Rating: 4/5
Classification: M
Year of release: 2014
Run-time: 2 hrs 49 mins
Director: Christopher Nolan
Cast: Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Michael Caine
Genre: Sci-Fi
This review contains spoilers
Interstellar is about Earth no longer being a suitable environment for humans to live on due to severe sandstorms and worldwide food shortages; Professor Brand (Michael Caine) has recruited a few explorers lead by Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) and Professor Brand’s daughter Amelia Brand (Anne Hathaway) to travel through a wormhole in space to find another suitable environment for humans to live. Interstellar is definitely one of the most ambitious movies in recent years, while this may not be a perfect movie; it still is definitely one that shouldn’t be overlooked, I believe Interstellar has only improved in the three years since its release. The only negative aspects about this movie are some narrative problems particularly with the ending and some of the dialogue may be difficult for certain audiences to understand, because there are many scientific terms about how the characters are travelling through space.
However Interstellar also has fantastic performances from its entire cast, particularly from Matthew McConaughey and the three different actresses who play his daughter Murph played by Mackenzie Foy, Jessica Chastain and Ellen Burstyn. Throughout this movie because Cooper is traveling through space he ages much slower than his family on Earth, so his kids and his father grow older, Cooper also misses out on seeing his kids grow up and the movie does an excellent job of emphasising how devastating it is for Cooper to watch when his kids send them video messages. The special effects in this movie are a work of art for sure; Interstellar is an absolute must see on as big a screen as possible; this is definitely one of those movies where the special effects don’t look like special effects, it looks like this movie was genuinely shot in space, it blends in very well with the sound effects, watching this movie I feel the same way I felt when I saw 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and Gravity (2013), when I watch these movies, they successfully make me feel like I’ve been transported to space.
The cinematography by Hoyte Van Hoytema is terrific, like with most of Christopher Nolan’s recent movies there are select scenes in this movie that were shot with IMAX cameras and this is definitely helps the audiences feel the size and scope of this movie. For those who don’t know IMAX is the largest film format in the world and for those of you who are lucky enough to have an IMAX theatre where you live, if you watch a movie in IMAX that was also shot with IMAX cameras, during those specific scenes the movie will fill up the entire IMAX screen. This is a big reason why Christopher Nolan is one of the most popular directors working today, when you watch these specific scenes that were shot in IMAX, it goes a long way to increase the size and scope of the movie and it becomes absolutely jaw dropping to look at. Interstellar is a fantastic achievement thanks to spectacular acting, cinematography, special effects, musical score by Hans Zimmer and sound effects, and is yet another Christopher Nolan movie that improves on multiple viewings.