Fresh off the success of his “Dark Knight” trilogy, Christopher Nolan returns with another hit. “Interstellar” is a science-fiction adventure film about a team of explorers who must travel through space in search of a new hospitable planet. In the near future, Earth becomes unable to sustain humanity as crops are ravaged by blight and dust storms. Cooper, a former NASA test pilot, is chosen to pilot the Endurance, an experimental spacecraft designed to travel into a wormhole orbiting Saturn. Cooper and his team must search for a new world as it is a race against time to save humanity. “Interstellar” is an intense movie filled with a mind-blowing plot, memorable characters and tons of other features that make it an incredible masterpiece and a blast to watch.
The movie’s plot is consistent in keeping the audiences on their toes. The film keeps the audience’s attention even with a total runtime of 169 minutes. The viewer will be tossed new information and situations that take them on an adventure and changes the circumstances of the characters. The plot is far from straightforward, but it does an excellent job of putting together the pieces for the audience so that everything is understood and there are no plot holes. Nolan does a great job of allowing the audience to be an active participant in the journey rather than a simple viewer.
Besides the plot, the characters also help to make the film. Their likeability makes the audience want to care for them as they follow them on this dangerous mission. Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) is a father who is chosen to leave on an adventure that will save his children’s life, but they are too young to understand. Amelia (Anne Hathaway) is the daughter of Professor Brand who wants to chase after her lover, a pilot for a previous mission, through the stars while also playing a pivotal role in her father’s life work. Even the synthetic robots, TARS and CASE are characters that the audience will want to follow because of their unique personas.
All of this is amplified by the setting of the film. Space is vast and unexplored, which leaves room for the imagination. The film uses scientific theories to help paint a picture of what space could be like. Anomalies like black holes and wormholes are turned into visual masterpieces. Audiences will also be able see great environments for potential planets beyond our solar system. From a tidal wave-ridden ocean planet, to gas giants where everything (even the clouds) is frozen, the film does a great job of bringing theory to life with the power of imagination.
But the icing on the top of this magnificent piece of work is the score. Hans Zimmer’s score adds the emotional oomph to Nolan’s visual storytelling. The score will have audiences sinking into their seats as they are both awestruck by fantastical design and atmospheric music to being on the edge of their seats with the foreboding rhythmic pounding of a pipe organ as the story reaches its climax and the action rises.
“Interstellar” is an ambitious film that tackles the unknown. All that has been told of space has come from textbooks of boring theories and science that most cannot understand. But “Interstellar” brings theory to life and never has it looked so exciting and visually stimulating.
Rating: 5 stars
