I'd like that.Hopefully there will be a DVD with a commentary by Kip Thorne, so that all scientific questions are answered.
INTERSTELLAR - Grading & Discussion
- Thread starter Agent Richard07
- Start date
When you make the Dark Knight Trilogy and Inception, studios will let you make whatever the hell you want.
Just got back from it, and I loved it. Nolan is often said to be a rather emotionally cold film maker, but he managed to nail the important emotional elements here. The father/daughter relationship is at the very heart of this film, and it managed to make misty eyed. Every element of this film grabbed me, from the visuals to the scientific concepts it explored. It's almost three hours long, and I was aware of how long it was going while watching it, but not in a bad way. It was giving me so much to enjoy that I didn't mind.
Don't worry, it's doing just fine without you. Surely the pinnacle of star trek "intelligence", Spock's Brain or Star Trek V can never be matched.
Well if you like the smell of garbage you're welcome to inhale to your heart's content.
Don't worry, it's doing just fine without you. Surely the pinnacle of star trek "intelligence", Spock's Brain or Star Trek V can never be matched.
I got the same impression. It'll be extremely rewatchable.
About the only real negative issue was the sound loudness in general. The "experts" should be able to fix the mix before the movie is completed.
This Jonathan Nolan interview includes a really odd passage:
http://au.ign.com/articles/2014/11/08/jonathan-nolan-interstellar-spoilers
He said that shortly after he was talking about an earlier draft of the script. So I hope he was still talking about an earlier draft when he said the above, because if that was the intent for the movie as filmed, then I don't get it. Brand is in another galaxy, so how is he going to reach her in that one ship within either of their lifetimes if he can't use the wormhole? And how are the other humans going to colonize that world themselves if they also can't use the wormhole? I thought that was the "Plan A" idea: That they would all move to the new planet once it's been found.
http://au.ign.com/articles/2014/11/08/jonathan-nolan-interstellar-spoilers
He said that shortly after he was talking about an earlier draft of the script. So I hope he was still talking about an earlier draft when he said the above, because if that was the intent for the movie as filmed, then I don't get it. Brand is in another galaxy, so how is he going to reach her in that one ship within either of their lifetimes if he can't use the wormhole? And how are the other humans going to colonize that world themselves if they also can't use the wormhole? I thought that was the "Plan A" idea: That they would all move to the new planet once it's been found.
Don't worry, it's doing just fine without you. Surely the pinnacle of star trek "intelligence", Spock's Brain or Star Trek V can never be matched.
When I said 'Maybe', I meant just that; it might not be great for the Star Trek franchise to make a movie like Gravity or Interstellar if the audience and critics are so bored by the movie that they think it's pretentious. Of course, I'm not saying it can't be done, but the possibility exists for that to happen similar to the experience of Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
Well that was a lot dumber than I was expecting. It was certainly an entertaining ride from start to finish (with some gorgeous visuals and intense action sequences), but the longer it went on the more the story had me just completely rolling my eyes in disbelief.
There was the plan to launch a station into space with a "gravity equation", the idea of interdimensional beings (who are really us from the future) who somehow create a wormhole around Saturn, NASA somehow managing and affording to send an entire previous expedition to a bunch of distant planets despite Earth being a wasteland (and without anyone apparently seeing or hearing about it), a crazy Matt Damon who tries to kill everyone and strand them on his ice planet (like something out of a cheesy scifi thriller), Cooper communicating with his daughter by morse code through her bookcase in a trippy time dimension, a perfect recreation of his house on a massive space station that was somehow built before his daughter finally died of old age.....
And that's not counting all the incredibly hoaky, corny dialogue throughout the movie, or Hathaway's character wanting to base an important decision on the transcendent meaning of love or whatever.
Ultimately I couldn't help but be disappointed that Nolan couldn't simply trust in the power of watching a crew on an incredible mission to a distant galaxy to explore a mysterious alien world... but instead had to load it with all these time travel gimmicks and high-concept, Star Trek style plot devices.
Heck, at least at the end of Contact it wasn't really her father that was talking to Jodie Foster on a beach, but merely a projection the aliens were using to communicate with her. But this movie takes that idea to a whole other, much sappier and far-fetched level. Which, again, would be perfectly fine in a Trek movie or Doctor Who episode. But somehow I was expecting Nolan to try to give us something much more believable and realistic than that.
There was the plan to launch a station into space with a "gravity equation", the idea of interdimensional beings (who are really us from the future) who somehow create a wormhole around Saturn, NASA somehow managing and affording to send an entire previous expedition to a bunch of distant planets despite Earth being a wasteland (and without anyone apparently seeing or hearing about it), a crazy Matt Damon who tries to kill everyone and strand them on his ice planet (like something out of a cheesy scifi thriller), Cooper communicating with his daughter by morse code through her bookcase in a trippy time dimension, a perfect recreation of his house on a massive space station that was somehow built before his daughter finally died of old age.....
And that's not counting all the incredibly hoaky, corny dialogue throughout the movie, or Hathaway's character wanting to base an important decision on the transcendent meaning of love or whatever.
Ultimately I couldn't help but be disappointed that Nolan couldn't simply trust in the power of watching a crew on an incredible mission to a distant galaxy to explore a mysterious alien world... but instead had to load it with all these time travel gimmicks and high-concept, Star Trek style plot devices.
Heck, at least at the end of Contact it wasn't really her father that was talking to Jodie Foster on a beach, but merely a projection the aliens were using to communicate with her. But this movie takes that idea to a whole other, much sappier and far-fetched level. Which, again, would be perfectly fine in a Trek movie or Doctor Who episode. But somehow I was expecting Nolan to try to give us something much more believable and realistic than that.
Well if you like the smell of garbage you're welcome to inhale to your heart's content.
Don't worry, it's doing just fine without you. Surely the pinnacle of star trek "intelligence", Spock's Brain or Star Trek V can never be matched.
No thanks, I refuse to watch Turnabout Intruder, And the Children Shall Lead, Spectre of the Gun, or any number of "garbage" Eps from non JJ.
Always a weak argument when it can be easily countered that TOS has done far better and respectable efforts than weak ones. And they've done far better than JJ ever will given the hack he is.Well if you like the smell of garbage you're welcome to inhale to your heart's content.Don't worry, it's doing just fine without you. Surely the pinnacle of star trek "intelligence", Spock's Brain or Star Trek V can never be matched.
No thanks, I refuse to watch Turnabout Intruder, And the Children Shall Lead, Spectre of the Gun, or any number of "garbage" Eps from non JJ.
Boys, boys, can't we just agree that you're both equally annoying, extreme, and inflexible opposing ends of the fan spectrum and call it a day, so we can get back to discussing the movie you both gave your all-important seal of approval?
http://m.space.com/27692-science-of-interstellar-infographic.html
Science of Interstellar Infographic. Mostly just basic stuff visualized.
http://www.space.com/17619-how-interstellar-travel-works-infographic.html
http://www.space.com/27694-interstellar-movie-spaceships-infographic.html
Science of Interstellar Infographic. Mostly just basic stuff visualized.
http://www.space.com/17619-how-interstellar-travel-works-infographic.html
http://www.space.com/27694-interstellar-movie-spaceships-infographic.html
So where do I begin? Interstellar the movie is a rarity..a movie that looks like it should be something, is claimed to be great and is actually great! Spoilers of course:
I do have a few qualms though fairly minor to the overall picture. The first is the premise. I still have a problem with the dust bowl scenario, mainly because there are lots of ways we might fix problems if they occur. I don't think there will ever be a food shortage problem, only a distribution problem! We already produce an excess amount of food in the world, vertical farming and other techniques can mitigate any disaster that may come in the near term. I suppose I just felt another dystopia wasn't necessary to tell the story, though maybe it dramatically added some weight to the events as well as urgency.
I thought it odd that there weren't more mathematicians and physicists involved in the "gravity" problem. I do realize that the problem was faked, but there should still be a team working on it, not a solo scientist and later an assistant.
I thought Morse code on a watch from a tesseract was far too tenuous a way to communicate!! There had to be a better way!
Interstellar was possibly the first movie that felt like a REAL exploration of the limits of technical ability, planetary exploration with near future technology. 2010, 2001, Europa Report, Contact, and a handful of others all do a credible job but it felt like this movie took it a step further, making it feel like you could walk into the screen and have a huge wave wash over you, or travel through a spherical wormhole. It visualizes ideas we've heard about but have not seen.
On the surface, it shares elements of 2001/2010..there is an "alien" presence "guiding" humanity. Humanity sends out explorers. Explorers are lost and a rescue team/explorartory mission is launched. There is a lie being told that few people know. Obviously there are differences..the failed hero is not a machine, it's a very human Matt Damon. It's hard to argue against the logic here, growing embroyos is the most efficent, soundest plan. I never once hated Damon, his position is all too understandable and I do NOT believe he went crazy. His conclusions were logical, and arrived at with a lot of thought.
I'm not a huge fan of Matthew McConaughey, but Interstellar is a good current bookend with Contact. The theme of love being an integral part of the universe actually comes true, because humanity, despite evolving to 5-dimensional beings, still has empathy, and they want to save humanity. In some truly mindbending sequences, Mathew carries this off well. In reality, I doubt if the universe cares anything about how we feel, but it's always about how humans want to interact with each other in society that matters to us.
This movie touches on relativity and time dilation, and we rarely see that movies, because audiences would be "confused". Again, their depiction here is probably seminal for movie history. The science will always take a back seat to drama, I don't think you can say it's all 100% accurate (I'm fairly certain a planet that is close enough to have those dilation effects would also fall into the black hole) but it's closer than most.
The visuals are pretty amazing..very solid, very concrete, very tactile looking ships. The wave sequence had my cringing. The stark feel of space on all three planet surfaces was terrific. The black hole FX were historic and even gave some insight to their real mechanics. The tech level was about what you'd expect for a failing society. The robot AI were entertaining characters.
http://www.wired.com/2014/10/astrophysics-interstellar-black-hole/
The music was not my favorite element. It was ok, but sounded like a much too loud mish mash of 2001 and Mission to Mars, with some organ music thrown in that I wasn't too fond of.
The re-writing of history is too often a problem these days, I love how the movie critiqued this.
Ultimately, from a dystopia, we get a POSITIVE vision of the future...humanity fixes itself, twice. As long as we persevere, spread ourselves off this beautiful but distinctively vulnuerable target in space, humanity can become a wonderful thing, love, empathy and all.
A+
RAMA
I do have a few qualms though fairly minor to the overall picture. The first is the premise. I still have a problem with the dust bowl scenario, mainly because there are lots of ways we might fix problems if they occur. I don't think there will ever be a food shortage problem, only a distribution problem! We already produce an excess amount of food in the world, vertical farming and other techniques can mitigate any disaster that may come in the near term. I suppose I just felt another dystopia wasn't necessary to tell the story, though maybe it dramatically added some weight to the events as well as urgency.
I thought it odd that there weren't more mathematicians and physicists involved in the "gravity" problem. I do realize that the problem was faked, but there should still be a team working on it, not a solo scientist and later an assistant.
I thought Morse code on a watch from a tesseract was far too tenuous a way to communicate!! There had to be a better way!
Interstellar was possibly the first movie that felt like a REAL exploration of the limits of technical ability, planetary exploration with near future technology. 2010, 2001, Europa Report, Contact, and a handful of others all do a credible job but it felt like this movie took it a step further, making it feel like you could walk into the screen and have a huge wave wash over you, or travel through a spherical wormhole. It visualizes ideas we've heard about but have not seen.
On the surface, it shares elements of 2001/2010..there is an "alien" presence "guiding" humanity. Humanity sends out explorers. Explorers are lost and a rescue team/explorartory mission is launched. There is a lie being told that few people know. Obviously there are differences..the failed hero is not a machine, it's a very human Matt Damon. It's hard to argue against the logic here, growing embroyos is the most efficent, soundest plan. I never once hated Damon, his position is all too understandable and I do NOT believe he went crazy. His conclusions were logical, and arrived at with a lot of thought.
I'm not a huge fan of Matthew McConaughey, but Interstellar is a good current bookend with Contact. The theme of love being an integral part of the universe actually comes true, because humanity, despite evolving to 5-dimensional beings, still has empathy, and they want to save humanity. In some truly mindbending sequences, Mathew carries this off well. In reality, I doubt if the universe cares anything about how we feel, but it's always about how humans want to interact with each other in society that matters to us.
This movie touches on relativity and time dilation, and we rarely see that movies, because audiences would be "confused". Again, their depiction here is probably seminal for movie history. The science will always take a back seat to drama, I don't think you can say it's all 100% accurate (I'm fairly certain a planet that is close enough to have those dilation effects would also fall into the black hole) but it's closer than most.
The visuals are pretty amazing..very solid, very concrete, very tactile looking ships. The wave sequence had my cringing. The stark feel of space on all three planet surfaces was terrific. The black hole FX were historic and even gave some insight to their real mechanics. The tech level was about what you'd expect for a failing society. The robot AI were entertaining characters.
http://www.wired.com/2014/10/astrophysics-interstellar-black-hole/
The music was not my favorite element. It was ok, but sounded like a much too loud mish mash of 2001 and Mission to Mars, with some organ music thrown in that I wasn't too fond of.
The re-writing of history is too often a problem these days, I love how the movie critiqued this.
Ultimately, from a dystopia, we get a POSITIVE vision of the future...humanity fixes itself, twice. As long as we persevere, spread ourselves off this beautiful but distinctively vulnuerable target in space, humanity can become a wonderful thing, love, empathy and all.
A+
RAMA
I will definitely agree there. Nolan did a fantastic job making these ships feel absolutely real, and making you feel (thanks to the great sound design) like you were really traveling through turbulent wormholes and the atmosphere of an alien planet.
Of course for my money the best scene in the entire movie was of the Endurance simply passing slowly and quietly by Saturn. It was an absolutely awe-inspiring sight, obviously inspired by Kubrick's 2001, that I really wish had been more of the defining style and tone of the movie (instead of the more mainstream and action-packed scifi thriller/adventure story that Nolan actually made it to be).
And yeah, as odd as the robots seemed at first, I did find myself eventually growing to like them and the many different things they could do (especially spinning quickly through the water to save Hathaway). Although I never really bought their ability to walk; it always looked kinda fake and like something being puppeted from above to me.
Their "walking" worked more for me than the "run"." Mostly due to an episode of Mythbusters dealing with square tires. In it the tested vehicles struggled to operate well as tires or give a smooth ride. The "running" of the robots struck me as something similar. It wouldn't really work, at least not as well as wheels, tracks, or more conventional legs.
But I did like the look of the robots (sort of obelisk shaped. Hmmmmmmm) anc the "personalities" they had, especially the scene with McConaughey adjudting the personality aspect percentages.
Him waking up at some future point and reviving the robot sort-of reminded me of the (one of the) endings of the mivie AI with Teddy.
So, at the end McC ran into the ship (s) enroute to the discovered planet (in another galaxy and the wormhole is gone?! So are these sleeper ships or are thet generational ships making the eons-long trip to the new plane? Either way wouldn't they have the sleeper pods so McC can sleep until they get to the planet where he can be revived and meet up again with Hathaway (and apparently there was a love connection between the two.) Why the rush to leave now? Or are they heading for the wormhole, McC didn't feel like waiting anfd took the smaller ship that could get him through the wormhole, and to Anne, faster?
Loved the movie, but leaves me with a lot of questions. I may need to see it again to grasp all of it. Won't likely see it in the theater again but will watch it on BD.
But I did like the look of the robots (sort of obelisk shaped. Hmmmmmmm) anc the "personalities" they had, especially the scene with McConaughey adjudting the personality aspect percentages.
Him waking up at some future point and reviving the robot sort-of reminded me of the (one of the) endings of the mivie AI with Teddy.
So, at the end McC ran into the ship (s) enroute to the discovered planet (in another galaxy and the wormhole is gone?! So are these sleeper ships or are thet generational ships making the eons-long trip to the new plane? Either way wouldn't they have the sleeper pods so McC can sleep until they get to the planet where he can be revived and meet up again with Hathaway (and apparently there was a love connection between the two.) Why the rush to leave now? Or are they heading for the wormhole, McC didn't feel like waiting anfd took the smaller ship that could get him through the wormhole, and to Anne, faster?
Loved the movie, but leaves me with a lot of questions. I may need to see it again to grasp all of it. Won't likely see it in the theater again but will watch it on BD.
I saw it in IMAX and thought the sound mixing was terrible, with the music often drowning out the dialogue. McConaughey's mumbling was pretty much inaudible at times, though I think he gave a really good performance.
It's nice that they didn't throw real science out the window, though I found it incongruous that the time distortion seemed to be a binary value - seven years per hour if it applied at all, with no distortion at all until you got there. There were a few implausibilities, too - Cooper is back after 80 or 90 years and the robots are apparently not completely obsolete, and of course there's moon landing denialism becoming part of the curriculum (though I suppose it could have gained strength if erstwhile climate change deniers needed a new hobby horse, or the government took drastic measures to keep the public as close to science-illiterate as possible).
Nice to see Matt Damon, who I thought gave a very good performance as Mann. I think he's carving out a niche as a bona fide character actor.
I think I'd like to see this movie again when it comes out for home viewing and re-evaluate it then, but for the moment I'm giving it a B+.
It's nice that they didn't throw real science out the window, though I found it incongruous that the time distortion seemed to be a binary value - seven years per hour if it applied at all, with no distortion at all until you got there. There were a few implausibilities, too - Cooper is back after 80 or 90 years and the robots are apparently not completely obsolete, and of course there's moon landing denialism becoming part of the curriculum (though I suppose it could have gained strength if erstwhile climate change deniers needed a new hobby horse, or the government took drastic measures to keep the public as close to science-illiterate as possible).
Nice to see Matt Damon, who I thought gave a very good performance as Mann. I think he's carving out a niche as a bona fide character actor.
I think I'd like to see this movie again when it comes out for home viewing and re-evaluate it then, but for the moment I'm giving it a B+.
What got me about that point (now that you mention it) is that humanity has GMO foodstuffs in development, and yet, we didn't find a way to use them to stave off the blight, or to make crops that were resistant to the blight, and just grow food hydroponically in underground facilities. It's possible that humanity listened to the anti-GMO crowd way too much and nobody bothered to do any research into GMO's, or just use the GMO's we'd developed to grow food and never mind said crowd's objections to it.