Interstellar: The Review

Rating: 10/10 (1 December 2014)

Interstellar is a spectacular movie. It is emotionally moving, visually captivating and has a really smart story to tell. Being a great Sci-Fi fan (Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke being my favorite authors), Interstellar was a tremendous treat for me.
I would like to utilize this review to discuss the themes portrayed in the movie and to try to resolve some of the "plot holes" that may have jeopardized other viewers' experience of this great film.
SPOILER ALERT: DON'T READ ANY FURTHER IF YOU HAVEN'T WATCHED THE FILM
THEMES IN THE MOVIE
1) Love: The most prominent theme in the movie is the love between a father (Cooper) and his daughter (Murphy). Love is an enigmatic entity and in the film, a very interesting point is raised (the Amelia Brand monologue). If you really think about it, what exactly is love? As Dr. Brand mentions in the film, love really has a strong influence on our lives since it is a very strong "mental force" that does "transcend time and space"; but, unlike other physical forces, one we can't (yet) quantify.
2) The explorer spirit: The film highlights mankind's spirit to explore the universe and to survive against all odds. This is exemplified through the Lazarus and Endurance missions.
3) Man (Dr. Mann): This is a very interesting theme as portrayed by Dr. Mann. In my opinion, Dr. Mann represents mankind as we know it. Everyday we make heroes out of people and these people get deeply entangled in this façade created by the world for them. People are told that they are "the best of us" and then they have to live our expectations. What we create for these individuals is a personality prison and all that it takes for these individuals to fall is "a little push" (Joker, the Dark Knight). This is Dr. Mann: a egoistic hero who falls; a hero created by the world who succumbs to his weaknesses when his survival itself is at stake.
ADDRESSING THE "PLOT HOLES" AND OTHER ISSUES
1) Wait, Cooper is just taken in by NASA when he shows up at their front door?
Firstly, Cooper had discovered the "gravitational anomaly" that lead him to the NASA base. Now, "they" had created the wormhole and if "they" themselves reveal the location of NASA (the closest guarded secret), NASA can't help but oblige. Moreover, he knew Dr. Brand (the head of operations) personally.
2) Why does one astronaut need to tell the other astronaut stuff about black holes and worm holes? Won't they already know all that?
Well, not really. Astronauts are not astrophysicists and it is extremely unlikely that they'll require knowledge of a black hole in their career. In fact, when an astronaut was asked what a wormhole was during the Google Hangout on the movie, she couldn't answer and she said that she was no astrophysicist.
3) How does Cooper not die when he fell into the black hole? Won't he be "spaghettified"?
Not if the black hole is super-massive, which it was in the movie. If the black hole is really big, the tidal forces won't be strong enough to rip you apart; it won't be comfortable, however. The science of the movie is pretty spot-on (note that the final act was mostly speculation based on some speculative scientific theories). I recommend that you read "The Science of Interstellar" by Kip Thorne.
4) What about the bootstrap paradox? The wormhole is needed for humanity to survive; but the wormhole can exist if humanity survives? WHAT IS GOING ON?
This is a question that I believe is not directly addressed in the film. So, I came up with two of my own theories
THEORY 1: Majority of the human population on the earth die, except for a small group of individuals (their number is arbitrary) that were able to escape the earth' demise in a small space settlement. Since this settlement is small and doesn't need to carry the entire populace of the earth, the equation of Plan A is not needed to lift this settlement off the earth (It could also have been built in space, like the Endurance). Humanity travels in this ship for generations and thousands of years till they reach a suitable planet (mind you, there is no worm hole to help these travelers). After a few more thousand years, humans finally evolve into the 5th dimensional beings ("they"). However, now they realize that humanity wasted a lot of years in traveling to the other planet. Thus, they create the wormhole to ensure that a new timeline (a parallel universe) is established, where humans become "they" much faster, thus accelerating human evolution.
THEORY 2: This idea stems from the idea put forth in Asimov's Foundation. FOUNDATION SPOILER AHEAD---In Foundation, Gaia is the next state of human evolution-an interconnected galaxy of humans that is essentially a living organism itself---FOUNDATION SPOILER ENDS. Similarly, if we evolve to the 5th dimensional state, it'll stand to reason to ensure the survival of your species in as many parallel universes as possible. This will be the next logical step in evolution. Thus, "they" in the movie are human beings from another dimension that try to save us in our dimension, furthering the interests of the human species and ensuring its survival.
5) How does Coop end up just in the right spot near Saturn for him to be rescued in the nick of time?
Once in the Tesseract, Coop's fate was in the hands of "them". Thus, it was they who transported him to just the right spot for him to be rescued in the nick of time.
MOVIE SPOILERS END.
In a nutshell, Interstellar is an amazing movie and I highly recommend that you watch it. Thanks for reading!