Review: Interstellar (2014)

Snap Judgment: Interstellar got such terrible word-of-mouth reviews from my friends, that I avoided seeing it in theaters. I didn't even go when it reached the second-run theater. And the second-run theater has beer that helps dull the pain of slogging through an unbearable movie.

In retrospect, I wish I had seen it in theaters. Instellar - while no Inception - was far better than my low, low expectations. Except for the last 20 minutes, which was a headache and a half. Save your five dimensions for someone who cares, Nolan. Wait, is the 5th dimension love? It's love isn't it? I'm pretty sure Anne Hathaway says that the 5th dimension is love. I'm not sure if that makes the movie more or less sensical.

In the near future, where crop blight and dust is going to kill off all humanity, pilot/astronaut/engineer Matthew McConaughey lives on his farm with a cranky old John Lithgow, his adorable moppet daughter and his terribly neglected son (seriously, it 100% seems that the only child the movie and McConaughey care about is the daughter). McConaughey figures out the coordinates to a mysterious building that turns out to be NASA. They tell McConaughey that there have been three secret missions to habitable planets through a deus ex machina wormhole. They need a new mission to collect the data and figure out which planet is habitable - either to bring earthlings to it (if NASA can solve the unsolvable problem of gravity? something? whatever, it's really hard to figure out but vital) or to use the thousands of frozen human embryos to begin humanity anew. They want McConaughey to take the job. For some reason, the mission is leaving right now. He has no time to have more than a weepy goodbye with his daughter and a stoic "take care of the farm, son." Did NASA not have a pilot yet?? Were they just sitting around, hoping that the perfect candidate would stumble into their secret location and agree to abruptly leave his family to save humanity? This kind of terrible planning is how you ended up hiding in a secret bunker, NASA.

So off McConaughey goes, clinging to the desperate hope that he will return before his children are no more than bones and dust. With him goes Anne Hathaway, rockin' being McConaughey's foil - she puts humanity first, while he puts his family first. There are two more male astronauts, who got out-personality-ed by the robots. The robots were cooler, funnier, smarter, and all around more badass than all the humans put together. They had all the best lines, and they made all the best decisions. How has there been no robot revolution on this dying earth??

There's a lot of cool special effects on a couple of crazy planets (water planet and ice planet). And in between the special effects, there's plenty of philosophizing. Should loyalty be to one's family or one's race? What should be sacrificed? What's selfish and what's selfless? How do you make decisions when the stakes are so high?

There was aspects to make this movie great - the Big Ideas pondering, the acting, the special effects. But the plotholes! Oy vey, the plotholes! Plus, when you get too much sciencebabble about multi-dimensions, black holes, etc. I would just rather it all be handwaved and someone shout SCIENCE! as the explanation. I don't care how many astrophysicist consultants there were - that's what's happening underneath all the gobbledygook anyway. Handwaving because SCIENCE. 

Grade: B

Final Verdict: Confusing pseudoscience mixed with cool special effects. Don't fight the hypo, and you'll be fine.

If You Like This, Watch: Gravity, The Dark Knight Rises, Contact, Prometheus, Solaris, Inception, Snowpiercer, District 9, Children of Men, The Road, Ender's Game, Armageddon, Sunshine, Looper