View Poll Results: Interstellar (Nolan, 2014) — The Reviews Thread
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Interstellar (Nolan, 2014) — The Reviews Thread
11-10-14, 01:32 AM
#151
DVD Talk Hall of Fame
Re: Interstellar (Nolan, 2014) — The Reviews Thread
Last night I watched America 3000, needless to say that watching Interstellar today was sock rocking.
11-10-14, 06:20 AM
#152
DVD Talk Godfather
Re: Interstellar (Nolan, 2014) — The Reviews Thread
A.O. Scott's favorable review in The New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/05/mo...dayspaper&_r=0
Here's a dissenting comment accompanying that review:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/05/mo...dayspaper&_r=0
Here's a dissenting comment accompanying that review:
11-10-14, 06:24 AM
#153
DVD Talk Godfather
Re: Interstellar (Nolan, 2014) — The Reviews Thread
Saw it in 70mm on Sunday. Fantastic visuals, great score, good acting. The science was pretty neat for a sci-fi film (people keep forgetting the -fi part when Nolan is involved).
It's probably the Nolan movie with the most heart out of the last few he's done. But I'm not sure it's going to be highly rewatchable.
It's probably the Nolan movie with the most heart out of the last few he's done. But I'm not sure it's going to be highly rewatchable.
11-10-14, 09:25 AM
#154
DVD Talk Limited Edition
Re: Interstellar (Nolan, 2014) — The Reviews Thread
The dialogue about the 5th Dimension in the film made me think of this song:
<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/kjxSCAalsBE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
lyrics:
<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/kjxSCAalsBE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
lyrics:
Spoiler:
11-10-14, 09:30 AM
#155
Re: Interstellar (Nolan, 2014) — The Reviews Thread
Where's the box-office thread? INTERSTELLAR came in 2nd, after BIG HERO 6.
11-10-14, 09:35 AM
#156
Re: Interstellar (Nolan, 2014) — The Reviews Thread
An overlong ambitious film that tries to be intelligent but instead comes across heavy handed by overexplaining and engaging in melodrama.
2001 : Love Conquers All
2.5/5
2001 : Love Conquers All
2.5/5
Last edited by inri222; 11-13-14 at 11:05 AM.
11-10-14, 09:42 AM
#157
DVD Talk Hero
Re: Interstellar (Nolan, 2014) — The Reviews Thread
Make one? I too was surprised that Big Hero 6 did so little business. I was expecting about $55m for Interstellar but like $70m for BH6. Kind of weird for two hyped up, $165m budgeted films to go head-to-head, especially a Marvel one.
Last edited by RichC2; 11-10-14 at 09:54 AM.
11-10-14, 09:45 AM
#158
Re: Interstellar (Nolan, 2014) — The Reviews Thread
Grounded in realism, more fi than sci whatever you want to say the story in Interstellar is completely nonsensical, even excluding the time paradox. I don't have an issue with out there concepts or ideas that are impossible but at least try to have a cogent storyline, but almost nothing in Interstellar stands up to even the smallest scrutiny.
Nolan makes puzzle like movies yes, but he takes whatever plot point he needs at the time to create the situation he wants and throws it in there regardless of whether it makes any sense whatsoever.
Nolan makes puzzle like movies yes, but he takes whatever plot point he needs at the time to create the situation he wants and throws it in there regardless of whether it makes any sense whatsoever.
11-10-14, 09:51 AM
#159
DVD Talk Hero
Re: Interstellar (Nolan, 2014) — The Reviews Thread
If you're going to continually scrutinize the plot of the movie, at least make mention of what plot points you're scrutinizing.
I kind of see my old lit teacher's frustration now.
I kind of see my old lit teacher's frustration now.
11-10-14, 10:37 AM
#160
Re: Interstellar (Nolan, 2014) — The Reviews Thread
Tom Brueggemann at Thompson on Hollywood asks "How Disappointing is Interstellar?"
[Link: http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsono...fice-20141109]
[Link: http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsono...fice-20141109]
How Disappointing Is "Interstellar"?
"Interstellar," bolstered by strong international results (it dominated foreign markets with $80 million with several major territories still to come), is already at around $130 million domestic thus far. It looks likely to end up conservatively around $500 million worldwide (Warner Bros. releases it foreign). But it has to, as production and marketing costs combined might reach $300 million. The result is that this looks like a success, but not along the lines of Nolan's three most recent films (the two Batman installments and "Inception" each took in over $825 million worldwide). And going back to the start of the director's wide release career ("Insomnia" in 2002), it's the first to not open at #1.
The disappointment comes from what the industry predicted from Nolan, who has earned more commercial and critical success of any current director. So expectations -- including potential awards consideration -- ran high.
The result comes in below the similarly anticipated "Gravity" last year. That opened to $55 million, which was then bolstered by amazing holds to a $275 million domestic take. Both films had premium IMAX dates. Cuaron's film had the benefit of overwhelming preference for higher-priced 3D tickets. But it was an older-skewing film, while Nolan's fan base is considerably younger. And a head to head comparison with last year's "Thor" on the same weekend shows that this crowd is out there to be had. So some other factors seemed to have come into play.
On the review front, "Interstellar" had a respectable if not sensational Metacritic score of 73, five points ahead of his career average, and only one point below his Best Picture-nominated "Inception." And among the strongest reviews were Time, the New York and The Los Angeles Times (it actually has a better score than this weekend's top specialized opener, "The Theory of Everything"). Adults should not have been its main draw in any case.
Three factors, all related to the timing and staging of the release, are among those to have had an impact. The first is that it, unlike Nolan's usually younger male oriented audiences, is not a summer release. Clearly a late year opening was designed to help with awards as it did with "Gravity" last year. But this comes at a cost to maximum gross to some extent.
The second is that, unlike Nolan's other two most recent films, the field wasn't cleared for this. "Big Hero 6," though not considered one of Disney's top animated entries compared to the Pixar films or "Frozen," still has a Marvel comics connection with appeal to genre fans. Without "Big Hero 6," "Interstellar" might have added another $10 million or so.
The third, and equally significant factor likely came as a result of a demand that Nolan, alone among nearly all directors, could insist on. With his commitment to film as well as digital projection, Paramount opened the film in 249 theaters in 35 and 70mm presentations (including IMAX). But with midweek this time of the year having less appeal than in summer or holiday periods, and the audience reaction (B+ Cinemascore) more muted than expected, the early dates -- which added only $2.7 million to the gross, far lower than expected -- seem to have taken some of the wind out of the opening weekend. Fanboys tend to be first-day attendees, building momentum through the weekend. This was like a soft-opening before the main event. The mixed word of mouth with the earlier showings may have talked possible ticket buyers out of going.
A fourth and separate reason might be the cast. No question Matthew McConaughey is at the top of his career, between his Oscar win, "True Detective" HBO attention and overall comeback. But his biggest ever opening as the lead was "Magic Mike" (summertime, with female appeal) at $39 million. Otherwise he's carried many studio romantic comedies, action films and the occasional drama, to under $25 million openings. And most of those had a marquee co-star. With this being a less high-concept, more conventional sci-fi film than Nolan's other efforts, the draw of the cast was more important here.
"Interstellar," bolstered by strong international results (it dominated foreign markets with $80 million with several major territories still to come), is already at around $130 million domestic thus far. It looks likely to end up conservatively around $500 million worldwide (Warner Bros. releases it foreign). But it has to, as production and marketing costs combined might reach $300 million. The result is that this looks like a success, but not along the lines of Nolan's three most recent films (the two Batman installments and "Inception" each took in over $825 million worldwide). And going back to the start of the director's wide release career ("Insomnia" in 2002), it's the first to not open at #1.
The disappointment comes from what the industry predicted from Nolan, who has earned more commercial and critical success of any current director. So expectations -- including potential awards consideration -- ran high.
The result comes in below the similarly anticipated "Gravity" last year. That opened to $55 million, which was then bolstered by amazing holds to a $275 million domestic take. Both films had premium IMAX dates. Cuaron's film had the benefit of overwhelming preference for higher-priced 3D tickets. But it was an older-skewing film, while Nolan's fan base is considerably younger. And a head to head comparison with last year's "Thor" on the same weekend shows that this crowd is out there to be had. So some other factors seemed to have come into play.
On the review front, "Interstellar" had a respectable if not sensational Metacritic score of 73, five points ahead of his career average, and only one point below his Best Picture-nominated "Inception." And among the strongest reviews were Time, the New York and The Los Angeles Times (it actually has a better score than this weekend's top specialized opener, "The Theory of Everything"). Adults should not have been its main draw in any case.
Three factors, all related to the timing and staging of the release, are among those to have had an impact. The first is that it, unlike Nolan's usually younger male oriented audiences, is not a summer release. Clearly a late year opening was designed to help with awards as it did with "Gravity" last year. But this comes at a cost to maximum gross to some extent.
The second is that, unlike Nolan's other two most recent films, the field wasn't cleared for this. "Big Hero 6," though not considered one of Disney's top animated entries compared to the Pixar films or "Frozen," still has a Marvel comics connection with appeal to genre fans. Without "Big Hero 6," "Interstellar" might have added another $10 million or so.
The third, and equally significant factor likely came as a result of a demand that Nolan, alone among nearly all directors, could insist on. With his commitment to film as well as digital projection, Paramount opened the film in 249 theaters in 35 and 70mm presentations (including IMAX). But with midweek this time of the year having less appeal than in summer or holiday periods, and the audience reaction (B+ Cinemascore) more muted than expected, the early dates -- which added only $2.7 million to the gross, far lower than expected -- seem to have taken some of the wind out of the opening weekend. Fanboys tend to be first-day attendees, building momentum through the weekend. This was like a soft-opening before the main event. The mixed word of mouth with the earlier showings may have talked possible ticket buyers out of going.
A fourth and separate reason might be the cast. No question Matthew McConaughey is at the top of his career, between his Oscar win, "True Detective" HBO attention and overall comeback. But his biggest ever opening as the lead was "Magic Mike" (summertime, with female appeal) at $39 million. Otherwise he's carried many studio romantic comedies, action films and the occasional drama, to under $25 million openings. And most of those had a marquee co-star. With this being a less high-concept, more conventional sci-fi film than Nolan's other efforts, the draw of the cast was more important here.
11-10-14, 10:40 AM
#161
Re: Interstellar (Nolan, 2014) — The Reviews Thread
Let's start with something simple. Cooper is led to NASA by his future self, and when he shows up they are excited for him to pilot the mission. He then makes the decision to do it and leave his family. Why so complicated? Wouldn't it have been way more dramatically impactful if NASA just shows up at his door, says you are our only hope and need to run this mission? Simpler and sets up the theme better
They can send full video updates to them but almost nothing back. Why? It's plot convenient and sets up false drama never mind in makes no sense whatever. Fine, wormholes are one way communication devices except they provide enough information over probes to know that there are habitable planets and for the Lazarus 12 to send back reports of some detail. If those reports get through why can't Cooper and the rest just send notes back to NASA and Murphy? Dumb.
Speaking of the Lazarus 12. So in the future, school's actively claim that space travel is a hoax to bankrupt Russia (wtf?) yet they have still developed space technology vastly superior to what exists now. Not only that, but Cooper himself was a NASA or some kind of space pilot and he is like 40. Not only do they have this technology, they apparently have this shoe string budget for this project getting hand me down military robots, but they somehow managed to build 12 Star Wars/Star Trek like space vehicles that have the ability to take off and land from potentially habital planets, meaning they have an atmosphere, yet is sent into space by rocket. A rocket BTW that is in a silo need to their conference room. So in a world where space travel is a myth, they are able to develop super advanced space travel technology, then build 12 spaceships which would have cost many billions of dollars and required a materials and technology infrastructure that could not even exist because most of the people (outside of the independent midwest farmers who just have to deal with dust) are dead. So convoluted illogical and stupid but vintage Nolan.
Speaking of the 12? WTF?? They send 12 people to camp out on planets to see if they are habitable enough sending little thumbs up replies back, when they could send the super intelligent robots or just probes to figure out the same things. And then Matt Damon goes all crazy for no reason whatsover. I read an article that said he could have just said "I didn't want to die. I wanted to be rescued my bad" They would have been pissed called him a dick and took him to the next planet.
A planet near a black hole. By definition uninhabitable. Hello? no sun. It's now a frickin black hole. But a planet with ankle high water until a 1000 foot wave comes by. Except a black hole wouldn't case a wave. Also the time dilation would be significantly less. Sort of something like 20%, so each hour on that planet would be like 72 minutes on earth. Speaking of which by the time the Nazarus dude landed and set up camp with the same dilation he would already be outside the window of anyone of NASA getting any info back anyway. I mean how dumb was that entire part.
There is no food anywhere, apparently just corn (man can live on meat and fish alone btw) after all okra just went obsolete ffs, and this problem is so bad that apparently NASA became a military organization that fricking bombed and killed people to thin the need for corn, yet mid-west farmers just live their lives farming corn and the fields are not protected by anyone (oh yeah, the economy so bad armies are gone) and a mass of crazed hungry people haven't come and taken it all, or you know enough to survive.
He programs a watch with Morse code data that saves the world. That makes sense.
His fifth dimension do hicky at the end was built by future them so that he could communicate to his daughter by bookcase and save the world through a very twisting amount of happenstance. Won't even go into the ludicrous paradox here.
I could go on and on.
Funny thing is that if Nolan had avoided all the convoluted nonsense he could have set the movie up a billion times better. Former astronaut Cooper is asked to pilot a mission through a wormhole, apparently opened by a friendly alien species to try and find a habitable planet or the aliens on the other side and must leave his family to do it.
11-10-14, 11:09 AM
#162
Re: Interstellar (Nolan, 2014) — The Reviews Thread
OK. You asked:
Let's start with something simple. Cooper is led to NASA by his future self, and when he shows up they are excited for him to pilot the mission. He then makes the decision to do it and leave his family. Why so complicated? Wouldn't it have been way more dramatically impactful if NASA just shows up at his door, says you are our only hope and need to run this mission? Simpler and sets up the theme better
They can send full video updates to them but almost nothing back. Why? It's plot convenient and sets up false drama never mind in makes no sense whatever. Fine, wormholes are one way communication devices except they provide enough information over probes to know that there are habitable planets and for the Lazarus 12 to send back reports of some detail. If those reports get through why can't Cooper and the rest just send notes back to NASA and Murphy? Dumb.
Speaking of the Lazarus 12. So in the future, school's actively claim that space travel is a hoax to bankrupt Russia (wtf?) yet they have still developed space technology vastly superior to what exists now. Not only that, but Cooper himself was a NASA or some kind of space pilot and he is like 40. Not only do they have this technology, they apparently have this shoe string budget for this project getting hand me down military robots, but they somehow managed to build 12 Star Wars/Star Trek like space vehicles that have the ability to take off and land from potentially habital planets, meaning they have an atmosphere, yet is sent into space by rocket. A rocket BTW that is in a silo need to their conference room. So in a world where space travel is a myth, they are able to develop super advanced space travel technology, then build 12 spaceships which would have cost many billions of dollars and required a materials and technology infrastructure that could not even exist because most of the people (outside of the independent midwest farmers who just have to deal with dust) are dead. So convoluted illogical and stupid but vintage Nolan.
Speaking of the 12? WTF?? They send 12 people to camp out on planets to see if they are habitable enough sending little thumbs up replies back, when they could send the super intelligent robots or just probes to figure out the same things. And then Matt Damon goes all crazy for no reason whatsover. I read an article that said he could have just said "I didn't want to die. I wanted to be rescued my bad" They would have been pissed called him a dick and took him to the next planet.
A planet near a black hole. By definition uninhabitable. Hello? no sun. It's now a frickin black hole. But a planet with ankle high water until a 1000 foot wave comes by. Except a black hole wouldn't case a wave. Also the time dilation would be significantly less. Sort of something like 20%, so each hour on that planet would be like 72 minutes on earth. Speaking of which by the time the Nazarus dude landed and set up camp with the same dilation he would already be outside the window of anyone of NASA getting any info back anyway. I mean how dumb was that entire part.
There is no food anywhere, apparently just corn (man can live on meat and fish alone btw) after all okra just went obsolete ffs, and this problem is so bad that apparently NASA became a military organization that fricking bombed and killed people to thin the need for corn, yet mid-west farmers just live their lives farming corn and the fields are not protected by anyone (oh yeah, the economy so bad armies are gone) and a mass of crazed hungry people haven't come and taken it all, or you know enough to survive.
He programs a watch with Morse code data that saves the world. That makes sense.
His fifth dimension do hicky at the end was built by future them so that he could communicate to his daughter by bookcase and save the world through a very twisting amount of happenstance. Won't even go into the ludicrous paradox here.
I could go on and on.
Funny thing is that if Nolan had avoided all the convoluted nonsense he could have set the movie up a billion times better. Former astronaut Cooper is asked to pilot a mission through a wormhole, apparently opened by a friendly alien species to try and find a habitable planet or the aliens on the other side and must leave his family to do it.
Let's start with something simple. Cooper is led to NASA by his future self, and when he shows up they are excited for him to pilot the mission. He then makes the decision to do it and leave his family. Why so complicated? Wouldn't it have been way more dramatically impactful if NASA just shows up at his door, says you are our only hope and need to run this mission? Simpler and sets up the theme better
They can send full video updates to them but almost nothing back. Why? It's plot convenient and sets up false drama never mind in makes no sense whatever. Fine, wormholes are one way communication devices except they provide enough information over probes to know that there are habitable planets and for the Lazarus 12 to send back reports of some detail. If those reports get through why can't Cooper and the rest just send notes back to NASA and Murphy? Dumb.
Speaking of the Lazarus 12. So in the future, school's actively claim that space travel is a hoax to bankrupt Russia (wtf?) yet they have still developed space technology vastly superior to what exists now. Not only that, but Cooper himself was a NASA or some kind of space pilot and he is like 40. Not only do they have this technology, they apparently have this shoe string budget for this project getting hand me down military robots, but they somehow managed to build 12 Star Wars/Star Trek like space vehicles that have the ability to take off and land from potentially habital planets, meaning they have an atmosphere, yet is sent into space by rocket. A rocket BTW that is in a silo need to their conference room. So in a world where space travel is a myth, they are able to develop super advanced space travel technology, then build 12 spaceships which would have cost many billions of dollars and required a materials and technology infrastructure that could not even exist because most of the people (outside of the independent midwest farmers who just have to deal with dust) are dead. So convoluted illogical and stupid but vintage Nolan.
Speaking of the 12? WTF?? They send 12 people to camp out on planets to see if they are habitable enough sending little thumbs up replies back, when they could send the super intelligent robots or just probes to figure out the same things. And then Matt Damon goes all crazy for no reason whatsover. I read an article that said he could have just said "I didn't want to die. I wanted to be rescued my bad" They would have been pissed called him a dick and took him to the next planet.
A planet near a black hole. By definition uninhabitable. Hello? no sun. It's now a frickin black hole. But a planet with ankle high water until a 1000 foot wave comes by. Except a black hole wouldn't case a wave. Also the time dilation would be significantly less. Sort of something like 20%, so each hour on that planet would be like 72 minutes on earth. Speaking of which by the time the Nazarus dude landed and set up camp with the same dilation he would already be outside the window of anyone of NASA getting any info back anyway. I mean how dumb was that entire part.
There is no food anywhere, apparently just corn (man can live on meat and fish alone btw) after all okra just went obsolete ffs, and this problem is so bad that apparently NASA became a military organization that fricking bombed and killed people to thin the need for corn, yet mid-west farmers just live their lives farming corn and the fields are not protected by anyone (oh yeah, the economy so bad armies are gone) and a mass of crazed hungry people haven't come and taken it all, or you know enough to survive.
He programs a watch with Morse code data that saves the world. That makes sense.
His fifth dimension do hicky at the end was built by future them so that he could communicate to his daughter by bookcase and save the world through a very twisting amount of happenstance. Won't even go into the ludicrous paradox here.
I could go on and on.
Funny thing is that if Nolan had avoided all the convoluted nonsense he could have set the movie up a billion times better. Former astronaut Cooper is asked to pilot a mission through a wormhole, apparently opened by a friendly alien species to try and find a habitable planet or the aliens on the other side and must leave his family to do it.
)
11-10-14, 11:29 AM
#163
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Re: Interstellar (Nolan, 2014) — The Reviews Thread
You're going to already be critical of a film you haven't (possibly won't) see so you're backing yourself up w/ somebody else's words? That's weird, man.
11-10-14, 11:32 AM
#164
Re: Interstellar (Nolan, 2014) — The Reviews Thread
Matt Damon states why they didn't send robots instead.
As for NASA developing this program covertly, it really isn't so far-fetched. As the teachers said, society needs more farmers and not engineers. Thus the propaganda is that the space missions in the 20th century were a hoax to deter kids from aspiring to be engineers and even astronauts. However, NASA knows that Earth is a lost cause and unsalvagable. The future is elsewhere. But without the means to transport people off Earth (plan A), their mission would always be covert.
And NASA didn't actively recruit Cooper because he basically recruited himself. He sent clues back as Murph's "ghost". I don't see how that is such a big problem for people. That's the story, so why whine about it? NASA knocking on his door would be cliche, and then other people will bitch about that instead.
As for the black hole stuff.... This is sci-fi. so there will be fiction along with the science. It isn't a perfect film, but it is as good as it gets.
As for NASA developing this program covertly, it really isn't so far-fetched. As the teachers said, society needs more farmers and not engineers. Thus the propaganda is that the space missions in the 20th century were a hoax to deter kids from aspiring to be engineers and even astronauts. However, NASA knows that Earth is a lost cause and unsalvagable. The future is elsewhere. But without the means to transport people off Earth (plan A), their mission would always be covert.
And NASA didn't actively recruit Cooper because he basically recruited himself. He sent clues back as Murph's "ghost". I don't see how that is such a big problem for people. That's the story, so why whine about it? NASA knocking on his door would be cliche, and then other people will bitch about that instead.
As for the black hole stuff.... This is sci-fi. so there will be fiction along with the science. It isn't a perfect film, but it is as good as it gets.
11-10-14, 11:41 AM
#165
Re: Interstellar (Nolan, 2014) — The Reviews Thread
Thank you for this, Johnny. I haven't seen the film but these all sound like pretty valid critical points to me. I'm curious what my Nolan-defending nephew would say to this, so I sent it to him. (He's the same one who insisted to me that INCEPTION was easy to follow. )
)
HAHA!
These aren't even close to the amount of things I had wrong with it in that sense. Some of the choices were hilarious. However, I knew I had to suspend belief based on the implausible premise. I should say impossible. Therefore from very early on in the film I was able to let go all the wrong science BS and focus on the relationships, time, and death. Nolan's ridiculously endless expositions of the how this is even remotely plausible is just bogus. The chance of other habitable planets is so impossibly low that to try to script a film containing even one is a stretch. Nolan's insulting simplification of complex concepts were used as simple vehicles for the plot. Relativity, gravity, a Sun, axis tilt, material makeup, no moon, etc., are a few of the thousands of precise details that would have to be exact for a planet to be close to habitable. So, because so early on in the film I was able to throw all of that out the window, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Anyone who tries to say it's thought provoking or pushing the limits is a fool.
AND it was my first time seeing a 70mm projection. It had it's pros and cons but I enjoyed that too.
Nolan did a lot of smart things casting wise. I can't stand most of the actors in the film and he used that to his advantage. I enjoyed all the false foreshadowing and the use of silence in space (unlike GRAVITY). Zimmer was great. Hoyte Van Hoytema is one of my favorites but the whole switching aspect ratios from scene to scene never works and using old anamorphic lenses just plain don't look that good. Regardless, Nolan will reach even greater critical acclaim than INCEPTION.
These aren't even close to the amount of things I had wrong with it in that sense. Some of the choices were hilarious. However, I knew I had to suspend belief based on the implausible premise. I should say impossible. Therefore from very early on in the film I was able to let go all the wrong science BS and focus on the relationships, time, and death. Nolan's ridiculously endless expositions of the how this is even remotely plausible is just bogus. The chance of other habitable planets is so impossibly low that to try to script a film containing even one is a stretch. Nolan's insulting simplification of complex concepts were used as simple vehicles for the plot. Relativity, gravity, a Sun, axis tilt, material makeup, no moon, etc., are a few of the thousands of precise details that would have to be exact for a planet to be close to habitable. So, because so early on in the film I was able to throw all of that out the window, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Anyone who tries to say it's thought provoking or pushing the limits is a fool.
AND it was my first time seeing a 70mm projection. It had it's pros and cons but I enjoyed that too.
Nolan did a lot of smart things casting wise. I can't stand most of the actors in the film and he used that to his advantage. I enjoyed all the false foreshadowing and the use of silence in space (unlike GRAVITY). Zimmer was great. Hoyte Van Hoytema is one of my favorites but the whole switching aspect ratios from scene to scene never works and using old anamorphic lenses just plain don't look that good. Regardless, Nolan will reach even greater critical acclaim than INCEPTION.
(at the part I bolded)
11-10-14, 11:45 AM
#166
DVD Talk Hall of Fame
Re: Interstellar (Nolan, 2014) — The Reviews Thread
Thank you for this, Johnny. I haven't seen the film but these all sound like pretty valid critical points to me. I'm curious what my Nolan-defending nephew would say to this, so I sent it to him. (He's the same one who insisted to me that INCEPTION was easy to follow. )
)OK. You asked:
Let's start with something simple. Cooper is led to NASA by his future self, and when he shows up they are excited for him to pilot the mission. He then makes the decision to do it and leave his family. Why so complicated? Wouldn't it have been way more dramatically impactful if NASA just shows up at his door, says you are our only hope and need to run this mission? Simpler and sets up the theme better
They can send full video updates to them but almost nothing back. Why? It's plot convenient and sets up false drama never mind in makes no sense whatever. Fine, wormholes are one way communication devices except they provide enough information over probes to know that there are habitable planets and for the Lazarus 12 to send back reports of some detail. If those reports get through why can't Cooper and the rest just send notes back to NASA and Murphy? Dumb.
Speaking of the Lazarus 12. So in the future, school's actively claim that space travel is a hoax to bankrupt Russia (wtf?) yet they have still developed space technology vastly superior to what exists now. Not only that, but Cooper himself was a NASA or some kind of space pilot and he is like 40. Not only do they have this technology, they apparently have this shoe string budget for this project getting hand me down military robots, but they somehow managed to build 12 Star Wars/Star Trek like space vehicles that have the ability to take off and land from potentially habital planets, meaning they have an atmosphere, yet is sent into space by rocket. A rocket BTW that is in a silo need to their conference room. So in a world where space travel is a myth, they are able to develop super advanced space travel technology, then build 12 spaceships which would have cost many billions of dollars and required a materials and technology infrastructure that could not even exist because most of the people (outside of the independent midwest farmers who just have to deal with dust) are dead. So convoluted illogical and stupid but vintage Nolan.
Speaking of the 12? WTF?? They send 12 people to camp out on planets to see if they are habitable enough sending little thumbs up replies back, when they could send the super intelligent robots or just probes to figure out the same things. And then Matt Damon goes all crazy for no reason whatsover. I read an article that said he could have just said "I didn't want to die. I wanted to be rescued my bad" They would have been pissed called him a dick and took him to the next planet.
A planet near a black hole. By definition uninhabitable. Hello? no sun. It's now a frickin black hole. But a planet with ankle high water until a 1000 foot wave comes by. Except a black hole wouldn't case a wave. Also the time dilation would be significantly less. Sort of something like 20%, so each hour on that planet would be like 72 minutes on earth. Speaking of which by the time the Nazarus dude landed and set up camp with the same dilation he would already be outside the window of anyone of NASA getting any info back anyway. I mean how dumb was that entire part.
There is no food anywhere, apparently just corn (man can live on meat and fish alone btw) after all okra just went obsolete ffs, and this problem is so bad that apparently NASA became a military organization that fricking bombed and killed people to thin the need for corn, yet mid-west farmers just live their lives farming corn and the fields are not protected by anyone (oh yeah, the economy so bad armies are gone) and a mass of crazed hungry people haven't come and taken it all, or you know enough to survive.
He programs a watch with Morse code data that saves the world. That makes sense.
His fifth dimension do hicky at the end was built by future them so that he could communicate to his daughter by bookcase and save the world through a very twisting amount of happenstance. Won't even go into the ludicrous paradox here.
I could go on and on.
Funny thing is that if Nolan had avoided all the convoluted nonsense he could have set the movie up a billion times better. Former astronaut Cooper is asked to pilot a mission through a wormhole, apparently opened by a friendly alien species to try and find a habitable planet or the aliens on the other side and must leave his family to do it.
Let's start with something simple. Cooper is led to NASA by his future self, and when he shows up they are excited for him to pilot the mission. He then makes the decision to do it and leave his family. Why so complicated? Wouldn't it have been way more dramatically impactful if NASA just shows up at his door, says you are our only hope and need to run this mission? Simpler and sets up the theme better
They can send full video updates to them but almost nothing back. Why? It's plot convenient and sets up false drama never mind in makes no sense whatever. Fine, wormholes are one way communication devices except they provide enough information over probes to know that there are habitable planets and for the Lazarus 12 to send back reports of some detail. If those reports get through why can't Cooper and the rest just send notes back to NASA and Murphy? Dumb.
Speaking of the Lazarus 12. So in the future, school's actively claim that space travel is a hoax to bankrupt Russia (wtf?) yet they have still developed space technology vastly superior to what exists now. Not only that, but Cooper himself was a NASA or some kind of space pilot and he is like 40. Not only do they have this technology, they apparently have this shoe string budget for this project getting hand me down military robots, but they somehow managed to build 12 Star Wars/Star Trek like space vehicles that have the ability to take off and land from potentially habital planets, meaning they have an atmosphere, yet is sent into space by rocket. A rocket BTW that is in a silo need to their conference room. So in a world where space travel is a myth, they are able to develop super advanced space travel technology, then build 12 spaceships which would have cost many billions of dollars and required a materials and technology infrastructure that could not even exist because most of the people (outside of the independent midwest farmers who just have to deal with dust) are dead. So convoluted illogical and stupid but vintage Nolan.
Speaking of the 12? WTF?? They send 12 people to camp out on planets to see if they are habitable enough sending little thumbs up replies back, when they could send the super intelligent robots or just probes to figure out the same things. And then Matt Damon goes all crazy for no reason whatsover. I read an article that said he could have just said "I didn't want to die. I wanted to be rescued my bad" They would have been pissed called him a dick and took him to the next planet.
A planet near a black hole. By definition uninhabitable. Hello? no sun. It's now a frickin black hole. But a planet with ankle high water until a 1000 foot wave comes by. Except a black hole wouldn't case a wave. Also the time dilation would be significantly less. Sort of something like 20%, so each hour on that planet would be like 72 minutes on earth. Speaking of which by the time the Nazarus dude landed and set up camp with the same dilation he would already be outside the window of anyone of NASA getting any info back anyway. I mean how dumb was that entire part.
There is no food anywhere, apparently just corn (man can live on meat and fish alone btw) after all okra just went obsolete ffs, and this problem is so bad that apparently NASA became a military organization that fricking bombed and killed people to thin the need for corn, yet mid-west farmers just live their lives farming corn and the fields are not protected by anyone (oh yeah, the economy so bad armies are gone) and a mass of crazed hungry people haven't come and taken it all, or you know enough to survive.
He programs a watch with Morse code data that saves the world. That makes sense.
His fifth dimension do hicky at the end was built by future them so that he could communicate to his daughter by bookcase and save the world through a very twisting amount of happenstance. Won't even go into the ludicrous paradox here.
I could go on and on.
Funny thing is that if Nolan had avoided all the convoluted nonsense he could have set the movie up a billion times better. Former astronaut Cooper is asked to pilot a mission through a wormhole, apparently opened by a friendly alien species to try and find a habitable planet or the aliens on the other side and must leave his family to do it.
Inhale man
.
11-10-14, 12:09 PM
#168
Re: Interstellar (Nolan, 2014) — The Reviews Thread
Gravity did have silence in space, not sure what the nephew is talking about. The trailers did have sound though, to draw in the dumbos.
11-10-14, 12:11 PM
#169
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Re: Interstellar (Nolan, 2014) — The Reviews Thread
yeah. That I remember but I don't remember any noise in space. Any and all noise was pretty much to what could come in contact to Ryan.
11-10-14, 12:13 PM
#170
Re: Interstellar (Nolan, 2014) — The Reviews Thread
My only quibble is its 165-minute running time. That's at least two bathroom breaks for me. At least the Lincoln Square IMAX theater (Manhattan) has its own bathroom and it's not that far from the last row. But I have to wait till I have time on a weekend or a holiday to see it. I can't do a film this long after work.
11-10-14, 12:23 PM
#171
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Re: Interstellar (Nolan, 2014) — The Reviews Thread
I haven't looked it over entirely but here's a timeline for the film.
Spoilered cuz it's a massive image.
Spoilered cuz it's a massive image.
Spoiler:
11-10-14, 12:50 PM
#172
DVD Talk Gold Edition
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Re: Interstellar (Nolan, 2014) — The Reviews Thread
I enjoyed Interstellar, but I agree with the people that say Nolan tried to hit the ball out of the park and ended up missing the ball entirely...or perhaps he clipped it and got thrown out at first base. Visually, the movie is stunning. Otherwise, it's mediocre: numerous plot holes, bad science, ho-hum characters, melodrama, weak ending.
I'd still give the movie three stars out of five because it is entertaining. To me, it felt like a 2 hour movie, even though it's nearly 3 hours long. But the movie is not even in the same league as 2001: A Space Odyssey. Nice try, Nolan.
This is the best review I've read: Interstellar Science.
I'd still give the movie three stars out of five because it is entertaining. To me, it felt like a 2 hour movie, even though it's nearly 3 hours long. But the movie is not even in the same league as 2001: A Space Odyssey. Nice try, Nolan.
This is the best review I've read: Interstellar Science.
11-10-14, 01:11 PM
#173
DVD Talk Ultimate Edition
Re: Interstellar (Nolan, 2014) — The Reviews Thread
they should include that Timeline as a poster with the blu-ray review. Also this movie along with Gravity and Prometheus would make a nice Sci-Fi Thrillers Blu-ray pack
11-10-14, 02:21 PM
#175
DVD Talk Hall of Fame
Actually, I find all the debate quite heartening. It makes this film a helluva lot more interesting to me than GRAVITY. Everyone in the press and on the internet raved about that film and blindly accepted everything in it, yet everyone I knew who actually saw it had a negative reaction to it. The fact that INTERSTELLAR provokes debate is a much healthier sign. And, yes, reading the spoilers has made me much more interested in seeing it now. My only quibble is its 165-minute running time. That's at least two bathroom breaks for me. At least the Lincoln Square IMAX theater (Manhattan) has its own bathroom and it's not that far from the last row. But I have to wait till I have time on a weekend or a holiday to see it. I can't do a film this long after work.
