INTERSTELLAR is an awe-inspiring film.  It is an exploration of the human spirit and the need to survive along with the need to reach out beyond to explore unknown new worlds.  It also straddles the balance between family and science along with a little on taking a leap of faith.   It is taking place in a near future where a dust blight destroying crops while NASA is working on a secret way to find other worlds for humanity to escape to other worlds due to the discovery of a wormhole near Saturn.   Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) takes up the task of piloting the latest mission to find a habitual world beyond the wormhole and get back to his daughter who will age years before he might ever her again.   INTERTSELLAR also weaves in some hard science fiction mixed with the latest astrophysics to drive home the sacrifices that the crew of Cooper’s ship will have to make including facing time dilation caused by the gravity of a nearby black hole named Gargantua.   It shows the awe and danger of space exploration where each world is fascinating and even possibly dangerous as the crew of the Endurance race against time to find a new home

 

INTERSTELLAR gets the science right from what may happen if a ship goes through a wormhole and how a black hole’s gravity may distort time.   Christopher Nolan has got the science right by consulting famous astrophysicist Kip Thorne.   The movie is well cast and the music score is great along with a few 2001 jokes from the Marine robot TARS which looks like a moving monolith.   INTERSTELLAR could have been slightly shorter, but it is another instant masterpiece from the director who has really put out great film after film despite some of their flaws or running a little long sometimes (THE DARK KNIGHT RISES is a little too long).   The ending did leave me wanting a little more, but I think we have to take it on faith on what happens next as one of the messages is that human togetherness and love transcend space and time.   Cooper is trying to find a new world for humanity while years pass back on Earth as his daughter Murph tries to solve the gravity equations that Professor Brand (Michael Caine) started.  His daughter Amelia (Anne Hathaway) is on the mission with Cooper, but she has her own motives in choosing their next world.   Matt Damon puts in a surprise appearance as one of the astronauts sent on the mission before the Endurance went out. A couple of twists are thrown in and the mystery of Murph’s ghost that moves books at the Cooper farm gets solved during the movie.   I would definitely recommend this sci-fi classic and can’t wait to see it again sometime.   It is a movie that makes you think about our need to explore and survive.   I hope it inspires the future space explorers to not give up on going out to outer space and finding new worlds as I do believe as some characters in the film that we aren’t meant to stay on one world- we are meant to survive.

 

SPECIAL FEATURES:

THE SCIENCE OF INTERSTELLAR (50:20)- a special on the real science that went into the movie that originally aired on the Discovery Channel (narrated by Matthew McConaughey).

 

INSIDE INTERSTELLAR:

PLOTTING AN INTERSTELLAR JOURNEY- the origins of writing INTERSTELLAR

LIFE ON COOPER’S FARM- a look at how they chose a location for building Cooper’s farm and growing corn (which they ended up making their money back on the corn they grew)

THE DUST- behind-the-scenes of how they created the dust storms using practical means

TARS AND CASE- a behind-the-scenes look at creating these robots and how they used puppeteers for many of the movements and CGI for the more complex things

THE COSMIC SOUNDS OF INTERSTELLAR- behind-the-scenes look at the development and recording of Hans Zimmer’s score and it has interviews with Christopher Nolan, the music editor, and composer Hans Zimmer

THE SPACE SUITS- a look at the space suits they created for the movie and how the microphones inside the helmets added to the realism (and able them to record sound around the noisy IMAX cameras without having to do dialogue ADR)

THE ENDURANCE- a look at the design of he endurance and a tour of the Endurance set

SHOOTING IN ICELAND: MILLER’S PLANET/ MANN’S PLANET- a behind-the-scenes look at filming in Iceland and the challenges they faced shooting on location

THE RANGER AND THE LANDER- a look at the full size ship props they built and how they designed it for ship movements on a gimble (and using them to add to the special effects sequences)

MINATURES IN SPACE- a behind-the-scenes look at how they used the full size ship props, miniatures, and CGI to create the special effects

THE SIMULATION OF ZERO-G- a look at the various techniques they used to create Zero-G along with the rehearsal footage

CELESTIAL LANDMARKS- a discussion of the wormhole and blackhole special effects they created based on physics equations and even projecting them outside of the ship to add to the realism of the scenes

ACROSS ALL DIMENSIONS TIME AND SPACE

FINAL THOUGHTS- the cast and crew reflect on the movie and hope it inspires people wanting to go into space again.

 

ROUNDTABLES:

CREATING INTERSTELLAR (13:56)- roundtable between stars Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, and Jessica Chastain; and director Christopher Nolan as they talk about Kip Thorne and using science as the basis for the movie, and reflecting on what the movie’s themes and story.

EXPERIENCING INTERSTELLAR (6:12)- discussion between Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, and Jessica Chastain about making the movie

 

The theatrical teaser and three full theatrical trailers

 

The movie in Standard Definition on DVD and a code to download and stream a Digital HD Ultraviolet copy of INTERSTELLAR

 

FINAL ANALYSIS:  INTERSTELLAR is a great sci-fi movie (very awe-inspiring) and I hope that it gets people interested in manned space exploration more.  The behind-the-scenes extras are worth watching if you want to see Christopher Nolan, the crew, and cast made this movie.

 

This review is ©4-5-2015 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without -permission.  Send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com

 

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