[Perry] Interstellar

Note: The POST is completely spoiler-free. The comments section may not be. Read past the post at your own risk!

Silence and thinking.

That’s all I had to go on when the movie ended. Sitting in the theater once the lights came back up, I glanced over at my friend, who glanced back at me. I raised an eyebrow, and he raised his in return. Then, shaking my head, I gathered up my coat and got ready to leave.

I didn’t know what to say, I didn’t know what to think of it. It was too immediate, too big to put into words at just that moment.

For those not in the know, Interstellar is the latest movie from Christopher Nolan. The trailers you can find give away almost nothing about the movie except for the barebones premise: The earth is dying, people are sent up into space to somehow save the day.

And truthfully, it’s better that way.

It’s better to go in blind, with only the vaguest idea that the movie is going to do with space and not much else.

It makes everything hit a lot harder.

So what can I tell you about the movie without giving things away?

The Good Bits

For starters, visually speaking? Holy hells. Go and watch this movie on the biggest movie screen you can possibly find. If you’re at all into space porn (shots of stars and galaxies and space vistas), this movie has got that waiting for you in spades. The planetary vistas are also very, very lovely. And the shuttle/spaceship also looks very nice.

The music and the score was also incredibly fitting. Hans Zimmer was instructed by Nolan to do away with the endless strings and the big drums that seemed to be the go-to for big, epic sounding scores and to try something new and fresh. What he did? Worked, and boy howdy, did it EVER work. The music fits every scene in the movie so damned well, and is ESPECIALLY effective during the tense, edge of your seat moments.

Speaking of which…

The edge of your seat moments? The nail-biting, pulse-pounding, “holy shit, will they make it?” sort of moments are just…Grade A material here. There’s a bunch of them sprinkled throughout the movie. Their frequency is just enough that you get to almost, but not quite, catch your breath after each one before the next one comes along. Of especial note is the one that comes about halfway into the movie. You’ll know which I’m talking about once you see it. But I was right there in that scene, RIGHT THERE.

It was glorious.

That’s not to say the movie was perfect. There WERE definitely some issues to be had.

The Not So Good Bits

The movie is fairly slow-paced. There are definitely some nail-biting, edge of your seat moments sprinkled throughout, but largely speaking, it IS a slow moving film.

Think of…think of an elephant. An elephant ballerina. Underwater.

Do you have that image?

There’s grace there, for sure. The balletic movements and the slow, languorous movements of being under water are graceful as hell. But there’s a lot of…mass? I’m wondering if this makes a lick of sense. It’s graceful, but huge. Looks like it’s moving on purpose and with slow deliberation, but DEFINITELY doesn’t seem the type of movie that can change tones on a dime like your average summer blockbuster.

There ARE various little flaws and plot holes. None of them struck me as all that huge, and to be honest, there was nothing that really stood out to me until hours later, when I was at home and had more time to digest it all. But they ARE there. I didn’t think they hampered my enjoyment of the movie much, but depending on how badly those types of things bother you, your mileage may vary.

A background in science (specifically, astronomy and the theory of relativity) isn’t NECESSARY, but it helps a lot. A lot, a lot.

 

Finally, there are some deus ex machina elements here or there. I never felt they were too glaring and could be easily explained in the context of the film, but depending on your abhorrence of such devices, it might be something to watch out for.

Final Thoughts

It’s a powerful fucking movie.

I use that word with purpose and with great deliberation. Interstellar is a phenomenally STRONG movie.  It has big tense action-y moments, and swings at you with huge emotional blows, not just jabs or punches, but more like getting hit by a mountain. You’ll see them coming, but you’ll have a hard time doing anything about it, or preparing yourself for it, if you catch my drift.

I overheard some folks, as I left the theater, complaining that they had a hard time following it, or that they didn’t know what had happened. But to be frank, if you can follow along with Nolan’s other movies? Movies like Inception, or Memento, or The Prestige? Interstellar shouldn’t give you any trouble.

I very highly recommend checking this one out.

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