Space flight flick goes further
By Cazzy Lewchuk, Staff Writer
4/5
Interstellar is the latest film directed by Christopher Nolan, the man who brought us such memorable blockbusters as Inception and The Dark Knight trilogy. This movie is a very difficult one to summarize without giving too much away and opinions of its merit are going to vary. It’s the type of movie that you’ll come out of with your friends debating its meaning, what exactly happened, and whether it was terrible or a masterpiece.
The plot can best be described as Inception meets Gravity. Set in the near future on an environmentally decimated Earth, the film follows a rogue NASA sending a group of astronauts out into the galaxy to discover new habitable worlds. Matthew McConaughey, who has turned into a phenomenal dramatic actor in the last couple of years, plays Cooper, a farmer and now pilot of this crew. He commands a ship through a wormhole towards another galaxy, searching for another world for humanity to inhabit before they go extinct on Earth.
The movie is visually spectacular, there’s no doubt about that. The movie is probably best to see in IMAX and/or 3-D if possible. There was no green screen used in filming—an absolutely astounding fact, considering most of the film is set in interstellar galaxies and other worlds.
Performances by every cast member are excellent, ranging from the lead to supporting actors: Anne Hathaway, Michael Caine, and Jessica Chastain. A lot of deep and emotional themes are explored. Not many movies will remind you of how much you love your family while also reminding you of how massive and mysterious outer space and the universe are.
Interstellar suffers somewhat from its extremely long running time of two hours and 49 minutes. Just when you’re wondering how the movie is going to wrap up, it drags on for another awe-inspiring sequence. Since it’s so visually astounding and captivating, this isn’t the worst thing to happen, but it’s definitely something to know going in. Every single sequence and scene is interesting and memorable in some way, even if you’re not quite sure what’s happening the whole time.
This movie will appeal to the science fiction nerd deep within us (or, for many of us, already on the surface). Anyone with an interest in space exploration, the future, epic filmmaking, or dramatic performances will enjoy this movie. It’s a typical Christopher Nolan film—you don’t know what to expect or what to take from it and you may have to watch it twice to fully get the gist, but you’re pretty sure you enjoyed it.
In a decade where private space flights and talks of early space colonization exist, Interstellar is a definite reminder that, as quoted by Cooper, “Mankind was born on Earth. It was never meant to die here.”
