Interstellar - Christopher Nolan Directing - Nov 2014

[Schnibbles]

I loved this film, and never felt bored. I could tell some of the emotional stuff would seem mawkish to somebody who's less of an emotional wreck than me, but it worked for me.

The logic behind going to the planet heavily affected by the black hole is bullshit though. If time and fuel and oxygen are your resources, in no situation is it a good idea to expend an awful lot of all of them on one when the other two don't cost anywhere near as much.

Yes, it'd take months to get to one of the other planets, but they knew it would cost them at least a couple of years on the water planet; if they'd been budgeting for spending an hour there (so eight years) that's an awful lot of resources.

When they come back up, they discover they've used loads of their fuel staying in orbit - so there wasn't much value to choosing this option over just blasting to the other planet. It might cost more fuel to do so, but it's a lot less dangerous. Obviously they'd know they would be using loads of fuel to stay in orbit, so there's no convincing argument for going to that planet first.

Poor old Edmonds, eh, he has to spend a hundred years on his own. Although none of them have that much fun...

[JohnC]

Nolan talks about the bits of dialogue people are having problems hearing and why it's deliberate.

[Triple A]

Just got out of a 70mm IMAX showing of this.

Was gripped and the audio/visual was just amazing without being too in your face.

A few annoying holes that took me out of the movie though. Will think about some more and eat up all in this thread.

[freezycold]

Yeah I found it odd that they went to that planet first. Didn't they say it was because it was the closest or something?

[makkuwata]

Holy fuck that's the worst film I've seen this year and I've seen lucy. Watching 3 hours of interstellar is like losing 24 hours of your life.

Nolan really is the "thinking man's" michael bay and I use "thinking man" as loosly as a 90-year old vagina trying to grip a cock.

I'm still petty sure I enjoyed the experience, but this is also spot on.

[Nick R]

The whole thing reminded me of Sunshine; partly because of the story (i.e. the survivor of a previous mission turning up and becoming a psychopath for no reason) and partly because of the mix of hard science and weird nonsense. It reminded me of 2001, especially with the trip beyond time and space at the end. The problem for me was that 2001 used that bit to portray something terrifying and totally beyond human understanding, while Interstellar used it to portray something a bit trite and parochial.

Yeah I was reminded of Sunshine when that happened too.

In fact that whole section of the film, with Mann's betrayal, was the bit I'd probably edit out first if I wanted to trim down the length. (Even though I liked the "50/50 chances" line, and the subsequent docking-while-spinning sequence.) I suppose once he was rescued, I just wanted the team to stay a bit more united and focused on the exploration - disagreeing on what exactly to do, of course, but not to such an extent that they'd murder each other!

Also: this had Kip Thorne as scientific consultant (and exec producer, somehow!), whereas Sunshine only had Brian Cox.

As for 2001: I saw Interstellar today at the Birmingham Giant Screen, and it was preceded by this excellent trailer for a re-release of 2001, which ends with a quote about it from Christopher Nolan. Even if it hadn't been shown, there would still have been plenty of obvious similarities between the two films - but such an immediate side-by-side comparison didn't really do Interstellar many favours!

[JohnC]

Here's a rubbish 7 page comic about Dr. Mann by Nolan and some comic book guy.

[Nick R]

Nolan talks about the bits of dialogue people are having problems hearing and why it's deliberate.

I'd managed to avoid learning much about the film before seeing it (pretty much only that it's by Chris Nolan and involves wormhole space travel), but one thing I did know is that a lot of people had been complaining about the sound mix - specifically that the music drowned out the dialogue.

I'm someone who often chooses to watch films at home with subtitles on, because I don't want to miss a single line. So I was a bit concerned that it would be an issue. But I had surprisingly few problems with being unable to hear dialogue because of the music, only a few of occasions throughout the movie. Matthew McConaughey's accent took a bit of getting used to, but I think the only place where I really missed anything important was

Michael Caine's character's final words - before the poem - in his death scene

- and overly-loud music wasn't the cause in either of those cases.

[Triple A]

My biggest gripe was the way they:

made such a song and dance about how Cooper shouldn't have been at the secret NASA base and their interrogating him etc., and then 5 minutes later are telling him that he is the only man for the job/who can save the planet (which reeks of Armageddon-levels of cheese BTW). If he was the only man for the job (unlikely given his sustained injuries from earlier flight and the following implied mental health issues), why didn't just go and recruit him earlier.

That and the ensuing 5-10mins or so where they crammed in and brushed over the various backstory for how NASA got to where they did etc.

, had members of the audience properly lolling, and me rolling my eyes. Unless I missed something?

[Phelan]

I really enjoyed this. A beautiful story about a man wanting to re-connect with his daughter. Could have been a lot shorter.

Other half thought it was beautifully shot, great sound, fantastic acting and a shit movie. Ah well!

[hungry joe]

I also agree with these assessments.

They should have kept Matt Damon on earth and had him finish off the formula on the board.

[Super Craig]

My biggest gripe was the way they:

made such a song and dance about how Cooper shouldn't have been at the secret NASA base and their interrogating him etc., and then 5 minutes later are telling him that he is the only man for the job/who can save the planet (which reeks of Armageddon-levels of cheese BTW). If he was the only man for the job (unlikely given his sustained injuries from earlier flight and the following implied mental health issues), why didn't just go and recruit him earlier.

That and the ensuing 5-10mins or so where they crammed in and brushed over the various backstory for how NASA got to where they did etc.

, had members of the audience properly lolling, and me rolling my eyes. Unless I missed something?

Didn't they think that he was dead? Might be misremembering that.

[DirkCrisis]

If Interstellar had been made in the 70s, the bit with Space Cowboy in the library would have been a 10 minute segment of him floating around with no helpful robot narration.

Fortunately, we live in the future where robots just don't shut up.

[Jack Walsh's coffee shop]

Here's a rubbish 7 page comic about Dr. Mann by Nolan and some comic book guy.

That's a bit harsh, it's decent enough as a supplement to the film.

Would like to see some more backstory on

NASA being dissolved by the government because they refused to help with dropping bombs on starving people

, done in this fashion.

Surprising no one here is discussing what this film might have been like, IF Spielberg had stayed on as director.

Can only imagine the casting would have been very different for one.

[Blu3Flame]

Saw this last night and loved it. A spiritual sequel to Contact.

[NecroMorrius]

Contact is the tits, I'd better go and see this.

[Nick R]

On the subject of the scientific accuracy of the VFX renders of light paths around the black hole, and how they made some new discoveries in the process of making it, as discussed in that Wired article:

I read Sean Carroll's blog post about the film, and someone in the comments linked to this comment by an astrophysicist. He says that no, it's not that new (he simulated a similar image back in 1979), and it's also inaccurate (because the VFX don't account for the processes that should make the accretion disc look very asymmetrical, much brighter on one side).

... but he adds that that Kip Thorne emailed him to say that, yes, he's well aware of this.

[Tofu]

Just got back from seeing this and WOW.

Anyway nothing to add really, except I found the ending really sad surrounding his daughter.

Also early on in the film, at one point I thought he was going to choke his daughter out.

Plus

Matt Damon was funny as fuck being the cowardly piece of shit he was playing

[Sportello]

I enjoyed this but must have missed the

explanation over how they saved the food. I thought the human race was about to starve?

[Cheeko]

My understanding was that they didn't save the food. They'd said that they were growing okra, but the disease was going to hit that and start affecting corn too, which was the last option, so the next generation was predicted to be the last. The suggestion seemed to be that Cooper's son's wife and kid didn't make it, and that's why the mission to get the gravity tube Cooper Station was so important to be able to haul kids to the new planet.

Regarding the soiund, I really didn't have any issue, i quite like the idea of playing with the notion that the audience needs to hear every word perfectly, as long as the scenes are well laid out then you know what's happening anyway.

Lastly, I find it funny that I can suspend disbelief that Cooper is a character in this story, and that Mochael Cain is the NASA boss. But when you go through a wormhole to a distant galaxy, to a planet that no longer seems to have survivors, then open a sleep pod to have Matt Damon pop out it just seems comical.

[Sportello]

My understanding was that they didn't save the food. They'd said that they were growing okra, but the disease was going to hit that and start affecting corn too, which was the last option, so the next generation was predicted to be the last. The suggestion seemed to be that Cooper's son's wife and kid didn't make it, and that's why the mission to get the gravity tube Cooper Station was so important to be able to haul kids to the new planet.

I thought Michael Caine's character had explained how the Okra had died along with the wheat (and someone said, clunkily, 'this is the last okra harvest' or something), and that the corn had started dying (hence Casey Affleck's character purging an area of his crop at one stage). The whole thing was a bit confusing.

[Space Renegade Ulala]

The Blight was flourishing in Earth's atmosphere due to its high *insert whichever gas it was here* content - away from it, the crops most likely can grow again.

[sandman]

A friend of mine whose taste is very similar to my own said this was way too long. When I asked her is she wouldnt mind seeing again, but with me, she suggested we see Nativity 3 instead because "at least its short". Make of that what you will,

[Sportello]

The Blight was flourishing in Earth's atmosphere due to its high *insert whichever gas it was here* content - away from it, the crops most likely can grow again.

That's right, something about nitrogen?

[MrPogo]

A friend of mine whose taste is very similar to my own said this was way too long. When I asked her is she wouldnt mind seeing again, but with me, she suggested we see Nativity 3 instead because "at least its short". Make of that what you will,

It is a bit of an epic. I'm not sure what they could have cut out of this (if anything I'd like to have seen more of the alien planets and the space station etc), but long running times do put me off films. When there's two or more films I want to see out at the same time then it's usually the shorter one which gets the money if the other is over two hours.

[Harsin]

It is a bit of an epic. I'm not sure what they could have cut out of this

Anne Hathaway's moment would be a start.

[englishbob]

This is a pretty okay infographic of the film's timeline:

Interstellar timeline.jpg

The person that drew that up must be kicking himself.

I thought the Black hole on the left was a Worm Hole, and that Garguatua was the black hole?

[Blu3Flame]

Correct

[Jack Walsh's coffee shop]

Was Skyping with a writer friend of mine earlier this evening. Asked him about how different the script likely was when it was first written and Spielberg was in place as director. He said that draft exists out there (not to hard to find as a PDF he said) and that he'd read it.

Said that the key differences was that ....

none of the bedroom and bookcase stuff was in it. Matt Damon's character isn't either, instead when they reach that planet, they discover a colony/base setup by the Chinese space agency. There are seemingly no astronauts, but the base is run by robots, some of which are configured for military use. The robots have orders that any non-Chinese personnel are to be detained and not allowed to leave. Thus there's a later scene where they have to fight them, on in order to escape.

Hmmmmm ... maybe I can see now why Spielberg didn't stay attached to it.

Although the official reason might be more down to:

Steven Spielberg moved his production company DreamWorks in 2009 from Paramount to The Walt Disney Company, and Paramount needed a new director for Interstellar.

[Mr Cochese]

Haha, that sounds pretty idiotic.