So, having seen the movie last night, it may well be the worst movie I've seen this year (key word on "seen" though, I'm sure that worse movies have been released that I haven't seen). As in:
So yeah. I'm sure a lot of people are going to counter these points, and hey, I'm open to the possibility I missed some elements of the plot that clarified these things. But even outside the plot itself, I can't say I liked this film. The space shots are rarely given any time to breathe, and the camera keeps cutting to closeups of the characters, making the spaceship scenes seem schizophrenic. The characters are bland, and there's no sense of emotional connection. It feels like this film wants us to stand in awe of itself, but it never gives itself time to breathe. The characters just won't. Stop. Talking. At the end of the day, the best I can say is that this film made me appreciate 'A Space Odyssey' more. Because while I'm not that fond of SO, it does give its visuals time to breathe, and to have enough faith in the audience to work out what's going on. Interstellar does not. So I'm left with characters I can't care for, and a plot that has more than one wormhole, so to speak.
Still, TAAS was awesome.
-What's up with the blight? Is it super blight or just one blight after another? Has it affected the whole world? If so, how? How would fungus affect the nitrogen/oxygen balance of the atmosphere so much to make Earth uninhabitable? Has this blight/series of blights gone on for 30+ years? Heck, even the Irish Potato Famine only lasted 7 years, and there are plenty of areas on Earth that don't grow these staple crops (e.g. rice).
-On that note, why are engineers suddenly demonized? A lack of resources is never presented as an issue per se, only the food supply. Ideally you'd want more engineers to make better machines, to work the land more efficiently, or develop new farming methods (e.g. hydroponics, greenhouses) or scientists for GMCs. I'm not sure how anyone in this world thought that becoming Luddites was a good idea.
-Why cover up the moon landing? If the entire idea is that this is a "caretaker generation," then surely a time is meant to come (in theory) where space exploration can resume. I know an explanation is given, but it feels so contrived and so academic to the plot I'm left to wonder why it's even in here.
-Yes Cooper, we get it, life sucks being a farmer. Exploration=good, farming=bad. WE GET IT.
-Why hijack/chase down the drone, cutting through valuable foodstuffs along the way. Cooper's a machine guy...and the drone thing never comes up again.
-Why not send robots through the wormhole? Yes, Mann "explains" this (survival instinct), but again, it's a contrivance. Robots last longer, cost fewer resources to sustain (no food, no air, etc.), and there's a clear precedent for using resources in current space exploration. Clearly AI technology is sophisticated enough for robots to do this thing (e.g. TAARS).
-Why doesn't anyone question Cooper about how he found NASA? I mean, yes they do, but the line of questioning is dropped as soon as "gravity" is mentioned.
-Why not try to find Cooper? Or heck, anyone to fly the ship? I'm not exactly sure what NASA's plan was if Cooper hadn't shown up.
-Emotion...so little emotion in the goodbye scenes...
-Doyle dies on first planet...oh no...it feels like I hardly knew him...
-Love is felt towards people even when they're dead, so ergo it's a quantifiable force. Um, people hate people when they're dead too for instance. Lots of emotions don't serve us in a utilitarian sense, I'm not sure why love is being singled out.
-Caine's character says something on deathbed...I can barely hear what he's saying...like quite a lot of stuff in the movie actually.
-Plan B is actually Plan A...though I'm left to question Plan B in itself, because human babies popping out on a planet doesn't sound like a viable survival plan for the human species. How many of those babies will actually survive? Even with an astronaut, or with accelerated growth, I don't think humans are that qualified to work as a population bomb.
-Doctor Mann tricks them into coming to the ice-bucket...see why robots are better qualified and...wait...a robot's already onboard the ship...
-On that note, I think it might have been better to have more than one transmission button. As if to say, "yeah, this planet sucks, but I'm still alive..."
-Mann...please...stop...monologuing. You're setting Cooper up for a fall. I GET IT.
-Explosions...yay.
-Space explosions...yay.
-Brother becomes redneck for...some reason. Daddy issues I think, but again, contrivance.
-Murph is with nameless guy...don't know his name, don't know anything about his character.
-Yes Murph, burning down crops is a very good idea in this world right now. Especially when you commented on the futility of people trying to go anywhere...
-Alien beings' plan...get Cooper in the black hole, even though there's no reason for him to have gone in there at all bar contrivance. Also left to ask what happens to every other object that gets sucked in there.
-Cooper goes through stargate..."my god, this film wants to be 2001: A Space Odyssey."
-Alien beings are actually humans...humans evolve to operate in five dimensions...humans set up pre-destination paradox for the sake of the story being given a pre-destination paradox...aliens can create a system to get a 3D being into a tesseract, but can't create a 3D being themselves (a type of being they once were). Future humans come off as idiots by how needlessly complex this plan is, and how again, it's based on someone going into the black hole.
-Future humans use Cooper to give obscure message...apparently this message can't be sent to anyone else, anywhere else, who could put it to use (e.g. Dr Brant)...oh wait, love is the strongest force of all.
-Murph's brother is now totally fine with his crazy sister and losing his corn. Guess Murph's boyfriend didn't need that pipe.
-Humans send Cooper through wormhole back home. Apparently it never occurred to them to use the wormhole to send anyone into the tesseract without having to rely on the black hole.
-Humans build space station that goes to Saturn. Humans build high-tech spaceships. Humans become fine with technology again.
-Murph gets a goodbye bed scene. No idea where brother is. Cooper never asks.
-Most museums operate without people yammering on and on. Headphones are supplied in museums for a reason.
-"Don't go quietly into the night." Because, y'know, that quote hasn't become old by this point in the film.
-Murph knows where Brant is. No-one's sent a ship to find her.
-Cooper takes a ship to find Brant, proving that humans no longer believe in security.
-Brant resides on habitable planet. Humans are content to not go there yet because...reasons.
-On that note, why are engineers suddenly demonized? A lack of resources is never presented as an issue per se, only the food supply. Ideally you'd want more engineers to make better machines, to work the land more efficiently, or develop new farming methods (e.g. hydroponics, greenhouses) or scientists for GMCs. I'm not sure how anyone in this world thought that becoming Luddites was a good idea.
-Why cover up the moon landing? If the entire idea is that this is a "caretaker generation," then surely a time is meant to come (in theory) where space exploration can resume. I know an explanation is given, but it feels so contrived and so academic to the plot I'm left to wonder why it's even in here.
-Yes Cooper, we get it, life sucks being a farmer. Exploration=good, farming=bad. WE GET IT.
-Why hijack/chase down the drone, cutting through valuable foodstuffs along the way. Cooper's a machine guy...and the drone thing never comes up again.
-Why not send robots through the wormhole? Yes, Mann "explains" this (survival instinct), but again, it's a contrivance. Robots last longer, cost fewer resources to sustain (no food, no air, etc.), and there's a clear precedent for using resources in current space exploration. Clearly AI technology is sophisticated enough for robots to do this thing (e.g. TAARS).
-Why doesn't anyone question Cooper about how he found NASA? I mean, yes they do, but the line of questioning is dropped as soon as "gravity" is mentioned.
-Why not try to find Cooper? Or heck, anyone to fly the ship? I'm not exactly sure what NASA's plan was if Cooper hadn't shown up.
-Emotion...so little emotion in the goodbye scenes...
-Doyle dies on first planet...oh no...it feels like I hardly knew him...
-Love is felt towards people even when they're dead, so ergo it's a quantifiable force. Um, people hate people when they're dead too for instance. Lots of emotions don't serve us in a utilitarian sense, I'm not sure why love is being singled out.
-Caine's character says something on deathbed...I can barely hear what he's saying...like quite a lot of stuff in the movie actually.
-Plan B is actually Plan A...though I'm left to question Plan B in itself, because human babies popping out on a planet doesn't sound like a viable survival plan for the human species. How many of those babies will actually survive? Even with an astronaut, or with accelerated growth, I don't think humans are that qualified to work as a population bomb.
-Doctor Mann tricks them into coming to the ice-bucket...see why robots are better qualified and...wait...a robot's already onboard the ship...
-On that note, I think it might have been better to have more than one transmission button. As if to say, "yeah, this planet sucks, but I'm still alive..."
-Mann...please...stop...monologuing. You're setting Cooper up for a fall. I GET IT.
-Explosions...yay.
-Space explosions...yay.
-Brother becomes redneck for...some reason. Daddy issues I think, but again, contrivance.
-Murph is with nameless guy...don't know his name, don't know anything about his character.
-Yes Murph, burning down crops is a very good idea in this world right now. Especially when you commented on the futility of people trying to go anywhere...
-Alien beings' plan...get Cooper in the black hole, even though there's no reason for him to have gone in there at all bar contrivance. Also left to ask what happens to every other object that gets sucked in there.
-Cooper goes through stargate..."my god, this film wants to be 2001: A Space Odyssey."
-Alien beings are actually humans...humans evolve to operate in five dimensions...humans set up pre-destination paradox for the sake of the story being given a pre-destination paradox...aliens can create a system to get a 3D being into a tesseract, but can't create a 3D being themselves (a type of being they once were). Future humans come off as idiots by how needlessly complex this plan is, and how again, it's based on someone going into the black hole.
-Future humans use Cooper to give obscure message...apparently this message can't be sent to anyone else, anywhere else, who could put it to use (e.g. Dr Brant)...oh wait, love is the strongest force of all.
-Murph's brother is now totally fine with his crazy sister and losing his corn. Guess Murph's boyfriend didn't need that pipe.
-Humans send Cooper through wormhole back home. Apparently it never occurred to them to use the wormhole to send anyone into the tesseract without having to rely on the black hole.
-Humans build space station that goes to Saturn. Humans build high-tech spaceships. Humans become fine with technology again.
-Murph gets a goodbye bed scene. No idea where brother is. Cooper never asks.
-Most museums operate without people yammering on and on. Headphones are supplied in museums for a reason.
-"Don't go quietly into the night." Because, y'know, that quote hasn't become old by this point in the film.
-Murph knows where Brant is. No-one's sent a ship to find her.
-Cooper takes a ship to find Brant, proving that humans no longer believe in security.
-Brant resides on habitable planet. Humans are content to not go there yet because...reasons.
So yeah. I'm sure a lot of people are going to counter these points, and hey, I'm open to the possibility I missed some elements of the plot that clarified these things. But even outside the plot itself, I can't say I liked this film. The space shots are rarely given any time to breathe, and the camera keeps cutting to closeups of the characters, making the spaceship scenes seem schizophrenic. The characters are bland, and there's no sense of emotional connection. It feels like this film wants us to stand in awe of itself, but it never gives itself time to breathe. The characters just won't. Stop. Talking. At the end of the day, the best I can say is that this film made me appreciate 'A Space Odyssey' more. Because while I'm not that fond of SO, it does give its visuals time to breathe, and to have enough faith in the audience to work out what's going on. Interstellar does not. So I'm left with characters I can't care for, and a plot that has more than one wormhole, so to speak.
Still, TAAS was awesome.