If there is one rule of a work of fiction, it is that you must care about the characters, because if you don’t care about the characters, it is very unlikely that you are going to care about what happens to them.
And, alas, I have to admit, I wasn’t left caring about the characters by the end of this movie – the only characters I really ended up caring about were the faceless robots, who seemed to have more personality than the human cast did. And given that the movie itself was resolved with a deus ex machina, it is really hard to recommend.
But I’m getting ahead of myself.
The setup of this movie takes an inordinate amount of time, but ultimately the plot is that Earth is dying due to magical bacteria and humanity needs a new planet, and would-be-NASA Astronaut Joseph Cooper, who has turned to farming in the face of a global crop blight, is the man to do it.
Interstellar is ostensibly a sci-fi movie, but it is ultimately fantasy. The beginning of the movie has Cooper is lead to the secret NASA facility to become humanty’s savior by aliens from beyond space-time sending him the coordinates by writing in dust in his house and knocking books of the shelves of his daughter’s bookcase. A wormhole conveniently appeared next to Saturn to give humanity a way out of the solar system.
And while this is all okay as setup, the movie continues to make contrivances. The ultimately solution to humanity’s plight is a deus ex machina delivered by aliens from beyond space-time – or possibly future humans. Whatever the case, it is a solution that comes not from the characters in the movie, but from an external force, meaning that, ultimately, all of the characters struggles were resolved by magic as well.
If the characters had been interesting, this might have been okay. But they weren’t. The central conflict of the movie – Cooper having to choose between saving people who already exist, and providing for a potential future for the human species – was potentially interesting, but ultimately, the movie doesn’t really go anywhere with it. Cooper is upset, certainly, but in the end nothing Cooper did really ended up resolving that conflict – it was resolved in his favor by external forces, and there’s no actual human resolution to it. Without any other personality to speak of - just these two character traits - he's not really a very interesting character.
And this problem is endemic to the cast – most of them feel like they’re just kind of there, and have maybe two personality traits tops. A handful have some personality, but they aren't enough to carry the movie.
We’re left with a plodding 2 hour and 40 minute long film that doesn’t leave earth until 42 minutes in. My lack of concern for the characters meant that their success and failure didn’t touch me, and the constant contrivances and arbitrary plot meant I couldn't care about the story itself.
Long, contrived, melodramatic, and full of flat characters
If there is one rule of a work of fiction, it is that you must care about the characters, because if you don’t care about the characters, it is very unlikely that you are going to care about what happens to them.
And, alas, I have to admit, I wasn’t left caring about the characters by the end of this movie – the only characters I really ended up caring about were the faceless robots, who seemed to have more personality than the human cast did. And given that the movie itself was resolved with a deus ex machina, it is really hard to recommend.
But I’m getting ahead of myself.
The setup of this movie takes an inordinate amount of time, but ultimately the plot is that Earth is dying due to magical bacteria and humanity needs a new planet, and would-be-NASA Astronaut Joseph Cooper, who has turned to farming in the face of a global crop blight, is the man to do it.
Interstellar is ostensibly a sci-fi movie, but it is ultimately fantasy. The beginning of the movie has Cooper is lead to the secret NASA facility to become humanty’s savior by aliens from beyond space-time sending him the coordinates by writing in dust in his house and knocking books of the shelves of his daughter’s bookcase. A wormhole conveniently appeared next to Saturn to give humanity a way out of the solar system.
And while this is all okay as setup, the movie continues to make contrivances. The ultimately solution to humanity’s plight is a deus ex machina delivered by aliens from beyond space-time – or possibly future humans. Whatever the case, it is a solution that comes not from the characters in the movie, but from an external force, meaning that, ultimately, all of the characters struggles were resolved by magic as well.
If the characters had been interesting, this might have been okay. But they weren’t. The central conflict of the movie – Cooper having to choose between saving people who already exist, and providing for a potential future for the human species – was potentially interesting, but ultimately, the movie doesn’t really go anywhere with it. Cooper is upset, certainly, but in the end nothing Cooper did really ended up resolving that conflict – it was resolved in his favor by external forces, and there’s no actual human resolution to it. Without any other personality to speak of - just these two character traits - he's not really a very interesting character.
And this problem is endemic to the cast – most of them feel like they’re just kind of there, and have maybe two personality traits tops. A handful have some personality, but they aren't enough to carry the movie.
We’re left with a plodding 2 hour and 40 minute long film that doesn’t leave earth until 42 minutes in. My lack of concern for the characters meant that their success and failure didn’t touch me, and the constant contrivances and arbitrary plot meant I couldn't care about the story itself.