'Interstellar' Nolan Fans Member Reviews

Christopher Nolan's 2014 grand scale science-fiction story about time and space, and the things that transcend them.
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LoneCooper wrote:Can you give us a rating please, Dream?
I'd give it 11 if I could. This is without completely processing everything that happened too, because my mind is still spinning (no pun intended) :P

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Amazing film. Among Nolan's best, but I'll certainly need time to dissect it. First things first. I don't think it's a pure masterpiece. There's some stuff that's uneven (mostly plot), but when everything is clicking WOW it's some of the best cinema I've ever seen. I cried 3 times. No Nolan film has ever made me cry, and its pretty rare that any film ever does. The journey is amazing. So as of now I'd call it a near masterpiece, and an incredible piece of cinema. Now time to dissect it!
Last edited by Sky007 on November 5th, 2014, 1:40 am, edited 1 time in total.

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I'm in no state to write a long ass review, I'm still very much processing things.

This film is a grande ode to the beauty of science and love and how the two can very much rely on each other. I really don't know where to begin, so I won't. Just ignore all the hoopla around the negative reviews, guys. It's nonsense. The film is way ahead of it's time and "ambitious" is a huge understatement.

Chris will not be able to outdo this one. That third act would have Kubrick himself standing in applause.

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Just got home after seeing this in 35mm at the Pittsburgh North 11 theater. All I can say is that my mind = blown. I agree with others saying not to listen to the negative reviews. Those people just aren't able to grasp the mind bending 3rd act. I still however need more time to process everything I just witnessed. Luckily for me though I get to go see it in IMAX on Thursday to hopefully give me a complete grasp of this insanely great film :gonf: :gonf: :gonf:

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9/10

I just got back from the screening here in Apple Valley, MN, at the Great Clips IMAX theater at the Minnesota Zoo. I'm a long-time lurker here (since at least Inception), but first time poster.

Background: I've been to the opening night of the last four Nolan movies (since TDK); he's my favorite director in Hollywood now.

In short: Interstellar is an excellent movie, and the most breath-taking thing I've witnessed in a theater (not my first IMAX movie by a stretch). Nolan crafts his world in the first and then allows the world to expand in the second and third act. There is absolutely nothing here, in my mind, that isn't earned in the third act. The mashup of humanism and sentimentality might come across a bit preachy, but it gives a heart to the movie that isn't as front-and-center as Nolan's other movies.

Characters: in short, the supporting characters are not nearly so one-dimensional as some early reviewers have said. For instance,
Anne Hathaway's character has been criticized for what essentially amounts to bitchiness throughout. But the loss of another character believably changes her, IMO.
There is good development in the principle leads, and
the surprise appearance by another Hollywood A-list actor paints a memorable (if a bit one-dimensional) stock character.
McC and Anne obviously are front-and-center here, but Chastain appears to get undersold in some of the early reviews.
She has a very believable arc that spans three different actresses.
Some reviews have blasted the "schmaltzy" nature of some of the dialog. Two in particular are the poem that is used in the trailers and Hathaway's speech about love. But the characters that inhabit the world react to these dialogs as the audience might...
with indignation, dismissal, and outright scorn.
Plot: unlike TDKR, which I felt had wormhole-sized plot holes, there aren't any similar plot holes here. The plot moves forward, with the handful of obligatory Nolan twists (some of which are easier seen than others). I was surprised at how
much of Jonah's original script made it into the final draft. There were essentially two ideas that Nolan fused into the script that warped much of it, but a good deal of the first and third acts actually make it through to the other end of the cutting room. The second act is very different, and of course the twist at the end is entirely new.
Also, the exposition isn't so heavy that it leaves a dent in your furrowed brow, as it were. In Inception, the exposition was necessary, but was overdone at times. Here, there are several pieces in regards to gravity and relativity that just are a part of the world and don't get explained. The way that the Endurance
mimics gravity, for instance.
Cinematography: wow. Simply wow. The homage to 2001 is evident, but pushed so much farther here. The camera is normally steady, which allows the viewer to soak in the huge IMAX experience. Even in the up-close moments, where the camera slowly zooms during dialog or fixes on a person's face while otherworldly happenings take place around them, there is much lush detail to soak in.

Music: in IMAX, Zimmer's score is incredible. It's also overbearing a touch at times (in a couple of very tense scenes I had to hold my hands over my ears).

Conclusion: go see it, and don't import your notions as to what the world is. Let Nolan craft the world and be immersed in it. And then ask the questions on the other side that beg asking: is the transcendent only worth thinking about, or also worth grasping for? Is the human spirit so indomitable after all?

And go hug your children, if you have them. Seriously.
Last edited by Viz on November 5th, 2014, 10:45 am, edited 1 time in total.

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I caught an 8PM show tonight at AutoNation IMAX in Ft. Lauderdale for a 15/70 screening. We sat third row from the back, dead center, which are KILLER seats. If I'm fortunate enough to live a long and healthy life I'll probably discuss this movie in a conversation about "the greats" towards the end of it. What an experience. Massive, massive film. Really, a blockbuster experience unlike any I can remember.

That said, it isn't perfect. Even narratively, it's just not as coherent as, even, his more complex work. But I suspended my disbelief very early on and went for the ride.

The senses of scale and stakes are through the roof in a way I don't ever recall experiencing in a blockbuster. 15/70 IMAX probably helped with that. I'll be seeing it on 35mm soon to see how it compares. I got home and it was still on my mind. My girlfriend too. This is "cultural event programming". This one's gonna be remembered, folks. See it in IMAX.

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Words ''Amazing'', ''Cool'' or ''Awesome'' won't fit in this film. This film is beyond that.

I just want to say two things:

1: Quoting Robert Angier from The Prestige: What you are about to witness is not magic, IT'S PURELY SCIENCE!
2: Steven Spielberg should really shot himself for not doing this movie when he had the chance.

Score: 100/10

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Saw it at the 11:15 showing in indy....10/10. Chris' changes were needed and made the movie 10 times better.......Inception, from a depth stand point, is just the lay up lines in basketball compared to interstellar

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Just saw Interstellar!

My score is 10/10.

One of the most imaginative and beautiful sci-fi films I have ever seen. Hans Zimmer's score was outstanding. All of the actors were great. This movie felt like it went by in 30 mins rather than 3 hrs. The standout sci-fi scene for me, without spoiling anything, comes in the last 3rd of the film - I have never seen anything like it before. This movie sets a new standard for sci-fi films and creativity - if you are a fan of story and imagination - then you will enjoy Interstellar. While the special effects were outstanding, they were in service of the story, which is very challenging and will get richer with repeated viewings. I look forward to seeing the film again!

I am a fan of the original Twilight Zone episodes - I just have to say - Rod Serling would have been proud of this achievement Christopher Nolan has given us.

Addition to my original post:

I wanted to add that the film's cosmic scope and scale is only told through the eyes of a small handful of characters, and the immensity of the story - its ambition, is not about large masses of people on earth reacting to events, it's about the time spans of the characters we follow, how relativity plays a role in this, and the distances some of the characters travel. This is then also symbolic of the immensity of the universe. Ambitious things that happen along the way are a wormhole, black hole, and:
Cooper falling into the black hole, which opens up into another dimension which transcends space and time and allows him to communicate with his daughter from the past. Then, he somehow ends up on a giant spinning space station out by Saturn, and his daughter who is now 100 years old, gets to see him, hence he has kept his promise, "I'm coming back." When Nolan slowly pans his camera across Murph's family and stops on the 100 year old Murph with Zimmer's glorious music - this is a high point of the film - it's stupendous.
The fact that all of this is contained in 1 feature length picture, is ambitious, and a great achievement for a new science fiction film, which will be timeless. I'm still in awe of the transition scene:
Where Cooper says goodbye to Murph, drives his truck away to the countdown sequence, and then literally blasts off into space. This is one of my favorite transition sequences I think I've ever seen.


The entire first act of the movie on Earth also has this dreamy feel to it - and it is just done so well, I think seeing the first 45 minutes of the film were so special to me, because I had seen the trailers and the anticipation was through the roof. What surprised me leaving the theater was that the special effects and music were used in service of the story - and it's the story that's going to be memorable as much, if not more than the special effects. I also feel the way Nolan edited/cut from scene to scene is symbolic of how many great leaps in time the movie takes - he doesn't spell or flesh everything out for the viewer, so the viewer is forced to process a lot in their own mind while watching, to the point where I've never seen a movie cut this briskly for nearly 3 hours, and be this ambitious because of it.
Last edited by dsus4gtr on November 6th, 2014, 9:00 pm, edited 3 times in total.

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