Note: Not really any spoilers, but don't read this if you want to go into the film super unbiased. My only advice is to go in with LOW EXPECTATIONS.
The premise of the film is that the earth (or from what we see: a farm in Kansas) is jacked up by rolling dust clouds and there's a huge shortage of food so everyone within two generations is going to either starve or suffocate. So Nasa sends a space mission to find new worlds we can inhabit. "We're not [earth] caretakers, we're pioneers; explorers." To me that's basically a corporate slogan. Why spend money to try to stop ruining the world when we can just spend money on finding new ones? Super brilliant idea. Thanks for spitting in the face of all the farmers too.
This movie was extremely long for 3 hours and terrible at the beginning and middle, but the last 15 minutes were ok. I had high hopes going in but the character development is horrifically bad, all of the characters are miscast, and there are large parts that are completely irrelevant to the plot that just drag on and on. I had expected the soundtrack to be good and it was OK, but there are more than a few times where the music becomes the most suspenseful when nothing really exciting is happening. And when stuff did become exciting I was already over it.
The movie tries to be a sci-fi flick while also trying to work within the bounds of real physics and it fails miserably at both of those. I'm completely fine with suspending reality for a movie, but not when its trying to use real science to explain what is happening. Alternatively, I like documentaries because they deal with real life. This movie would have been much better if they didn't try to justify what was happening with a few scientific phrases.
Cliches ABOUND in this thing. And bad ones.. Either it's been done to death by other films or it injects something completely asinine into the storyline such as, "Love transcends space and time [so we're going to make decisions based off of that]."
Anyways I just wanted to type that out so I did. I give this film 4/10. Some of the effects were cool.
Interstellar
SPOILERS BELOW:
The robots were the best characters in the movie by far
The music at sometimes drowned out what was being said. Hope I didn't miss anything important!
Love is a force on par with gravity?
This movie seemed to make it a strong argument for women not going into space (getting that guy killed on the wave planet), that love bs - they really seemed to be pitching the fact that emotions overrule science
At the end how the hell did Murph know to tell Coop that he should go hang out with Brandt on that new planet? If they knew she was there why not send a damn rescue mission for her or colonist?
For the life of me I could not figure how humanity would have survived to ensure they lived long enough to be able to create wormholes WITHOUT a wormhole being there in the first place. You could make the argument that the embroys on the colony raised by brandt were the forefathers of these new badass humans but how would they have gotten there? The only satisfactory explanation I found (stolen from reddit)
QUOTE This is a Predestination Paradox and there is a solution.
The answer, I believe, is that we are seeing in the movie - at minimum - is the third timeline.
Timeline 1: There is no wormhole near Saturn. Humanity suffers the blight. There are very few survivors, possibly the only survivors use the last of Earth's resources to build a colony in space - possibly they seal themselves underground like was alluded in the film. Maybe humans die off completely and the work of science is taken up by robots who have one, multi-millenia long mission - open a wormhole between our Earth and a habitable world for humanity. After tremendous suffering and thousands of years of effort, this is finally achieve, leading to:
Timeline 2: The wormhole appears near Saturn, and the events of the movie play out like they do in the film. With a couple of exceptions. Cooper is a skilled NASA pilot and he goes on the initial 1st wave exploration missions. Brand follow's her heart (this makes me think there were prior manipulations here to make sure she was on the team, and we're well past the 2nd timeline, but for the sake of clarity lets say that it's a coincidence) and they go to the right planet, Edmund's planet. They set up Plan B. They go home or don't and Earth humanity dies from blight, or at the very least they are very nearly wiped out like in Timeline 1. Tremendous suffering and thousands of years of progress are lost. Eventually humanity evolves to the point where they can manipulate the 5th dimension. In an effort to leapfrog their society ahead by thousands of years of development and progress and increase biodiversity, they develop a plan to save Earth's people and impart them with 4th dimensional knowledge. That brings us to
Timeline 3: They knock Cooper's plane out of the sky and he never goes on the first wave missions. They set him up to find NASA and the events of the film play out. They drop him in the tesseact and allow him set up the chicken-egg cycle that ensures he finds NASA in the first place, and also enables him to send the data to his daughter that she needs to save humanity.
The future beings interfere in these oblique ways because of causality, the wormhole is by Saturn because it's far enough away that it won't substantially change the course of events that eventually allowed humanity (or their robot leftovers) to create the wormhole in the first place. They use Cooper to solve Plan A because it doesn't interfere with Brand's implementation of Plan B. Anything they try has to be out of the way - to not erase the chain of events that led to the creation of the first wormhole in the first place.[/quote]
The robots were the best characters in the movie by far
The music at sometimes drowned out what was being said. Hope I didn't miss anything important!
Love is a force on par with gravity?
This movie seemed to make it a strong argument for women not going into space (getting that guy killed on the wave planet), that love bs - they really seemed to be pitching the fact that emotions overrule science
At the end how the hell did Murph know to tell Coop that he should go hang out with Brandt on that new planet? If they knew she was there why not send a damn rescue mission for her or colonist?
For the life of me I could not figure how humanity would have survived to ensure they lived long enough to be able to create wormholes WITHOUT a wormhole being there in the first place. You could make the argument that the embroys on the colony raised by brandt were the forefathers of these new badass humans but how would they have gotten there? The only satisfactory explanation I found (stolen from reddit)
QUOTE This is a Predestination Paradox and there is a solution.
The answer, I believe, is that we are seeing in the movie - at minimum - is the third timeline.
Timeline 1: There is no wormhole near Saturn. Humanity suffers the blight. There are very few survivors, possibly the only survivors use the last of Earth's resources to build a colony in space - possibly they seal themselves underground like was alluded in the film. Maybe humans die off completely and the work of science is taken up by robots who have one, multi-millenia long mission - open a wormhole between our Earth and a habitable world for humanity. After tremendous suffering and thousands of years of effort, this is finally achieve, leading to:
Timeline 2: The wormhole appears near Saturn, and the events of the movie play out like they do in the film. With a couple of exceptions. Cooper is a skilled NASA pilot and he goes on the initial 1st wave exploration missions. Brand follow's her heart (this makes me think there were prior manipulations here to make sure she was on the team, and we're well past the 2nd timeline, but for the sake of clarity lets say that it's a coincidence) and they go to the right planet, Edmund's planet. They set up Plan B. They go home or don't and Earth humanity dies from blight, or at the very least they are very nearly wiped out like in Timeline 1. Tremendous suffering and thousands of years of progress are lost. Eventually humanity evolves to the point where they can manipulate the 5th dimension. In an effort to leapfrog their society ahead by thousands of years of development and progress and increase biodiversity, they develop a plan to save Earth's people and impart them with 4th dimensional knowledge. That brings us to
Timeline 3: They knock Cooper's plane out of the sky and he never goes on the first wave missions. They set him up to find NASA and the events of the film play out. They drop him in the tesseact and allow him set up the chicken-egg cycle that ensures he finds NASA in the first place, and also enables him to send the data to his daughter that she needs to save humanity.
The future beings interfere in these oblique ways because of causality, the wormhole is by Saturn because it's far enough away that it won't substantially change the course of events that eventually allowed humanity (or their robot leftovers) to create the wormhole in the first place. They use Cooper to solve Plan A because it doesn't interfere with Brand's implementation of Plan B. Anything they try has to be out of the way - to not erase the chain of events that led to the creation of the first wormhole in the first place.[/quote]
I'm sorry I don't remember any of it. For you the day spideycw graced your squad with utter destruction was the most important day of your life. But for me, it was Sunday
Idanmel wrote:QUOTE (Idanmel @ Mar 19 2012, 05:54 AM) I am ashamed for all the drama I caused, I have much to learn on how to behave when things don't go my way.
My apologies.
Nolan is overrated. Inception was a clever film for stupid people, Batman was a Frank Miller rip, Man of Steel was like remaking Robin Hood, Transcendence was a yawn fest...
Memento was great tho.
Memento was great tho.
Last edited by carbon on Mon Nov 10, 2014 4:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Are you guys serious?
Make your own conclusions of me, if you must, based on what I think of this movie; but I found it one of the greatest achievements of cinema history.
This movie sums up current zeitgeist like nothing else, from gender issues to space exploration to "the point of it all" to human nature. Sure, there are glaring plotholes but that's what you have to deal with when you delve into issues that are mostly unknown to us: space/time travel. But on the human nature front this felt like a really honest movie.
The Nolan Brothers, to me, are great storytellers to the point of visionaries.
Add on top of all this great visuals, some nice action and drame that ties in well extremely well with the plot, guesses as good as any as to how the science of it all works (do you know how gravity works in the 5th dimension, cause sure as hell I don't), and this made for an amazing film. 10/10.
Make your own conclusions of me, if you must, based on what I think of this movie; but I found it one of the greatest achievements of cinema history.
This movie sums up current zeitgeist like nothing else, from gender issues to space exploration to "the point of it all" to human nature. Sure, there are glaring plotholes but that's what you have to deal with when you delve into issues that are mostly unknown to us: space/time travel. But on the human nature front this felt like a really honest movie.
The Nolan Brothers, to me, are great storytellers to the point of visionaries.
Add on top of all this great visuals, some nice action and drame that ties in well extremely well with the plot, guesses as good as any as to how the science of it all works (do you know how gravity works in the 5th dimension, cause sure as hell I don't), and this made for an amazing film. 10/10.
One short sleep past, we wake eternally and Death shalt be no more; Death, thou shalt die! 
10/10?
You think the film was perfect?
It was good but that seems a bit much, especially because you even mention the glaring plotholes but give them a free pass.
The guesses of how the science of the underlying plot were not good guesses at all! Unless LOVE is a powerful fifth dimensional force that transcends space/time.
The pacing also felt off with the movie being about 35 minutes longer than it needed to be.
It's between a 7-9 depending: how good your suspension of belief, your love of teenaged angst drama, tolerance for common movie tropes, ability to dismiss giant plot holes, and your skill at analytical thought if you ask me.
Stunning visuals though
You think the film was perfect?
It was good but that seems a bit much, especially because you even mention the glaring plotholes but give them a free pass.
The guesses of how the science of the underlying plot were not good guesses at all! Unless LOVE is a powerful fifth dimensional force that transcends space/time.
The pacing also felt off with the movie being about 35 minutes longer than it needed to be.
It's between a 7-9 depending: how good your suspension of belief, your love of teenaged angst drama, tolerance for common movie tropes, ability to dismiss giant plot holes, and your skill at analytical thought if you ask me.
Stunning visuals though
Last edited by spideycw on Mon Nov 10, 2014 9:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.
I'm sorry I don't remember any of it. For you the day spideycw graced your squad with utter destruction was the most important day of your life. But for me, it was Sunday
Idanmel wrote:QUOTE (Idanmel @ Mar 19 2012, 05:54 AM) I am ashamed for all the drama I caused, I have much to learn on how to behave when things don't go my way.
My apologies.
11/10 for big hero six
phoenix1 wrote:QUOTE (phoenix1 @ May 5 2013, 08:35 PM) Vogue is clearly #1 and commanding against him feels like commanding against Spideycw at times... though he lacks that little bit of "I don't care who's on my team or what the factions are, it's going to be a stomp anyways" that Spidey managed to pull off in his heyday.
It all depends on your own belief system as well. The Love thing, in reality (ie. I'm talking about concrete, call it "Newtonian" reality, and not the reality inside the Blackhole where basically all bets were off), was exactly ONE line: the female Brand talking about Edmunds. That was exactly her perspective. I thought it a poetic expression of another aspect of human nature.
I don't know what to believe about what happens inside a black hole. For me the whole last 25 mins were an immensely convoluted thought experiment. I like to see it as if Cooper was dead and having dreams while dead. For all we know about singularities, he might as well be... On the other hand he might essentially be god, for his gravity-manipulating omniscient all-time-present abilities. But then again, Why dream of his daughter's room? It goes back to the whole "point of it all" question. Our human nature, nay the very nature of our universe, makes everything non-human a bit nihilistic (even the pyramids... or even the knowledge that we ever built pyramids... will be nothing once our galaxy collapses, right?). Making love, again, the short-sighted but only-possible answer we have, so why not put it on a transdimensional pedestal?
Before I mentioned the only thing that actually bothered me in the film. The whole thing a la "Signs" of predestined things happening, like signs being sent into the past from some future entity. It's a whole other can of worms that gets opened once you even hint that we might ever manipulate 5th dimension.
That wasn't even the plotholes I was trying to refer to at first. The plotholes I did mention were just based on timetravel paradoxes and which is why I give them a free pass. Anytime you run into paradoxes, if you make an even slight good effort I'll give you an A, 'cause there is really no $#@!ing right answer (well, until we finally make a time machine). But you can't avoid the paradoxes if you wanna tread new (because it hasnt been done in this context... ie. blackhole gravity pull, unless you probably counting series I haven't watched) ground.
Why 10/10 after all that? Because I can't think of a better movie than this (what, you gonna call "The Godfather" more compelling than this?). More of a complete package. 10/10 because I think that THE WHOLE OF HISTORY OF CINEMA has culminated in this movie. Even if there was a lot of imitation (eg. it reminds me of great movies like 2001 [slow and at least to me, enjoyable pacing in outer space context], Contact [interstellar beings?, "the point of it all"], Inception [personal journeys], etc.), it was greats being imitated and moreover, taken one step further.
I don't know what to believe about what happens inside a black hole. For me the whole last 25 mins were an immensely convoluted thought experiment. I like to see it as if Cooper was dead and having dreams while dead. For all we know about singularities, he might as well be... On the other hand he might essentially be god, for his gravity-manipulating omniscient all-time-present abilities. But then again, Why dream of his daughter's room? It goes back to the whole "point of it all" question. Our human nature, nay the very nature of our universe, makes everything non-human a bit nihilistic (even the pyramids... or even the knowledge that we ever built pyramids... will be nothing once our galaxy collapses, right?). Making love, again, the short-sighted but only-possible answer we have, so why not put it on a transdimensional pedestal?
Before I mentioned the only thing that actually bothered me in the film. The whole thing a la "Signs" of predestined things happening, like signs being sent into the past from some future entity. It's a whole other can of worms that gets opened once you even hint that we might ever manipulate 5th dimension.
That wasn't even the plotholes I was trying to refer to at first. The plotholes I did mention were just based on timetravel paradoxes and which is why I give them a free pass. Anytime you run into paradoxes, if you make an even slight good effort I'll give you an A, 'cause there is really no $#@!ing right answer (well, until we finally make a time machine). But you can't avoid the paradoxes if you wanna tread new (because it hasnt been done in this context... ie. blackhole gravity pull, unless you probably counting series I haven't watched) ground.
Why 10/10 after all that? Because I can't think of a better movie than this (what, you gonna call "The Godfather" more compelling than this?). More of a complete package. 10/10 because I think that THE WHOLE OF HISTORY OF CINEMA has culminated in this movie. Even if there was a lot of imitation (eg. it reminds me of great movies like 2001 [slow and at least to me, enjoyable pacing in outer space context], Contact [interstellar beings?, "the point of it all"], Inception [personal journeys], etc.), it was greats being imitated and moreover, taken one step further.
One short sleep past, we wake eternally and Death shalt be no more; Death, thou shalt die!
-
Abomination
- Posts: 712
- Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2004 8:00 am
- Location: Miami, FL
I loved the movie although the Predestination Paradox bothered me. I came up with a similar thought that spidey's redditor did... but the movie never mentions any of this cool @#(!, ergo it's an unsatisfactory explanation, ergo massive *shrug* feelings for the end of the movie.
I also felt it ran about ~20 minutes too long. I think the epilogue could have cut out while the emotions were still high, with him floating in space... maybe show a 20 second clip of him potentially still being alive and someone (maybe him?) coming for Michael Caine's daughter at the end. More mysterious, better pacing, and less of a "love" message that haters like Dome can hate upon.
Regarding the comment on the movie using made-up science: it's almost impossible to see a movie be completely hard sci-fi. In fact, plenty of quality written sci-fi doesn't go particularly hard (even when its writers have done their homework or know their fields!) because it doesn't usually make for good prose. All most sci-fi really is human reactions and predictions to a new, often unexplored paradigm. In this, it can be compared to the fantasy genre. See: Le Guin's works.
I give its problems a free pass just 'cause I felt it was inspirational. Solid 8, 8.5/10.
I also felt it ran about ~20 minutes too long. I think the epilogue could have cut out while the emotions were still high, with him floating in space... maybe show a 20 second clip of him potentially still being alive and someone (maybe him?) coming for Michael Caine's daughter at the end. More mysterious, better pacing, and less of a "love" message that haters like Dome can hate upon.
Regarding the comment on the movie using made-up science: it's almost impossible to see a movie be completely hard sci-fi. In fact, plenty of quality written sci-fi doesn't go particularly hard (even when its writers have done their homework or know their fields!) because it doesn't usually make for good prose. All most sci-fi really is human reactions and predictions to a new, often unexplored paradigm. In this, it can be compared to the fantasy genre. See: Le Guin's works.
I give its problems a free pass just 'cause I felt it was inspirational. Solid 8, 8.5/10.
Last edited by Abomination on Wed Nov 12, 2014 5:14 am, edited 1 time in total.
