Cooper actually does superscribe a lot to love in the end. He believes the future humans are using his love to zero in on when and how to communicate with Murphy. The aliens are doing the actions (Or empowering him to), but love is the ridiculous sight strapped to that gun.
I took it more to mean they were using his love of his daughter as a motivation for him to do what was needed to get the message to the past. That love was also what kept bringing Murph back to the same location each time, which, presumably, made it easier for the future humans to construct the Tesseract. I didn't really take it to mean they used it as a tangible 'link' between the two.
1. Its not required if you send Cooper back through the wormhole.
Perhaps the future humans were unable to send him back through in time to get Murph the required information. Falling into the black hole may have cost him too much time because of the time dilation.
2. Like I said, keep it. But 8 minutes of emotional bubbling and self serving 'love is unknown science' is just eye rolling. This was the first point in the movie where I completely detached from what was going on. Up until it, I was completely engrossed. After it, I was constantly on guard for more of it.
I actually agree, though I wasn't any more on guard after the scene. (I'm usually 'on guard' from the starting moment with films like this.)
3. Maybe not so much convoluted... I don't know. I just feel like Damon wasn't selling it. I suppose I don't know how to fix that. I just wasn't buying it.
This too I agree with. Beyond the emotional "waking up" moment, his performance was fairly flat. It was really out of place. It wasn't until he was walking away from 'suffocating Cooper' that he started feeling more believable to me.
4. I said before going over the event horizon. I know that shifts the goal post a little, but when the only other option is to throw that lovey, ghosty, booky thing in, I'd rather do that.
Fair 'nough. But I knew they were going to go for the 'sacrifice' route when T.A.R.S. showed so much uncertainty in how much information he could actually glean from a pre-event-horizon trip. Besides, they had set up a scenario in which their escape options were so limited they would barely make it to the other planet. So to me, aiming for the wormhole and hoping that T.A.R.S. could beam back any useful information seemed too risky.
Oh sure, just sending him back through on a return trajectory would have made the narrative a
LOT simpler and perhaps even a bit more....I guess the word I'm looking for is logical, but in the end it's an adventure epic. They are almost required to do something fantastical, otherwise it's almost mundane.
5. I was referring more to the random gravity affects, like the one that took down his ship, and the events that made his farm equipment wonky. If the movie followed all my changes, there would be no wonky gravity from ghost things that couldn't be attributed to the 5th dimension human's clumsiness.
True, but I feel as though the film would lose quite a lot of it's mystery and atmosphere because of it. Having those anomalies occur at the farm brought the greater events closer to home. The influence and scale of the future humans felt more immediate rather than remote.
Still, those changes would certainly make the narrative more direct. And that isn't really a bad thing. Not at all. It's even a good thing a lot of the time. I'm just saying I didn't mind the slightly convoluted path they took getting to the end points.
As for some of your points...
A. Cooper's son was weird. Near the end of the movie, he simply turned into a device to get in Murphy's way, which I'm not even sure was necessary. I dunno. There's one line where he mocks Murphy for living underground, under the delusion that they could be saved. Perhaps he simply wants his family to die somewhere he loved, and not in some underground concrete hole.
I'd considered that. But that doesn't quite explain the animosity he felt for Murph
before she tried to take the family away. He just felt entirely like a plot device by the end. Which was doubly jarring with how much characterization they attempted with most of the other key characters.
B. Well, they were communicating one way, and the likelihood of Dr. Brand being able to send messages to his daughter after he turns around and tells everyone around him that the world is ending, their all screwed, and that he's been lying this entire time is dubious at best. It seems Dr. Brand was concerned with the quality of riot free life for himself and those in his project, including Murphy, who he seems to have genuinely taken care of, as per Cooper's request. There's also, of course, the possibility that if someone got word back to Cooper that plan A was a bust, he might turn that rocket right the fuck around, just to come home, plan B be damned or not.
Well sure, but he
knew it was all a futile effort either way. So why squander what little time they have left? They obviously had the resources to do
something. Why waste it on an endeavor he knew wouldn't pan out?
Granted, if he
had abandoned the project then the rest of the film falls apart. But this is why that particular "twist" felt a little forced to me.
C. You might have also noticed that they had enough resources to make beer, which seems a bit odd when your only reliable crop is corn, and there's presumably someone you could be feeding with it. Then again, perhaps that's just the benefit of being a successful farmer - The opportunity to put some aside for distilleries? You got me on this one.
I suppose it could have been corn beer, which is actually a thing. Or maybe it was left-over from some long-lost stock someone hid away.
Either way....I don't think one could subsist entirely on corn.
D. Enclosures capable of housing enough food for the entirety of humanity aren't possible now, and considering the resource decay of the film, it doesn't seem possible. All they say of the blight is that is pervasive, and it both breaths and produces nitrogen.
I wasn't thinking of enclosures for the entirety of the human population, more a portion of it. (and I know what that implies)
It's gas exchange behavior is part of what made me curious about it. Is it naturally occurring? Is it some new or ancient organism that reemerged with a vengeance? Was it engineered by some lab somewhere?
They can't just say humanity's dying because of a 'thing', but you don't get to know what it is!
Come to think of it though, nitrogen compounds are very important for plant growth. Perhaps the blight isn't killing the plants per say, but is a parasite that gets into the crops and leeches and breaks down nitrogen compounds in the soil? This may help explain the dust storms (Also caused by deforestation). The dust itself likely carries the blight.
I'd thought of this too. It seems like a probable explanation, at least in part.
It's also an idea, of sorts, I had for a story some time ago. That is, until Interstellar ruined it.
E. Presumably, mastering gravity gives you a lot of options. And I always kind of assumed that regardless of the discoveries they made, they still weren't going to save everyone. The movie flat out refuses to tell us whats happening on Earth, though - perhaps it is riddled with self-contained habitats, filled with people waiting for the planet's ecosystem to level out again. Or perhaps they just picked a few American towns, jammed them into anti-grav space cylinders, and were done with it. Something to think about.
Could be. Perhaps they held a lottery of some kind.
I'd also considered that they may have built a series of "grav lifts" to ferry people in droves off world and to the Jupiter station for transport through the wormhole.
Though, the logistics involved in moving
that many people boggles my mind...
Don't get me wrong - I loved the movie. And you are right about the cinematography and aesthetics. I also loved the depiction of, and how they dealt with, time dilation. But this isn't a a peanut butter cup - Keep your Ham Fisted Love Plot out of my Hard Science Space Epic, and I'll keep my Hard Science Space Epic out of your Ham Fisted Love Plot.
Oh, I never assumed you hated the film. I didn't assume you loved it either, though I'm glad you enjoyed it. (wouldn't want you to feel as though you'd wasted your money) I just wanted to discuss differing criticisms with the film. I always love doing this with the bits of media I like.
And again, I find I agree with you. Though, if the intention is to interject some 'humanity' into a hard-science-based sci-fi adventure, the easiest (if lazy at times) method is to inject a love story. And a love story built around the love a father for his daughter is one that probably hits close to home for a lot of people.
It's a cheap writing device, but it works. :/
As for TARS and CASE, they are easily my second favorite movie robots. I'm going to wait until the BluRay comes out before I decide if I like them more then I like Gerty, and crown them Number 1. I just love them, from their fantastic design to the cute moments, like when they actually say 'Hello' to each other. I'm not usually one for emotes, but...
:3
Oh, I'm already starting to consider them for my "best AIs/robots in film" list. Perhaps not at
the top (yet), but certainly up there.
I'm looking forward to the Blu-Ray release as well, if only because I want to look for more
2001 and
Blade-Runner references. I've heard the film's full of them.
