The new movie Interstellar starring Matthew McConaughey and directed by Christopher Nolan is destined to become a science fiction classic like 2001 but I don’t think it will be appreciated in our time. At three hours long I think some audiences will have a hard time staying engaged. The cast and story may make it a contender for the Oscars even without commercial success.
The story starts in the near future. The only hope for humanity is to go off into space and look for a new home. The buzz about the movie talked a great deal about how they used the latest quantum science theories in the visuals. I tried to follow what I could. I’m assuming that they got the quantum mechanics right but I think the Newtonian physics and relativity science was flawed. At one point our characters fly to a planet, park in orbit and descend to the surface. Somehow on the descent to the planet time would pass more quickly. What? I guess I need to see it again to understand it. I really wanted to like this movie but the basic physics flaws really ruined it for me. It tries to be as good as Contact but what we get is an art film.
The movie was beautiful. The story and characters were interesting. The music was a bit distracting but in the end will prove as timeless as Holst. Towards the end of the move Nolan was definitely aping Kubrick. The robots in the movie a just weird but they do grow on you a bit. There’s a scene about half way through the movie where we see a robot reconfigure itself so that it can carry a person and move quickly. That was interesting.
I did enjoy seeing this movie in 70mm. As part of the release of this film Nolan gave priority to theaters that agreed to show the movie on film over digital projection. This comes on the same week that Taylor Swift is shunning Spotify so maybe its just retro fashionable like the mix tape from Guardians of the Galaxy.
I recommend this movie for sci-fi fans especially if they are a fan of 2001. If your theater is showing it in IMAX or 70mm then so much the better. For most everyone else, I’m sure there’s some other way you can spend three hours and twenty bucks. I recommend The Right Stuff.
