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Interstellar spoiler thread. All spoilers go in here.
- Thread starter SCULLIBUNDO
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Everything that involves mentions of Plan A and Plan B are meant to be clunky and disorienting.
I think the problem that most people have with this film is that it feels like a sci-fi film with themes of love and faith tacked on, whereas it should be interpreted a film about love and faith in a sci-fi setting.
I mean, the entire movie is littered with plot points about this:
- The father/daughter relationship
- The professor/Cooper relationship (about believing her dad was alive)
- MM and AH's characters and motivations, especially about going home or going after Murphy's planet
- Also, AH disobeying and going after the data on the water planet
- The other guy on Endurance waiting for 23 years and losing/regaining hope
- Matt Damon's character's loss of faith
- TARS and CASE's infalliable faith (ie. taking commands without question)
- Cooper's son refusing to leave the house
I mean, I could go on and on about this. It's a really good movie, but it depends on how you interpret it.
edit: On further reflection, the themes behind the movie is analogous to Signs.
I mean, the entire movie is littered with plot points about this:
- The father/daughter relationship
- The professor/Cooper relationship (about believing her dad was alive)
- MM and AH's characters and motivations, especially about going home or going after Murphy's planet
- Also, AH disobeying and going after the data on the water planet
- The other guy on Endurance waiting for 23 years and losing/regaining hope
- Matt Damon's character's loss of faith
- TARS and CASE's infalliable faith (ie. taking commands without question)
- Cooper's son refusing to leave the house
I mean, I could go on and on about this. It's a really good movie, but it depends on how you interpret it.
edit: On further reflection, the themes behind the movie is analogous to Signs.
I know people are going to have a lot of issues with this movie (similar to the issues people had with Inception), but I loved it. I'm a sucker for high-concept sci-fi movies, even if they get into questionable scientific territory. Everything about this movie fascinated me, and I'm definitely gonna give it a couple more watchthroughs.
A couple kids walked put of the movie about 69 minutes before the end bitching about how boring it was. They missed a crazy third act.
A couple kids walked put of the movie about 69 minutes before the end bitching about how boring it was. They missed a crazy third act.
Has anyone that read the original Jonathan Nolan screenplay pointed out the differences?
If you're talking about SRG01's post, I don't think that's what he was saying at all.
Mengy
wishes it were bannable to say mean things about Marvel
I'd be curious to see a comparison as well.
Just because something builds on actual theories doesn't mean it's not nonsensical as a narrative. "Builds on theories" just means that someone theorized a possible explanation for some arbitrary scenario. In the case of Interstellar it was a necessity since Nolan is so heavy on the exposition in his movies. So the theorizing isn't the starting point to ensure a theoretically credible movie, it's just makeshift scaffolding to make the exposition seem smart and meaningful.
I do think the theory was used effectively when it came to visually representing the black hole and worm hole though.
well, there's nothing you can do about people like that without ruining the end product. You'll just have to accept that some people will never understand or even make an effort to do so.
The only part of interstellar that would be too confusing without any kind of exposition is really the time dilation part, but even that could probably have been somehow shown more efficiently.
if it is, then for me at least it's obscured by the poor script.
PlayALLtheGames
Banned
I liked it a lot. The overall experience was very entertaining (saw in IMAX), even with some questionable science and parts of plot. Given the span of time over which the story takes place, presenting it in a movie has to be tough and I think Nolan pulled it off pretty well. I thought the script held up and I liked the characters. The Matt Damon appearance was pretty classic; I honestly had no idea he was in this movie.
ViewtifulJC
Banned
It took a lot of willpower for me to not yell "MATT FIGHT!" when they pulled away to two dudes wrestling in the snow.
Found it, here it is:
http://neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=137450269&postcount=64
Absoulte dreck, worse than Nolan's movie. I can see why Espielbergo didn't want anything to do with that trash, but I don't understand why Nolan picked it up.
longdi
Banned
I hope Nolan can go back to making 'simpler' movie like the The Prestige. I really got lost with Plan A/B, world sperm banks, 3 Mass Effect choice of planets, lying Alfred etc, all the clunky exposition didn't make it easier, but turns the movie into boring talking heads for me.
IS is another Nolan movie where the internet explanation makes it better than the experience watching first time on the big screen.
I also would love to watch the original ice world script, but doubt Nolan could pull that off.
IS is another Nolan movie where the internet explanation makes it better than the experience watching first time on the big screen.
I also would love to watch the original ice world script, but doubt Nolan could pull that off.
To me it was kind of the opposite problem. It didn't feel like a film that was searching for what it wanted to be as pilots so often do, it felt like a film that was being pulled from several different directions.
One of the things which makes Kubrick's films so astounding is that he didn't really revisit genres. He did with war, but once he had full artistic control, and could make whatever he wanted, he tackled a genre, then moved on, and all of those films feel like that, they feel like they're within those genres because they housed the stories he was interested in telling. 2001's greatness is because it was a sci-fi story (the central part at least), it's wrapped up in this beautiful experience driven packaging too of course, but the core is very honest to the genre.
Interstellar, for all the 'this generation's 2001' hype, is the exact opposite of that film. It feels like it's from someone who's using sci-fi trappings to tell an essentially unrelated story, and to give humanity saving repercussions to those actions so people will be invested. He's using it as a canvas, not as the subject matter, and it just ends up feeling very very cheap to me.
This is a problem I imagine many film writers would struggle with. A screenplay needs to convey everything, but once you have actors, you don't need nearly the writing transparency, once you have the photography, you don't need nearly the blatant symbolism, once you have the soundtrack, you don't need nearly the in-your-face thematic connections between sub-plots.
All those aspects of film that exist outside of a script must be scary for a writer to depend on. That's partially where editing comes in though, you can bleed all over the script, and take out everything that's unneeded when those other elements are included, but that stuff is a safety net for a filmmaker I think.
Artistic sensibilities is a difficult thing to gauge. It seems so obvious to me as a viewer that there is a ton of horrible redundancy in the film, and its reduction would leave a tighter, more pleasing film, but if it were my call, would I choose to make it less clear? The scene where they're explaining why a wormhole looks how it does, or time dilation, they're embarrassing to watch, but would I be sure I could jettison them safely? I really don't know.
It's true. And Nolan can make films for another thirty years, and he will never even approach the first fifteen minutes of Up, but those films are just made in such a radically different way. As soon as there are very basic storyboards and a script, they're making radio play versions with the stills, then they're animating them, etc. They get like five years of actual audience response to fine tune every nuance, maybe Nolan gets a handful of test screenings, maybe he moves a couple of scenes around and changes a little music, some image balancing, possibly redubs some lines, but the film is essentially done before anyone really sees it.
More_Badass
Member
Interesting point from the IGN interview
That's one fucking stupid script.
Yes, the world needs more "we travel to other galaxies and find blue aliens" stuff.
I'm glad for every bit of rewrite we eventually got, the onus being on exploration/relationship/time.
I think you're selling the legitimacy of the science a bit short. Just a few pages ago in this thread, someone had an excerpt from Kip Thorne's book on Interstellar about why they used a black hole in this movie when they wouldn't in Contact, the reasoning being that science has a better understanding of how they work and how Cooper's trip would be feasible within our understanding. The science isn't some flimsy excuse to push along the plot, it IS the starting point for the entire movie, and keeps everything from being nonsensical. They didn't just take what's 'known' and make some crap up on top of it, it's all part of the 'known'. Even if it didn't make sense to you, the NDGT seal of approval should be enough to make you give it the benefit of the doubt.
Which parts of the plot were obscured by the script?
Whoa, didn't realize the wormhole is gone. That's some fucked up stuff. I mean, she's not even in the same galaxy. I don't even know if I can accept that, given the lack of evidence in the film.
Fixed2BeBroken
Member
Huh? That's idiotic. He would never get there.
What? That's really stupid and really ruins one of the few things I liked about the movie, the ending montage.
You're forgetting they now have the ability to manipulate space-time (or is it just gravity?), I'm assuming they've equipped their vehicles with some sort of engine to take advantage of this.
Can't assume the capabilities are the same as the spacecraft we've seen.
Needs a neo at the end of the matrix moment when he just warps through dimensions at will.
When Cooper is shot out of the black hole, he's orbiting Saturn but the wormhole is nowhere to be seen.
Atraveller
Banned
That was a given, no? Popping babies out one at a time is a stupid and impractical idea.
They mentioned that they will use incubators.
It will still be extremely tough to raise and educate hundreds of children.
I think they mentioned starting with 5, raising them up a bit and then progressing in cycles earlier on in the movie if I recall correctly?
Damn, can't wait for Interstellar 2!
Atraveller
Banned
Yeah, something like that.
Agreed 100 percent.
I loved the movie. I am part of Parent GAF. As a 36 year old with two kids under 6, who also works a ton and sees his kids far less than he wants to, it was incredibly emotionaly resonant with me. Watching the sequence on the water planet was incredibly tense, and in many ways the most fascinating allegory for struggling to balance work and life.
Saw it, liked it, didn't love it, but I've been thinking about it basically ever since leaving the theater. It wasn't the masterwork I wanted it to be (Boyhood is still the reigning king for this year) but it's just an overall interesting film to chew on.
+McConaughey is a goddamn champ. Loved his performance, especially after he entered the black hole into the 5D space and was screaming at himself and Murph.
+Also loved TARS/CASE and their dynamic with the rest of the team, I was so pleased that neither of them turned homicidal.
+Liked the near-future and far-future depictions of Earth and Cooper Station
+Visual effects are crazy good, especially Gargantua
+Enjoyed Zimmer's score. As derivative as he can be sometimes, it's nice that he always breaks out the interesting shit for Nolan and tries something new
+Favorite sequence in the whole movie: TARS and Cooper dropping off from the Endurance to fly straight into Gargantua and the singularity. Cooper docking with the spinning Endurance was also pretty damn cool.
-Audio mix was rough in some scenes. Nolan needs a new sound editor, this is probably the one consistent flaw in his last few movies that really frustrates me.
-Anyone else think the 35mm shots looked pretty blurry? Also, maybe this is a Liemax problem or just a theater issue, but the picture -- even when in the IMAX shots -- never filled up the whole screen. There were just huge black spaces hanging off both sides of the screen the whole time.
-Some predictable plot turns. I knew right from the start that Cooper was the ghost, which I was kind of dreading at first but then when it actually happened it didn't really bother me, probably thanks to MM's performance and the 5D angle of it all. Other plot points like Damon turning killer or Cooper visiting an elderly Murph I also saw coming a mile away.
-Speaking of which, not sure how I feel about the Damon subplot, but my gut instinct is that it should have been rewritten or dropped; just felt too Sunshine-y and an unnecessary addition. I might appreciate this part more on rewatch though.
-The CGI compositing between Cooper and the star tunnel (first as he's traveling to the tesseract, then as he's moving past the Endurance) did not look good.
I can see why this movie doesn't work for some people, and there were some parts that didn't really work for me either, but I don't agree with the hilarious severity of some of the complaints raised. Sure there's exposition, but it's handled appropriately enough and doled out in reasonable amounts; it's dense material, and even with the level of explanations happening, a lot of it just flat out went over people's heads.
Corny, overly sentimental dialogue? I didn't really hear it. Hathaway says "love transcends time and space," but this line doesn't exist in a vacuum (har har), it's enveloped in a paragraph of context and met with skepticism, to say the least, by Cooper and Romily. And sure Coop's love for his daughter plays a pivotal part in the climax, but it's framed pretty interestingly imo as to how it's used as the divider between three-dimensional and five-dimensional life.
Like I said in the other thread, Interstellar didn't impress me the way I thought it would, but it did impress me in ways I didn't expect it to. It's simultaneously a predictable and surprising story, anchored by some astounding visual depictions of space and one hell of a performance from McConaughey.
That said, I think I'd like to see Nolan go in a smaller-scale, Prestige-esque direction on his next film.
+McConaughey is a goddamn champ. Loved his performance, especially after he entered the black hole into the 5D space and was screaming at himself and Murph.
+Also loved TARS/CASE and their dynamic with the rest of the team, I was so pleased that neither of them turned homicidal.
+Liked the near-future and far-future depictions of Earth and Cooper Station
+Visual effects are crazy good, especially Gargantua
+Enjoyed Zimmer's score. As derivative as he can be sometimes, it's nice that he always breaks out the interesting shit for Nolan and tries something new
+Favorite sequence in the whole movie: TARS and Cooper dropping off from the Endurance to fly straight into Gargantua and the singularity. Cooper docking with the spinning Endurance was also pretty damn cool.
-Audio mix was rough in some scenes. Nolan needs a new sound editor, this is probably the one consistent flaw in his last few movies that really frustrates me.
-Anyone else think the 35mm shots looked pretty blurry? Also, maybe this is a Liemax problem or just a theater issue, but the picture -- even when in the IMAX shots -- never filled up the whole screen. There were just huge black spaces hanging off both sides of the screen the whole time.
-Some predictable plot turns. I knew right from the start that Cooper was the ghost, which I was kind of dreading at first but then when it actually happened it didn't really bother me, probably thanks to MM's performance and the 5D angle of it all. Other plot points like Damon turning killer or Cooper visiting an elderly Murph I also saw coming a mile away.
-Speaking of which, not sure how I feel about the Damon subplot, but my gut instinct is that it should have been rewritten or dropped; just felt too Sunshine-y and an unnecessary addition. I might appreciate this part more on rewatch though.
-The CGI compositing between Cooper and the star tunnel (first as he's traveling to the tesseract, then as he's moving past the Endurance) did not look good.
I can see why this movie doesn't work for some people, and there were some parts that didn't really work for me either, but I don't agree with the hilarious severity of some of the complaints raised. Sure there's exposition, but it's handled appropriately enough and doled out in reasonable amounts; it's dense material, and even with the level of explanations happening, a lot of it just flat out went over people's heads.
Corny, overly sentimental dialogue? I didn't really hear it. Hathaway says "love transcends time and space," but this line doesn't exist in a vacuum (har har), it's enveloped in a paragraph of context and met with skepticism, to say the least, by Cooper and Romily. And sure Coop's love for his daughter plays a pivotal part in the climax, but it's framed pretty interestingly imo as to how it's used as the divider between three-dimensional and five-dimensional life.
Like I said in the other thread, Interstellar didn't impress me the way I thought it would, but it did impress me in ways I didn't expect it to. It's simultaneously a predictable and surprising story, anchored by some astounding visual depictions of space and one hell of a performance from McConaughey.
That said, I think I'd like to see Nolan go in a smaller-scale, Prestige-esque direction on his next film.
Saturn is fairly large
So there is no reason that he would have to pop into existance right by the wormhole, and moreover, we see him from behind, and he came out forwards, so surely the wormhole could be behind the camera.
I'm not disputing that it was gone, its just Nolan didn't do a good job showing that.
Odds on this movie tanking like a motherfucker next week? This really could actually be Nolan's Heaven's Gate this time. 
There's two kinds of people. The ones that are lying to themselves and the people that are capable of admitting this movie was disappointing.
There's two kinds of people. The ones that are lying to themselves and the people that are capable of admitting this movie was disappointing.
Odds on this movie tanking like a motherfucker next week? This really could actually be Nolan's Heaven's Gate this time.
There's two kinds of people. The ones that are lying to themselves and the people that are capable of admitting this movie was disappointing.
wat
TheKaeptain
Banned
Coming from the biggest defender of Speed Racer.
Odds on this movie tanking like a motherfucker next week? This really could actually be Nolan's Heaven's Gate this time.
There's two kinds of people. The ones that are lying to themselves and the people that are capable of admitting this movie was disappointing.
You expecting a 10/10 and getting something between a 7-8 doesn't make it a horrible film.
Atraveller
Banned
Hyperbole generator now at full capacity.
But it's redundant, and heavy handed.
The part where Coop outs her for being in love, and it clouding her judgement is all we needed 'it doesn't mean it's not the best option/honestly it might'. It establishes that he doesn't believe love is a tangible thing which could be a factor in any objective analysis of how to proceed in the mission. That's all you need for the 5D scene to work, and you sure as hell don't need him recounting and reconsidering his opinion out loud during the scene.
lol, we just starting baby. Wait till the honeymoon period is over, like it is for most Nolan films. Then we shall rank it amongst Bayformers movies.
Conkersbadfurday
Member
Since this is a spoiler thread I take it I don't need to use tags?
Anyhow. Called the
twist about forty minutes before it happened. Was really hoping they wouldn't go that route since the giant plot holes it causes are kind of inexcusable.
There's also some poor science in the film, but that's not exactly out of hte ordinary when it comes to movies.
Anyhow. Called the
"Cooper is the 'ghost'"
There's also some poor science in the film, but that's not exactly out of hte ordinary when it comes to movies.
Yup, it can only get worse from here. It's gonna be a wild, hyperbole-fueled ride.
I think the only recent Nolan movie that I loved and then kind of soured on after the honeymoon was TDKR, and even that I still like a bit. I still love Inception and BB/TDK.
UberTag
Member
That would have been a lot better.
Of course, you could make "that would have been a lot better" suggestions to repair a number of flaws in this film.
entremet
Member
My theatre clapped like crazy at the end.Odds on this movie tanking like a motherfucker next week? This really could actually be Nolan's Heaven's Gate this time.
There's two kinds of people. The ones that are lying to themselves and the people that are capable of admitting this movie was disappointing.
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