INTERSTELLAR - Grading & Discussion

[Trekker4747]

The same thing happened with Anna Gunn during Breaking Bad to the point that she wrote a New York Times article addressing the situation.

I saw that article the other day and I'm very amused how Cracked of all websites pointed how utterly ridiculous people about nitpicking Interstellar.

At the end of the day you either liked the film or you didn't and there is no such thing as an objective opinion about anything, - least of all a movie.

I get it - several people posting in this thread really liked this movie - obviously to the point where they thought it was a cinematic masterpiece of something.

I personally was underwhelmed, thought it ran long, and for an average movie goer - not a scientist and as a lay person who even has a passing understanding of the theory of relativity - was unnecessarily complex and sometimes convoluted and confusing.

The one redeeming point for this film to me, was that it was visually stunning.

Related to the nitpicks of this film - I find it disturbing that some people posted death threats to critics of this film. That says a lot for me about some of the rabid enthusiasts of this movie and their mental instability.

God help us all when Wars VII comes out and some people are unhappy or even happy about that too and what some individuals reactions will be.

That was pretty much my take also. I didn't think the movie was spectacular or ourstanding, but it was good enough to be enjoyable, and that was mostly due to the stunning visuals, and the great acting by key characters.

A fifth dimensional space existing inside of a black-hole, where gravity is so strong is stretches all of your molecules apart due to the strength of gravity:

This fifth-dimensional space constructed to look like a library (actually the library at Coopers home from the view behind its walls (and floor and ceiling):

I viewed the black hole/tesseract scene differently. Cooper fell into the black hole and moved outside space-time. His perception of being able to move freely in all dimensions was represented by the library as his life stretched out all around him. So the robot 'saw' something different than Cooper while they were both inside the black hole, transiting between Gargantua's mouth and Saturn.

I really need to see this movie again.

If I remember correctly, Cooper wasn't inside the Black Hole, but rather, entering the event horizon of it allowed the 5th dimensional characters to be able to "grab" him and transport him to a 3 dimensional artificial construct created within 5th dimensional space.

So ignoring the fact that Cooper should have been torn apart way before even crossing the event horizon, once inside, the artificial construct was made to look like "The place behind his bookshelf ad infinitum?

That should have probably gone thru a rewrite at the very least.

Inside the tesseract we could see behind every wall (and the floor and ceiling) of the room. The repeated versions of it represented different points in time inside the room.

 

[Australis]

Just seen it.

I think it is this generation's 2001. A+

Still processing. More later.

 

[Stone_Cold_Sisko]

Finally saw it and really enjoyed it. They don't make movies like this anymore. It felt like a legitimate universe spanning epic. Surprisingly emotional too. My only real complaint is the ending felt artificially pat. I think the natural ending would have been when the library tesseract collapsed. He could have died and we as well as Murph would know he saved the human race.

 

[BigJake]

Surprisingly emotional too. My only real complaint is the ending felt artificially pat. I think the natural ending would have been when the library tesseract collapsed.

Yeah, I agree.

 

[Tribble puncher]

That was my main problem with the film. They should be able to tell even in close proximity to the whole system which planets were habitable.

The way I viewed it: All of those sort of observations had been done by robot probes, which had identified some which were "good enough". The Lazarus expeditions were then sent to make the final confirmation or rejection. So there's an element of trust by Endurance's crew that the "thumb's up" signals received were real and that the landings were justified.

3. I understand the whole Tesseract idea is that it was an artificial construct made by the 5th dimensional beings. But making it look like a huge library? That really pushed the limits of suspension of belief.


Do I care whether the wormhole could have appeared near Earth instead of Saturn? no. I mean we can basically say anything. Why didn't it appear 50 years before when humanity was in better conditions? Why did it have to connect them to another galaxy? Aren't there enough planets in the Milky Way for one of the to have the conditions of the planets in the movie? So really that complain can be moved all over the place.

And the black hole used as a wormhole. My understanding of a black hole is also that the nearer you get to the event horizon, the more you'd be spaghettified. But I understand that's just a theory and that no one even knows for sure if black holes exist the way we imagine them, let alone how they act. The whole concept is like warp drive, and I'm willing to give the movie the benefit of the doubt on that one.

With regard to:

Number 3. It's not a library, it's just access to every moment in Murph's room. It's as if the bulk beings knew the correct person who needed to be given the information, but not when or how to communicate the data.

The other end of the wormhole: I believe some theorists believe that it might require the presence of a super massive black hole to help create a wormhole, but the one at the center of our galaxy is much more active than Gargantua. So Gargantua has to be elsewhere.

Spagettification: this is a tidal effect, oddly enough, for a supermassive blackhole, the tidal effect is less because the gravity field is more uniform even close to the event horizon (which is as big around as the Earth's orbit for a black hole of Gargantua's stated mass), somewhere within the event horizon, closer to the singularity, those tidal effects will eventually become severe enough for spagettification.

In regards to the original point, They did address the way transmissions worked, they were unable to transmit anything that was readable through the wormhole. but the could recieve a signal, and Earth could transmit through the wormhole to the "other side". So basically when the astronauts landed on their assigned worlds, if it was a candidate for life, the sent a signal, if it was not, they didn't. On earth, they only recieved 3 signals, they didn't even know what planets they were visiting untill they crossed the wormhole.

 

[dswynne1]

You know, the Endurance reminded me of the ship design featured in that recreation room scene, featuring android Ilia and Decker, in TMP.

 

[GalaxyX]

Finally saw it and really enjoyed it. They don't make movies like this anymore. It felt like a legitimate universe spanning epic. Surprisingly emotional too. My only real complaint is the ending felt artificially pat. I think the natural ending would have been when the library tesseract collapsed. He could have died and we as well as Murph would know he saved the human race.

Why is a tragic ending always considered to be "the right choice" for movies nowadays?

Specifically in this movie, how the heck does it make any sense that he survived the crossing of the event horizon, gets artificially transported to an artificially constructed "bubble" of universe by hyper advanced beings, and then dies afterwards.

How does that make any sense? If those beings are powerful enough to snatch him from a black hole, why the heck wouldn't they be able to send him back safe and sound?

 

[Locutus of Bored]

It was still a pretty tragic ending regardless. Not as bad as Aliens with Ripley returning after 57 years in cryosleep to find out her daughter died an old woman, since Cooper did at least get to fulfill his promise of returning to Murph before she passed away, and she knew the truth that he hadn't left her and the rest of humanity behind to die but was in fact out trying to save her and everyone else. But he still did miss the entire lives of his daughter and son and all of their offspring, to the point where he was a complete stranger to them and neither side felt any sense of attachment. And his daughter spent the first half of her life resenting him before finding out the truth, and then the latter half desperately hoping that he would return, only for him to finally get there when she was on the verge of death. So it's not exactly happy happy fun time.

 

[DarthTom]

Why is a tragic ending always considered to be "the right choice" for movies nowadays?

I think audiences today expect more than a Disney[esqe] type of ending where everyone lives, "happily ever after," type ending. It isn't gritty enough for modern audiences and quite frankly isn't realistic nor even close to how real life turns out for most of us. The popularity of TWD and how insanely tragic it is season after season proves this newer formula works.

Shit even Disney's hugely popular Frozen broke the standard formula and she didn't marry the guy at the end.

One of my biggest disappointments in Star Trek into the Darkness was that they had to find a convoluted way to bring Kirk back to life to have the happily ever after ending.

 

[GalaxyX]

It was still a pretty tragic ending regardless. Not as bad as Aliens with Ripley returning after 57 years in cryosleep to find out her daughter died an old woman, since Cooper did at least get to fulfill his promise of returning to Murph before she passed away, and she knew the truth that he hadn't left her and the rest of humanity behind to die but was in fact out trying to save her and everyone else. But he still did miss the entire lives of his daughter and son and all of their offspring, to the point where he was a complete stranger to them and neither side felt any sense of attachment. And his daughter spent the first half of her life resenting him before finding out the truth, and then the latter half desperately hoping that he would return, only for him to finally get there when she was on the verge of death. So it's not exactly happy happy fun time.

True, but even so I still wouldn't have called it a tragic ending, due to exactly the reasons you mentioned.

It's true that his daughter resented him in her childhood, but the fact that she understood and accepted what happened as an adult help to cushion the "tragedy" of the loss.

The scene at the end, even if not the ideal, does in fact give us closure between the two.

Something that would not have happened had Cooper simply "died" inside the Black Hole with no one on Earth having a damn clue what the heck happened to him.

So the ending, as shown in the movie, to me is a "neutral" ending.

I went in hoping for this:

Somehow, Cooper was able to use the Black Hole to travel back in time, and arrive exactly when he left.

By the middle of the film, I knew that was going to be hard to write in without it sounding like a HUUGE deux ex machina due to what the film has already established as its physics and mechanics.

What I feared:

The extreme scenario where not only Cooper dies, but so does humanity, and perhaps only Amelia and the frozen embryos survive and calling that a "victory"


So even though I didn't get what I hoped, I also didn't get what I feared.

I bet that if the movie had found a way to logically reunite father with daughter, (let's say her as an adult, but not elderly) the movie would have scored higher with critics just based on that.

Why is a tragic ending always considered to be "the right choice" for movies nowadays?

I think audiences today expect more than a Disney[esqe] type of ending where everyone lives, "happily ever after," type ending. It isn't gritty enough for modern audiences and quite frankly isn't realistic nor even close to how real life turns out for most of us. The popularity of TWD and how insanely tragic it is season after season proves this newer formula works.

Shit even Disney's hugely popular Frozen broke the standard formula and she didn't marry the guy at the end.

One of my biggest disappointments in Star Trek into the Darkness was that they had to find a convoluted way to bring Kirk back to life to have the happily ever after ending.

I think audiences expect more sophistication in the writing/plot of a movie. However, using tragedy to artificially create "sophistication" is, IMO, the biggest cop out ever devised.

You mention Disney movies. The whole point of a Disney movie is to have a happy ending, isn't it?

The ending of Toy Story 3 comes to mind. In your mind, they should have had an ending where the toys get tossed out in the trash, or (following the logic of the movie) the toys all end up in a plastic bag in the attic for the rest of time (presumably decades before someone cleans the attic and tosses the bag in the trash). That would have been the "realistic" ending. Would you have enjoyed that as an ending to Toy Story?

 

[sidious618]

I didn't think of the ending of Interstellar as tragic, to be honest. Satisfying, and bittersweet, yes. Tragic, no.

 

[DarthTom]

The ending of Toy Story 3 comes to mind. In your mind, they should have had an ending where the toys get tossed out in the trash, or (following the logic of the movie) the toys all end up in a plastic bag in the attic for the rest of time (presumably decades before someone cleans the attic and tosses the bag in the trash).

That actually would be funny.

That would have been the "realistic" ending. Would you have enjoyed that as an ending to Toy Story?

Likely not but I do applaud Disney for not ending Frozen with her marrying the man.

BTW, ever see the SNL sequel to It's a Wonderful Life? One of the most warm and fuzzy movie endings ever. It's hilarious. Everyone knows how that one ends - George gets save by the love and friendship of his friends.

In the SNL sequel - the town realizes that Potter stole the money and in mob style fashion with pitch forks and torches go after Potter to go hang him.

 

[Ovation]

The ending of Toy Story 3 comes to mind. In your mind, they should have had an ending where the toys get tossed out in the trash, or (following the logic of the movie) the toys all end up in a plastic bag in the attic for the rest of time (presumably decades before someone cleans the attic and tosses the bag in the trash).

That actually would be funny.

Sounds like a Tarantino version of a Pixar film. Loses the blood and gore of his live action movies but still has that ineffable Tarantino quality.

I like it.

 

[GalaxyX]

The ending of Toy Story 3 comes to mind. In your mind, they should have had an ending where the toys get tossed out in the trash, or (following the logic of the movie) the toys all end up in a plastic bag in the attic for the rest of time (presumably decades before someone cleans the attic and tosses the bag in the trash).

That actually would be funny.

Sounds like a Tarantino version of a Pixar film. Loses the blood and gore of his live action movies but still has that ineffable Tarantino quality.

I like it.

You guys are terrible

These are kid's movies! And I haven't seen Frozen, but the marriage thing might just be a reflection of today's culture, as opposed to being the front line of breaking away from old culture, as you guys believe it does.

As for Interstellar, I think it was a bittersweet ending, and could have ended on a happier note, but I'm glad Nolan didn't go for tragic, as most of you guys would have preferred.

 

[dswynne1]

Saw the movie again today. Worth it. Plan on getting it once it is released for home viewing.

 

[Australis]

One question: when the tesseract cllapsed, and he was being thrown out into normal space, it was implied he was the one reaching into the ship as it arrived, hence time travel, yes? Or did I misunderstand that?

 

[Ovation]

One question: when the tesseract cllapsed, and he was being thrown out into normal space, it was implied he was the one reaching into the ship as it arrived, hence time travel, yes? Or did I misunderstand that?

That's how I interpreted that moment in the film.

 

[1001001]

One question: when the tesseract cllapsed, and he was being thrown out into normal space, it was implied he was the one reaching into the ship as it arrived, hence time travel, yes? Or did I misunderstand that?

That's how I interpreted that moment in the film.

That's correct.

 

[DaddlerTheDalek]

I didn't think of the ending of Interstellar as tragic, to be honest. Satisfying, and bittersweet, yes. Tragic, no.

This.

 

[JoeZhang]

I haven't seen such garbage in a long time.