Interstellar (DVD REVIEW)
Interstellar
DVD Review by Kam Williams
Post-Apocalyptic Adventure Directed by Chris Nolan
Arrives on DVD
Christopher Nolan
is one of my favorite directors, and four of his pictures have made my annual
Top Ten List, including Memento, The Dark Knight, Batman Begins and Insomnia.
However, I had a hard time understanding exactly what was going on in
Inception, an inscrutable mindbender that I found to be a little too hip for
the room.
The same could be
said about Interstellar, an over-plotted, post-apocalyptic sci-fi with a few too
many layers for its own good, in this critic’s humble opinion. Clocking in at a
patience-testing 169 minutes, the movie had me harking back to 7-time
Oscar-winner Gravity, a similarly-themed outer space adventure which managed to
resolve its loose ends in about half the time.
At the point of departure, we find
the Earth devastated by drought and dust storms that have brought it to the
brink of famine. With the planet almost uninhabitable, NASA decides that the
last hope for humanity rests in finding another capable of supporting life.
To that end, the agency is mounting a
mission, codenamed Lazarus in order to search for a place with a compatible
environment. The reluctant hero is Coop (Matthew McConaughey), a man
understandably torn about being coaxed out of retirement to captain the
Spaceship Endurance.
On the one hand, the veteran test pilot
is eager, since he never got a chance to experience a real spaceflight during
his career. On the other hand, as a widowed dad, he hates the very idea of
leaving behind and possibly orphaning his already motherless kids.
Sure, 15 year-old Tom (Timothee
Chalamet) might be able to man-up, but daughter Murph (Mackenzie Foy) is only
10 and proves particularly clingy when he informs her of his imminent travel
plans. Her angry reaction is perfectly reasonable, given the blight on Earth
and the odds of ever seeing her papa again.
But with his father-in-law’s (John
Lithgow) blessing, Coop nevertheless opts to depart, which affords him an
opportunity to belatedly pursue his lifelong dream. Joining him in that
endeavor is a crew comprised of brainy scientist Brand (Anne Hathaway),
astrophysicist Romilly (David Gyasi) and intergalactic cartographer Doyle (Wes
Bentley), as well as a couple of very sophisticated robots (Bill Irwin and Josh
Stewart).
After blastoff, they head for a distant
wormhole near Saturn rumored to provide a portal to a parallel universe. At
this juncture, the picture turns terribly talky, relying on pseudoscientific
claptrap to explain every farfetched development from black holes to unusual
gravitational pulls to time slowing down. Eventually, Endurance rendezvous with
a NASA space station stranded on a remote planet where they rouse the sole
survivor from a cryogenic sleep only to discover it’s Matt Damon. How cool is
that?
I’m not too proud to admit I couldn’t
follow the convoluted storyline anymore from about this point forward. At least
the panoramic visuals remained absolutely breathtaking. Think, a remake of
Gravity only featuring plenty of polysyllabic brainiacs who sound like they
just stepped off the set of The Big Bang Theory.
Good (2 stars)
Rated
PG-13 for intense action and brief profanity
Running
time: 168 minutes
Distributor:
Paramount Home Media Distribution
Blu-ray/DVD
Combo Pack Extras: The Science of Interstellar; Plotting an Interstellar
Journey; Life on Cooper’s Farm; The Dust; TARS and CASE; Cosmic Sounds; The
Space Suits; The Endurance; Shooting Iceland: Miller’s Planet/Mann’s Planet;
The Ranger and the Lander; Miniatures in Space; The Simulation of Zero-G; Celestial
Landmarks; Across All Dimensions and Time; Final Thoughts; and theatrical
trailers.
To
see a trailer for Interstellar, visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vxOhd4qlnA
To
order a copy of Interstellar on Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack, visit:
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