Interstellar Review

Interstellar Review

For months I have been waiting for the release Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar. Nolan casted the brilliant Matthew McConaughey for the lead role in his latest blockbuster, drawing even more appeal to one of the most hyped movies of the year. Nolan hasn’t directed a movie since the conclusion of his epic Batman trilogy, and Interstellar has been in the works for a few years now.

Interstellar tells the story of a group of astronauts that travel through a wormhole in deep space in an attempt to find a new planet for the people of Earth. Set in the not to distance future, the movie begins by telling the story of Cooper, played by McConaughey, and his family living in a world that has exhausted all of Earths natural resources. Cooper and his daughter Murph, discover the location of the remains of NASA and Cooper is tasked with leading a team to find a new home.

            Michael Caine, a favorite of director Christopher Nolan, is the head Scientist at NASA tasked with finding a way to save humanity. Cooper agrees to go through the warm hole, which they know leads to another galaxy orbiting a massive black hole. Cooper and his team head out in hopes of saving humanity. I don’t want to tell to much more of the plot line because I encourage everyone to see this movie, as the story and acting are both extraordinary.

It is Christopher Nolan at his best, and there is no actor in Hollywood that is better than McConaughey right now. Nolan broke onto the scene in 2000 with the release of his thriller Memento. However, Nolan really made a name for himself with the release of Batman Begins in 2005, a darker more action packed version of the comic book classics. Nolan followed up Batman begins by releasing two more Batman movies, both of which are acclaimed as some of the best action and Super Hero movies ever.

Matthew McConaughey was casted as the lead for Interstellar in 2013 after Nolan saw his performance in Mud. Since Mud, McConaughey has become one of the hottest actors on the planet. His role in HBO’s True Detective showed the world he was capable of totally diving into a role. However, McConaughey wasn’t done with just True Detective. His performance in Dallas Buyers Club earned him an Oscar for actor in a leading role, one of the most coveted awards in movies.

McConaughey would costar with Anne Hathaway, a previous star of Nolan’s film The Dark Knight Rises, his conclusion to the Batman trilogy. Paramount announced in 2013 that McConaughey and Hathaway would be the stars of Nolan’s new film, produced from his company Syncopy.

Originally one of the movies producers Lynda Obst, who came up with the idea of the movie with physicist Kip Thorne, sold the idea to Paramount and Steven Spielberg. But in 2009 when Spielberg moved his DreamWorks Productions from Paramount to Disney, the movie needed a new director. According to Entertainment weekly, it was Nolan’s brother Jonathan, writer of the Interstellar script, that recommended Christopher to direct the movie. It was interesting to me reading that originally Spielberg was on board to create this movie.

Interstellar is Nolan at his directing and writing best. With the help of his brother Jonathan, who also wrote the Batman trilogy, the team created a movie that is more than just visually appealing. Much like Inception, the depth of the story line amazed me. As outlandish as the story line is, viewers are captivated by what will happen next. But above all else are the performances by the actors, the writing is so good you can’t take your eyes off of the action. “The pace is gripping, the central performances compelling and the action sequences thrilling” Said Rich Phippen of Sky Movies. 

Many people have compared Interstellar to 2001 A Space Odyssey and Gravity, because of the space exploration side of the movie. However, with Interstellar you don’t feel like it’s a movie about space exploration. It’s much more that that. It’s a story of a man trying to save humanity and return home to his children.

Interstellar dives into a topic that many people are not familiar with or interested in, physics. Nolan received praise from the science community for the accuracy and use of the space-time continuum and the theories of gravity in the movie. Although, we are not able to travel into deep space the movie makes you think that maybe someday we will find a way. It also in a weird way tells the story of how we are burning through our own natural resources. I don’t think Nolan’s message was to say “Hey people you are killing earth” but the movie makes you wonder if we are prepared to face those consequences.

Nolan has almost created a cult following with his movies. He is a director that is not afraid to take risks, especially with his writing. We see this in Memento and Inception; two movies that people either love or can’t stand to watch. Nolan is becoming one of the premiere directors in Hollywood and people (like me) can’t wait for his next big blockbuster.

All together I thought this movie exceeded expectations. We haven’t seen anything from Nolan in a while and expectations for this movie were extremely high. To begin once again the Nolan brothers wrote a script so complex and full of wow moments it is impossible to not be captivated. Another reason this movie was so successful was the cast. McConaughey, Caine, and Hathaway are all huge names and Nolan casted them perfectly. For me, I’ve been excited for this movie for a while so I think naturally I really enjoyed it. I thought it was such a new concept and idea for a movie, much like Inception. I’ve never seen a movie quite like this. However, for all the praise I am giving it the film received mixed reviews. IMDB gave the movie 9/10 stars, extremely high praise. However, other people thought the ideas of the movie were to outlandish and fake. Many critics were left wanting more, that the final revelation let them down. 

All together Interstellar is a movie that you have to see for yourself. The ideas and science in it are to complex to explain without seeing them. It is also a movie that I think you need to go to the theatres to really experience. I was fan, but I think you should go see for yourself!!