“Interstellar” is an epic production best enjoyed in the selected theaters showing it in 70mm IMAX. More than an hour of the 2-hour 45-minute film is shot with IMAX cameras, used for creating more dramatic impact in selected scenes as the screen suddenly and subconsciously gets much taller.
Disappointingly, the image of the film was very high contrast dulling the pallette of colors and looking almost poorly digitized.
The cast in this story about a father who leaves his children behind to travel to another solar system in hopes of finding a way to save the dying Planet Earth is impressive and a pleasure to watch, from primary stars Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathway and Jessica Chastain to supporting actor Michael Caine and a surprise appearance by a high-profile star more than halfway into the movie.
Unfortunately, writer-director Christopher Nolan appears to have aspired to be as epic and mind-bending as “Gravity.” Instead, the movie winds up being a series of scenes that will remind you of better movies.
- The relationship between stars McConaughey and Hathaway grappling with unprecedented challenges in space is a reminder and pale comparison to George Clooney and Sandra Bullock in “Gravity.”
- A character introduced about halfway through the movie (a surprise appearance by a high-profile star) reminds baby boomers of the self-centered, villainous Dr. Smith in “Lost in Space.”
- A surreal climactic sequence feels like Nolan’s attempt to match the Beyond the Infinite final chapter of “2001: A Space Odyseey,” but where “2001” director Stanley Kubrick allowed the audience to interpret the meaning of the eye-popping imagery, Nolan explains everything in detail as if the audience is eight years-old, leaving nothing to the imagination except what could/should have been.
- There’s an “Apollo 13” rip-off in which McConaughey’s solution to a scenario of certain death is to use a planet’s gravitational pull to slingshot their craft around the planet to give them the life-saving boost they need.
- There are even likely inadvertent nods to other space films such as “Silent Running,” “Armageddon” and “Star Trek.”
Interestingly, Nolan’s most notable non-Batman movies all seem to have multiple syllable single word titles that begin witn “In…” — “Insomnia,” “Inception,” and now “Interstellar.”
They each also have something in common with his Batman/Dark Knight movies; a multi-syllable word that also begins with “In…” — indulgent.
But while his other movies were almost all good enough to overcome Nolan’s apparent unwillingness to cut scenes from his movies to bring them in at less than 2 1/2 hours, “Instellar’s” predictability renders it tiresome about one-third of the way through.
— By Scott Hettrick