, and six guys to carry it out?
3. A real shipwrecked survivor would never opt to kill his rescuers. and evidently, he is unaware that his fellow astronauts are the only ones who are able to properly dock with the space station.