ashdoc
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Christopher Nolan's INTERSTELLAR starts one one spectacularly grand premise---that all the speculations that scientists and astronomers make about existence of wormholes in the universe and black holes being conduits for space/time travel are true....to the best of my knowledge all these theories are unproven but the movie assumes them to be true ; or rather it assumes that they will be proven in the future .
.....For it is in the future that the movie is set , though it is not the distant but the near future...
And that future is not the future as we envision it , but it is if fact a bleak future...living standards everywhere have fallen , and humanity has been reduced to trying to eke out an existence by farming because there is lack of food on earth---dust storms regularly imperil even the existing crops .
So the leading actor of the film ( Cooper---played by Matthew McConaughey ) , whose talent of flying a space shuttle has been lying unused because of the lack or resources until now , is selected to command and fly a space mission through a wormhole across space and time . He has to fly it to distant planets in some other part of the universe to find if one of them is fit for supporting permanent colonization of humans , where other humans have already been sent a while ago .
And his selection has not been random ; he has been selected not by the group of scientists who are in charge of the project....but he has been selected for his task by 'they' , and even to the group of scientists who are in charge of the project the opinion of 'they' carries far more weight than their own---due to the belief that the wormhole has been set up in the solar system by 'they' for helping us....
So are 'they' ? Are they extraterrestrials who want to help us ? Or is it God himself ??
And does Cooper and his crew succeed in finding out a planet where he humanity can thrive again ??
Above all , what about his family and crying daughter whom he has left on earth ?? Will he meet them ever again , lost as he is across the mists of space and time ?? What about his pain and anguish about not seeing them grow up , and his daughter's pain and anguish at not being able to be with her dad ??
Watch the movie for the answers , for telling any more will be spoiling the entertainment for you.....
To be honest only some astronomer can tell whether all the science fiction shown in the film can come close to truth in reality .
And frankly I could not fully comprehend some of it .But one has to give credit to Nolan for undertaking a science fiction adventure of such grandeur , and showing it with some nice special effects .
It's not a regular thriller at all....but one which relies on the incredible scope of the undertaking ( travel through space in double quick time to find a habitable planet in another galaxy ) to awe us , rather than rely on giving thrills and shocks every few moments like other thrillers .
....And it does awe us , for the scenes like the visuals of the wormhole and sightings of the black hole and the ride through the event horizon are the stuff that astronomer's fantasies are made of . And that's why---a little bit of basic reading of astronomy , if done in the past , will come mightily handful in watching the movie .
Photography of the movie cannot be called fantastic ; I have certainly seen better efforts...
But some scenes , like the tsunami in the sea on the new planet , and the stark topography of the other planet , are breathtakingly photographed , or rather created by the special effects team---for no one has really traveled to distant galaxies to film anything there .
Music of the movie does inspire you however .
Acting in the film can be called good , especially by the lead actor but also by others .
Maybe the movie relies too much on that fragile emotion called love to propel the story forward , or maybe that's the director's way of keeping the audience interested in the midst of all the advanced science fiction . Some gadgets , like the robot which talked and joked besides walking and leaping and calculating faster than humans ( did the robot even wink in one scene ? ), were nice . The idea of fixing the robot's parameters like honesty and humor etc to a certain percentage was funny and likable .
The ending of the movie was a nice touch ; did it hint at an impending romance ??
And...was the bad guy in the film really a bad guy , or was driven to badness by force of circumstances ??
Once more Christopher Nolan has given us a cerebral thriller , which makes other movies that rely on special effects look shallow in front of it . But has he exceeded his intellectual reach beyond what the audience can fully understand and digest ??
To be honest , I was tempted to give a full four stars to the movie , but reduced it by half a star because the movie is not easy to understand . The movie has the feel of a great movie throughout , as if we are watching something epic---is it because it is a Christopher Nolan movie ?? Has the sheer fact that the movie has been made by HIM weighed on our minds to create the effect of greatness ?? I prefer to believe not , but there is no denying that the publicity that the movie has got and the fact that people in a distant country like India are flocking to the theaters ( almost no tickets were available in Bombay in India---where I live ) to see the film is due to HIM .
Verdict---Good enough .
.....For it is in the future that the movie is set , though it is not the distant but the near future...
And that future is not the future as we envision it , but it is if fact a bleak future...living standards everywhere have fallen , and humanity has been reduced to trying to eke out an existence by farming because there is lack of food on earth---dust storms regularly imperil even the existing crops .
So the leading actor of the film ( Cooper---played by Matthew McConaughey ) , whose talent of flying a space shuttle has been lying unused because of the lack or resources until now , is selected to command and fly a space mission through a wormhole across space and time . He has to fly it to distant planets in some other part of the universe to find if one of them is fit for supporting permanent colonization of humans , where other humans have already been sent a while ago .
And his selection has not been random ; he has been selected not by the group of scientists who are in charge of the project....but he has been selected for his task by 'they' , and even to the group of scientists who are in charge of the project the opinion of 'they' carries far more weight than their own---due to the belief that the wormhole has been set up in the solar system by 'they' for helping us....
So are 'they' ? Are they extraterrestrials who want to help us ? Or is it God himself ??
And does Cooper and his crew succeed in finding out a planet where he humanity can thrive again ??
Above all , what about his family and crying daughter whom he has left on earth ?? Will he meet them ever again , lost as he is across the mists of space and time ?? What about his pain and anguish about not seeing them grow up , and his daughter's pain and anguish at not being able to be with her dad ??
Watch the movie for the answers , for telling any more will be spoiling the entertainment for you.....
To be honest only some astronomer can tell whether all the science fiction shown in the film can come close to truth in reality .
And frankly I could not fully comprehend some of it .But one has to give credit to Nolan for undertaking a science fiction adventure of such grandeur , and showing it with some nice special effects .
It's not a regular thriller at all....but one which relies on the incredible scope of the undertaking ( travel through space in double quick time to find a habitable planet in another galaxy ) to awe us , rather than rely on giving thrills and shocks every few moments like other thrillers .
....And it does awe us , for the scenes like the visuals of the wormhole and sightings of the black hole and the ride through the event horizon are the stuff that astronomer's fantasies are made of . And that's why---a little bit of basic reading of astronomy , if done in the past , will come mightily handful in watching the movie .
Photography of the movie cannot be called fantastic ; I have certainly seen better efforts...
But some scenes , like the tsunami in the sea on the new planet , and the stark topography of the other planet , are breathtakingly photographed , or rather created by the special effects team---for no one has really traveled to distant galaxies to film anything there .
Music of the movie does inspire you however .
Acting in the film can be called good , especially by the lead actor but also by others .
Maybe the movie relies too much on that fragile emotion called love to propel the story forward , or maybe that's the director's way of keeping the audience interested in the midst of all the advanced science fiction . Some gadgets , like the robot which talked and joked besides walking and leaping and calculating faster than humans ( did the robot even wink in one scene ? ), were nice . The idea of fixing the robot's parameters like honesty and humor etc to a certain percentage was funny and likable .
The ending of the movie was a nice touch ; did it hint at an impending romance ??
And...was the bad guy in the film really a bad guy , or was driven to badness by force of circumstances ??
Once more Christopher Nolan has given us a cerebral thriller , which makes other movies that rely on special effects look shallow in front of it . But has he exceeded his intellectual reach beyond what the audience can fully understand and digest ??
To be honest , I was tempted to give a full four stars to the movie , but reduced it by half a star because the movie is not easy to understand . The movie has the feel of a great movie throughout , as if we are watching something epic---is it because it is a Christopher Nolan movie ?? Has the sheer fact that the movie has been made by HIM weighed on our minds to create the effect of greatness ?? I prefer to believe not , but there is no denying that the publicity that the movie has got and the fact that people in a distant country like India are flocking to the theaters ( almost no tickets were available in Bombay in India---where I live ) to see the film is due to HIM .
Verdict---Good enough .
but a damn good movie.
