Sunday, November 16, 2014

Interstellar Review and Thoughts

Beware there be Interstellar spoilers below! ARRR!

I think the music is the best part of Interstellar.  The soundtrack is simple as Hans Zimmer plays a basic organ driven score, but it is damn effective in emphasizing key moments in the film.  The highlights come at the failed Matt Damon docking scene and at the end when Matthew McConaughey sets off for Anne Hathaway and the stars.  The former score ensures to the audience the impending doom that will befall that cowardly Dr. Mann with music that sounds like it’s coming from an organ surrounding an apocalyptic sermon.  Everybody but Dr. Mann knows that Dr. Mann is going to die due to what I’ll refer to as the “space crazies” and the score drives that point home with its frantic escalation and sudden stop when he shoots out into space.  The jarring emergence of space silence ends Dr. Mann’s life in a whimper rather than the crashing boom we all were expecting due to the preceding crazy tomes (there truly is nothing like a scientifically accurate film).  As good as the docking sequence music was, my favorite musical moment occurs at the end when Cooper’s dying daughter tells him to leave her side and go find Dr. Brand.  I’ve heard people criticize this scene because it looks like Murph is pushing her father away after they finally reunite after a long, long time with the general sentiment being why would she push him away after all the fuss she made about him possibly never returning?  I will defend old, dying Murph by saying that her character comes full circle.  At first, she demanded her father stay and not abandon her despite the consequences it may spell for humanity, but now after realizing he never did nor would abandon her and having grown wiser, is finally able to let her father leave to further help the human race.  She accepts her father’s quest and is able to finally let him go (I teared up during this scene so shut up).  Also, Murph wanted to spend her final moments with her children who she knew her whole life rather than a metaphysical father spirit.  It harkens back to the monologue about dying in front of your children (that evil Dr. Mann be discussed later).  The score at the end when she tells Cooper to go out there is again simple but very effective.  It is hopeful and a little sad, but more importantly is expansive and conveys the need for us as humans to explore and fight for each other.  We are at heart explorers and adventurers and the ending music tells Cooper to keep embracing this role and to go out there and do all we can to survive and help others.  It is my favorite musical piece in a beautiful film.

Dr. Mann is a dick and I knew it from the moment I saw Matt Damon emerge from the sleep tank because I never forgave him from being the mole in The Departed (there I said it).  His role in the movie was the most annoying as he fulfilled the obligatory stupid human role that so many films seem to include (i.e. like the stupid gun bearing guy in Dawn of the Planet of Apes).  I will forgive his stupid character by just saying he got a case of the “space crazies” that surfaces when one is left to die alone on a planet light years away from home.  I know I could never have survived that mission without going insane, but then again unlike Dr. Mann, I would never have volunteered for the suicide mission.  Plus, having the evil character be called Dr. Mann and involve him in a fight so that people can say it’s a battle between Mann and man; genius.  I’m a sucker for obvious symbolism Christopher Nolan.

I did not understand why Murph ever thought her father abandoned her once she got older.  When she’s a kid I understand her resentment completely, but when she’s a 30 something year old scientist?  I don’t think so.  What in her memories of her father would ever point to him wanting to abandon her?  Was it the time he took her to a baseball game after she got suspended due to him standing up for her?  I just couldn’t understand the hatred.  And another thing, give Cooper a break for not responding back!  The guy went through both a wormhole and a black hole; I think it’s quite understandable that he can’t Skype back a message.  Cut the savior of humanity some slack.    
Interstellar is unlike any blockbuster film out there because it is not afraid of ambition.  The movie is not another sequel or prequel or movie based on a popular teen series.  It is an original idea (with about a million allusions) imbued in a love of science and adventure that is presented to the masses.  Immediately after seeing this film I walked around in a daze staring at the night sky until I got home and looked up everything I could find on space travel.  This is a film that inspires us to look up at where we may go and to utilize our potential rather than just succumb to being caretakers (thank you Cooper).  This film is a success if people race home after having several hearty discussions to go look up footage from the Apollo 11 landing or to check out if the events of the movie are possible.  Not many films will have the same effect as Interstellar in terms of discussion and exploration.  A great companion piece to Interstellar would be to watch footage of a moon landing or learn about how we just landed on a comet.  Get interested in what NASA has for us and let us push to Mars and beyond.  Space exploration isn’t a useless and money wasting expenditure as it forces us to innovate and create (watch Neil deGrasse Tyson on Bill Maher for more on this).  Interstellar is an ode to human potential and the explorer in all of us and it is unlike any blockbuster I’ve seen this year.

I would like to have a TARS or a CASE in my life as those robotic Kit-Kat bars are delightful.  It is always pleasant to see a future where the robots aren’t as evil as HAL.  If only we could program everything to have the exact humor and honesty levels we desired. 


Overall, I heartily enjoyed Interstellar and am willing to look past any plot holes or annoyances I had with the film.  It was a beautifully shot film and was also one of the saddest films I have seen in a while (to miss your children’s lives and see them right before they die is one of the saddest thoughts one can ever have).  I hope Christopher Nolan keeps making original films like this because they stand out so much in the creative marketplace and instill a scene of wonder and awe that I don’t find at many movies (until Star Wars 7 comes out).  So I say a toast to Christopher Nolan and the hope that he keeps chasing his muse into beautiful mind bending places.  

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