2014 science fiction epic
Rating: 17/20
Plot: Some guy who really likes driving Lincolns leaves his children behind to fly into a wormhole and try to save humanity.
Here's what I'm really happy about: People still might say "Say it; don't spray it" in whatever-the-hell-year-this-takes-place-in. That's a phrase I always assumed would survive.
Seriously, it's impossible to watch this without thinking of those Lincoln commercials since McConaughey is pretty much playing a space cadet in that one, too. He's a man who can't close his mouth when he drives a car or flies a spaceship close to black holes. There's one of those Lincoln commercials where he's talking about "coming back to see where you came from," and I could have sworn that same bunch of pseudo-philosophical mumbo-jumbo was in this movie verbatim. At least he doesn't do that weird thing with his fingers. McConaughey does what McConaughey does and almost passes as a hot-shot pilot, at least as much as Jake Lloyd in Star Wars Episode I. He does pass as an actual human being in this movie--barely--and is about as Everyman as he's ever going to get.
I sometimes wonder if I don't appreciate Christopher Nolan as much as I should. Nolan could make the worst movie ever, and it's still going to be worth watching because of how ambitious he is. He's a guy who doesn't dive into any projects with small ideas, and he doesn't dumb things down for the masses. A Nolan-directed complete failure is going to be more interesting than probably every blockbuster out there. I like the future he created here, one filled with all these subtle but terrifying little differences. The daily sandstorms seem anachronistic, but I dug the stuff about the Apollo space missions and moon landings being as rejected in educational institutions as creationism, the idea that there has to be a very limited number of college students, the need for farmers, the lack of a need for a military. Like Nolan's other movies, I think you could watch this and enjoy it viscerally, but you could also intensely scrutinize the thing, strangle it until more meaning and more ideas start leaking out, bounce ideas about it off your friends. If what ends up happening with McConaughey's character was supposed to be a surprise, I surprisingly saw it about two hours ahead of the big reveal. But that's not an issue because the journey still matters. And what a journey it is! Part-2001/part-Lucas, this movie is a visual thrill. There are things in here that you've never seen before, and while I'm not usually one to be swayed by special effects and all the fixings, the practical effects, surreal imagery, and space swirlies that I in no way understood were, as the kids are saying these days, sick. I was fully convinced that I was actually seeing Saturn. I was fully convinced that McConaughey and his peeps were on a water planet with improbably tall waves. I've got no idea what a black hole looks like, but I was fully convinced that a camera crew had been taken into the farthest reaches of space in McConaughey's magic Lincoln so that they could get footage of one. Earth's pretty in this, too, but space hasn't wowed me since I saw 2001: A Space Odyssey for the first time. The music fits perfectly and is probably my favorite Hans Zimmer score. It's cold and minimalistic and matches the atmosphere or lack of atmosphere perfectly. At times, I thought I was listening to Philip Glass, and that's never a bad thing. There's one moment in this where Nolan juxtaposes McConaughey's issues on an ice planet with Matt Damon and Matt Damon's head and some stuff on Earth with Jessica Chastain (a pet peeve), and the music there is just so good. So much intensity throughout this, but it's a quiet intensity.
This covers a lot of ground thematically. At first, I wondered to myself about what's love, what's love got to do, got to do with it. Do I need love in my science fiction movies? There's a depth to the physics and scientific stuff that made me feel pretty dumb; this is often a little dense. Or I'm pretty dense. So I guess I should feel lucky that the emotional layer of this was there because I definitely felt that. This sprawls, but it does so majestically, in an epic way. And I'm shocked that it couldn't edge out one of those biopics or that awful movie about that kid getting older to get a best picture nomination. Do the Academy Awards people hate science fiction or something?
Time travel nitpickers and hole-punchers! Eviscerate this one if you want. Everybody else--slurp it like the last of a vanilla milkshake.
I'm glad I watched it, but ultimately the movie is a bunch of bloated who-ha. Fifth-dimensional future humans communicating in the past through gravity (however that works). Really? You bought this? I didn't even find the visuals to be that interesting. And this movie DRAGS. There are so many questions and logic flaws that it made my head hurt. What I love is a movie where characters say science blah-blah quickly and because they seem confident, the movie makers just assume no one will stop and say "Wait a second." On top of everything else, until the feel-goody, silly ending, most of the film is one giant, slow moving downer. I'm fine with having seen it, and you aren't the only friend that liked it, but I would never spend nearly three hours of my time watching it again. Your 17 really surprised me. I would give it a 14, and that is being generous.
ReplyDeleteWell, if it means anything, I would have guessed that I had given this a 16 before your comment forced me to look at it again. So I guess I'm surprised by my 17 score, too. I guess there's a chance that I wouldn't like this as much if I saw it again. As far as whether or not I "bought this"...I'm not sure if I ever fully buy science fiction stuff. Not even the stuff that happens in Armageddon. I didn't think the movie dragged at all, and I thought it was really great visually. But I do absolutely understand some of your issues with this movie.
ReplyDeleteChristopher Nolan is the new Spielberg. He doesn't run things through quickly just to get another movie credit under his belt. I didn't feel like stopping the movie every time science jargon came out of people's mouths because I trusted Nolan, the captain at the helm. He is completely trustworthy and credible when it comes to intelligent narratives. So, I'm not going to live on the plot holes (especially since a good 40% of this scientific jargon was complete sci-fi and theoretical).
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of playing with dimensions. My simple brain tried to grasp the idea of the different dimensions a few years ago, and all that I studied (String Theory, The 10-Dimension Hypothesis) completely adds up and is confirmed through this movie. The Nolan Bros. must have done their research too before embarking on this story. Seeing the 4th/5th dimension laid out in that kaleidoscope fashion was remarkable. Also, the theory of relativity was excitingly played out with the different time frames (an hour here equals 7 years there).
Another exciting aspect to the movie was the score. I loved that pipe organ sound. The juxtaposition of the old school pipe organ with the new world technology was brilliant. The orchestral writing was taut and controlled.
I also really like the look of the movie. That robot really fit the bill for this movie. It was never distracting. It felt like a robot that would have been the first of its kind. It was rudimentary when it needed to be, and high-tech when it needed to be. As always, Nolan has the best cinematography. The landscapes were eerily stark and clean and quiet. It's always interesting to have a landscape be a character and help drive the narrative. Nolan used to use Wally Pfister on all his films, but for this film he, used Hoyte Van Hoytema. Either way, Nolan knows what visuals he wants, and he knows how to get a beautiful looking and artistic looking film.
For me, the acting was subpar, however. I don't consider a lot of the people in this movie "actors"; instead, I see them as movie stars. Their fame just gets in the way of the characters so much for me. Every time I saw someone I recognized, I couldn't help but place them in other films and TV shows. Slowly, I reconciled each movie star with his/her own character and let the story continue. Michael Cain seemed the most natural. His death scene was powerful; he's still go it. But back to the actors. Again, the script sounded so foreign coming out to their mouths. I couldn't see Jessica Chastain or M. McConaughey saying all that sciency stuff.
Plus, that portion of the story where McConaughey was going to use "love" to reach his daughter? Or how did his daughter make the connection that the ghost was her dad? The problems I had with the story had nothing to do with the science. The parts that felt rushed were the human parts. I felt like the human connection piece to the story was a little sloppy. 17/20.
See, I think we agree on pretty everything about this movie. But I also definitely understand where Cory's coming from.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing I'd say is that I LIKED the human parts of the movie. For me, that's what elevated it. Without the human stuff, this would have been as cold as 2001, a weird criticism since 2001 is like a perfect movie and all. I don't remember if I liked the acting or not. I skimmed through my write-up here and have no fucking clue what I'm even talking about.