In 2012, I traveled from the city of Bangalore to Hyderabad, to watch "The Dark Knight Rises" in one of the biggest IMAX screens in the world. In November 2014, I have followed the same path, but this time in the UK. I traveled from The University of Warwick to London, to watch "Interstellar" in the BFI IMAX that is the biggest screen in the UK.
Ever since I was in high school, I have been fascinated by Black-Holes, Wormholes, Alternate Universes & "Aliens". So you may have guessed that I'm a huge fan of "2001: A Space Odyssey" (which according to me is one of the greatest films ever made). But, let's talk a little bit about Interstellar.
A year ago, when the first teaser to the movie was out, I knew this would be Christopher Nolan's own take on 2001. I was right. I had also managed to get my hands on the initial draft script that was written by Jonathan Nolan, for Steven Spielberg, & honestly, it wasn't the greatest script ever. As you might expect out of a Spielberg film/script, it was very melodramatic & had a feel-good sentiment to it. But, Christopher Nolan being given the script to work on was probably what saved this film from becoming a Gravity-like mainstream film that "everyone" would have loved.
The movie's plot revolves around the utilisation of a mysteriously created wormhole by a group of explorers to find habitable planets outside our solar system as the Earth has run out of food. But then we soon discover that human beings are responsible for one's own destiny & the destiny of other generations of people as well. Every universe is linked to thousand other multiverses through the actions of the beings within it. We are not bound by "destiny", but by the actions of people across universes, i.e., The String Theory etc. So, no miraculous "Being" can save us from annhilation, except for ourselves. So yes, it's actually US who created the wormhole in the first place to help ourselves in the past, and so called ghosts etc., in the world today may actually be our species trying to communicate with us from the future to prevent us from cutting the strings in the String Theory.
The film also tells us that human beings are a very self centered species & are afraid to take steps that will actually help in the long run. Dr. Mann (Matt Damon) did not care about sacrificing his newly found friends in order to reach a habitable planet himself. This further exemplifies human nature & how it will be the only factor that prevents us from reaching the stars (no pun intended). Only in the future do we realise that we must work together as a species & not an individual, to achieve success.
Visually, the film was stunning, to say the least. Nolan used the renowned physicist, Kip Thorne's theories on wormholes, black holes & time travel to put forth a realistic & somewhat scientifically accurate portrayal on some of the many anomalies in space.
The last film I watched that had a similar concept was "Contact", & hey...that had Mathew McConoughey as well. Though that film was really good, it is Interstellar that does the job of even coming half way in terms of quality as compared to Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey.
As far as the acting went, Anne Hathaway & Michael Caine were very good. But it was Mathew McConoughey (no surprise there) that stole the show. The part where he watches the 26 year old transmitted communication video from his children, & undergoes an emotional transformation was surreal to say the least.
So, all in all, though I preferred Inception to this film (by an aota), I was very impressed by Christopher Nolan for having the guts to even think of making a movie with such audacious ideas & grand in-your-face philosophies. The part where Mathew McConoughey looks at all the multiverses with his daughters in them & tries to change the past was as innovative & creative as the ending (birth of the Starchild) in 2001: A Space Odyssey, was. The idea to have the Tesseract hidden behind a bookshelf that signifies knowledge throughout our omniverse was extremely impressive. I'm sure this film isn't meant for everybody, as many will expect a "Gravity" like mainstream film (after all, Nolans last film was the mainstream The Dark Knight Rises). But hey, even Kubrick was criticised when 2001: A Space Odyssey came out, & today it's considered a perfect movie.
Therefore I would like to say that apart from having the time of my life travelling all the way to London to watch a movie at 12:30 am, what I will remember forever was that the movie itself was Inter(Stellar), indeed.
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| The BFI IMAX in London |
Ever since I was in high school, I have been fascinated by Black-Holes, Wormholes, Alternate Universes & "Aliens". So you may have guessed that I'm a huge fan of "2001: A Space Odyssey" (which according to me is one of the greatest films ever made). But, let's talk a little bit about Interstellar.
 |
| Your Faithful Narrator with an authentic Interstellar Prop |
A year ago, when the first teaser to the movie was out, I knew this would be Christopher Nolan's own take on 2001. I was right. I had also managed to get my hands on the initial draft script that was written by Jonathan Nolan, for Steven Spielberg, & honestly, it wasn't the greatest script ever. As you might expect out of a Spielberg film/script, it was very melodramatic & had a feel-good sentiment to it. But, Christopher Nolan being given the script to work on was probably what saved this film from becoming a Gravity-like mainstream film that "everyone" would have loved.
 |
| The Gigantic Screen of the BFI IMAX |
The movie's plot revolves around the utilisation of a mysteriously created wormhole by a group of explorers to find habitable planets outside our solar system as the Earth has run out of food. But then we soon discover that human beings are responsible for one's own destiny & the destiny of other generations of people as well. Every universe is linked to thousand other multiverses through the actions of the beings within it. We are not bound by "destiny", but by the actions of people across universes, i.e., The String Theory etc. So, no miraculous "Being" can save us from annhilation, except for ourselves. So yes, it's actually US who created the wormhole in the first place to help ourselves in the past, and so called ghosts etc., in the world today may actually be our species trying to communicate with us from the future to prevent us from cutting the strings in the String Theory.
 |
| The Tesseract on the other side of the Book Shelf |
The film also tells us that human beings are a very self centered species & are afraid to take steps that will actually help in the long run. Dr. Mann (Matt Damon) did not care about sacrificing his newly found friends in order to reach a habitable planet himself. This further exemplifies human nature & how it will be the only factor that prevents us from reaching the stars (no pun intended). Only in the future do we realise that we must work together as a species & not an individual, to achieve success.
Visually, the film was stunning, to say the least. Nolan used the renowned physicist, Kip Thorne's theories on wormholes, black holes & time travel to put forth a realistic & somewhat scientifically accurate portrayal on some of the many anomalies in space.
 |
| The Black-Hole in the Movie |
The last film I watched that had a similar concept was "Contact", & hey...that had Mathew McConoughey as well. Though that film was really good, it is Interstellar that does the job of even coming half way in terms of quality as compared to Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey.
 | ||||
| 2001:A Space Odyssey (Above) ; Interstellar (Below) |
As far as the acting went, Anne Hathaway & Michael Caine were very good. But it was Mathew McConoughey (no surprise there) that stole the show. The part where he watches the 26 year old transmitted communication video from his children, & undergoes an emotional transformation was surreal to say the least.
So, all in all, though I preferred Inception to this film (by an aota), I was very impressed by Christopher Nolan for having the guts to even think of making a movie with such audacious ideas & grand in-your-face philosophies. The part where Mathew McConoughey looks at all the multiverses with his daughters in them & tries to change the past was as innovative & creative as the ending (birth of the Starchild) in 2001: A Space Odyssey, was. The idea to have the Tesseract hidden behind a bookshelf that signifies knowledge throughout our omniverse was extremely impressive. I'm sure this film isn't meant for everybody, as many will expect a "Gravity" like mainstream film (after all, Nolans last film was the mainstream The Dark Knight Rises). But hey, even Kubrick was criticised when 2001: A Space Odyssey came out, & today it's considered a perfect movie.
 |
| The Infamous ending of 2001: A Space Odyssey |
Therefore I would like to say that apart from having the time of my life travelling all the way to London to watch a movie at 12:30 am, what I will remember forever was that the movie itself was Inter(Stellar), indeed.
 |
| Thank You Nolan, again.
References:
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/447123069230058748/
http://publishingperspectives.com/2014/11/exploring-books-glimpsed-interstellar/#.V1hg02b1ZaU
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2805131/Does-new-film-Interstellar-realistic-black-hole-Movie-s-special-effects-result-important-scientific-discovery.html
http://www.giantfreakinrobot.com/scifi/matthew-mcconaughey-set-join-stephen-kings-stand-role.html
http://io9.gizmodo.com/tag/2001-a-space-odyssey
https://indieethos.com/tag/2001-a-space-odyssey/\http://www.flickreel.com/christopher-nolan-defends-interstellars-sound-issues/
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