Interstellar (2014)

Written by Asadullah Khan on October 19, 2016

"Man kind was born on earth, it was never meant to die here."

IT has been two days since I watched it and I still can't get it out of my head. I can safely say that it has been a long LONG time since a movie had this much effect on me after watching it. And the only thing I can think of now is to somehow Re-Watch it again.

This movie was surprisingly different from Christopher Nolan's recent works because they had been great cinematic entertainment pieces catered to a wider audience with a blockbuster approach, this certainly didn't felt like that and hence the polarizing response it got. It is an ambitious project that is not meant to merely entertain, walk into it knowing that. I'll say this though, If it works for you, you'll be in heaven.

The premise of the movie is that Earth is no longer capable of supporting humans on it, we must find a new home to avoid extinction. This scenario is told from a very personal perspective and not from a Global scale like some sort of apocalyptic catastrophe disaster film. At the core of the movie is the Father-Daughter relationship. The movie takes its sweet time to develop it too.

Mathew McConaughey, not surprisingly, gives an amazing performance as the main lead. He really carries the film, some scenes were very emotional due to his great performance. The rest of the cast does a great job as well, especially the Daughter played by Meckenzie Foy. The One character that I never expected to be great was the robot TARS. He also acted as the source of the humor in the movie, well executed, timely and grounded.

Interstellar tackles a lot of themes, Survival, Humankind, Love, Time etc, out of which 'Time' had the biggest impact on me. With relativity being a big part in the film, the whole sequence about it just struck me very deeply and I found new respect for Time. I'm actually at a loss of words to describe it. Also, there is a lot science in it so it can be confusing for many and in Nolan's tradition, it also has twists and mind numbing ending, where the more you think about it, the more numbing it gets.

The visuals of this movie are breathtaking. Great cinematography and CGI. The depiction of wormholes and blackholes and other space entities were the best I have ever seen. They just suck you into the movie. Along with that, you get to listen to one of Hans Zimmer's best scores. The score not only felt personal, going perfectly with the movie, but also different from his recent works. There were times where combination of epic photography and soundtrack made the scenes timeless, like I was completely sucked into it and didn't had a clue about my surroundings. I didn't want those scenes to end.

Alas, the movie was not perfect. My biggest gripe with it is that the pacing and editing was off at times. Some scenes dragged on while others were cut far shorter. The beautiful views of space could have definitely benefited from a few seconds longer onscreen time. Also, I wished there was more space exploration in it.

With all the remakes, rehashes, reboots and sequels we are getting in these times, it is great to see original gems like these. This movie is definitely one of this year's best, one of Nolan's best work and one of the best movie I have seen in recent years.

9.5/10