Interstellar movie review

The end of the world is upon us again, crops are dying and the human race is slowly suffocating. Its only hope is an ex-pilot turned farmer who just can’t fly again because of his last accident!

A cliché start, I know, so I’m glad Christopher Nolan didn’t play on this too much. Instead he has created an emotional film full of philosophy and discovery; a beautiful ballet in space supported by the brilliance of Hans Zimmer. Even though my friends and I agreed the start was slow, it maintained a good pace, even keeping my attention during a laborious task of docking in space (something that older films like Alien took their sweet time about). The story as a whole is reminiscent of some of the ‘sci-fi classics’: Armageddon, Lost in space, Contact and dare I even say Glados from Portal! (I could use “two words” that some might find to be an ‘Interstellar leap of a spoiler’). But as we keep getting reminded “whatever can happen will happen” and this film certainly did happen.

Looking from the stars to the… Stars of the film! Apart from the crew, none of the actors remain with us for long, something that in retrospect was covered very well. Murphy’s character (played by Mackenzie Foy, Jessica Chastain AND Ellen Burstyn!!) is an interesting one. Often it feels like their acting grows with the character, possibly something they could have all worked on together but overall not a bad joint effort, much better than one character trying to button it all together. Michael Caine’s role of the ‘protector’ (this time of the earth) is done well, both acting and script although there were times when I was expecting him to finish his sentence with “Master Wayne”. Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway both played off each other very well, both hurt, both lost, both trying to find what they are searching for. They don’t allow anything to get overly soppy and keep the reality of the whole plot line in check. One of the best surprises in the cast, but I’ll let you find out who that is when you watch it.

I feel one actor who will be acknowledged less than they deserve is Jon Lithgow. He has gone from being an alien to a killer and now we have him as the voice of reason, ensuring our main characters’ values are firmly rooted in him from the very start. His part isn’t stressed and he can be forgotten about very quickly, as soon as we leave earth, but it is because of him setting the trend of the video blogs of what is happening back on earth that we are kept up-to-date and allowed insight into how Cooper and his crew deal with the current events.

Christopher Nolan’s sprawling space epic is both beautiful and ambitious – MarkMeets Entertainment

Of course any review of this film that left out the A.I.: Tars (voiced by Bill Irwin) would be incomplete. At times these almost felt like a cheap way to get out of a situation, but moments like these were far and few between. Tars also managed to allow natural transitions from heartfelt goodbyes to floating in space using a combination of sarcasm and honesty at the writer’s-discretion. It was a shame, but I feel the biggest let down was the graphics on these guys! Big and clunky I guess is a refreshing change?

I highly recommend taking the time to go and see this (especially if you liked gravity), it is one of the best space films for a long time with a pretty storyline and a cast that was expertly picked by “them”!

Interstellar is released in the US and UK on 7 November

Written by Chuckie

Twitter: @ChuckieGinger

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Brian Ferdinando: Film Critic

Brian Ferdinando aka Chuckie joined us and has delivered outstanding work. The Gaming Vlogger is a sharp hand with a camera (In front and behind it) with slick editing skills too.

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