Interstellar on BD - not great

[Chris D]

I was hoping for a good show out of this one. It seemed like my kind of movie from what I'd heard--sci-fi, Christopher Nolan directing, massive sound, big visuals, cerebral story.

I was disappointed. It wasn't horrible, but not great. The sound was LOUD, but loud does NOT equal good. I don't know what it was like in the theater, but on BD the sound was muddy. Big bass, but bass was boomy. Dialogue muddy. Heck, when the lead scientist father was on his death bed, I could only understand half of what he was muttering. Story just didn't do it for me. Got rather cosmic, like Nolan was trying to make his own "2001: A Space Odyssey", but I don't think it worked.

Christopher Nolan could have done so much better. After the Dark Knight reboot trilogy and Inception, I think this was a step backwards. With story rewrites and sound corrections, this one could have been almost a five star. but I'm giving it :3: out of :5: Ok for a rental, but I'm glad I tried it out first, as I certainly won't be buying.

[Ovation]

Different strokes...

A very big favourite of mine and my daughter's, a day one pre-order I am anxious to revisit. Saw it in full 15perf/70mm IMAX last fall. Not perfect but I very much appreciate it when filmmakers swing for the fences, even if they overreach. And I especially love vast, cosmic scaled stories, again, even if they don't fully succeed. I found this one both cosmic and intimate. But I can understand it lacks universal appeal.

Sound was fantastic in IMAX. Looking forward to testing out my gear with the Blu-ray.

[madmac]

I spun this film last night on DVD and I agree with Chris on this. You can tell this film was designed to be played really loud. That's the only way you could hear the dialogue properly. The sound man should be fired for this sad sound mix. I could barely hear the dialogue in many cases so I naturally turned up the volume until the LFE's or music started.........Then......ACK.....TURN IT DOWN>>>>>>>>turn it down for god's sake!! So, what I did finally was to juice up my center channel speaker volume so that I could hear the damn dialogue! I'm still not exactly sure of a lot of what was said in this film.

That said, a lot of the science and story sensibilities went over my head in this film. The ending in particular stumped me. I mean, all of a sudden they have a colony in orbit around Saturn and humanity is saved. Ok I suppose..............Was there something I missed in regards to the ending?

Also, this film apparently takes place in the future but the houses, cars and cloths are todays's current stuff. Then, we are apparently able to go to Saturn in cryogenic stasis and slip through worm holes and black holes??!!

That said, I enjoyed the film and never felt bored. I also did not find the film too long as many of my friends did.

I'll give it a solid 8/10 for the film and 2/10 for the sound mix.

[Hdale85]

A lot of the science was flawed in this movie actually, other than that we enjoyed it and didn't notice the sound problems? I may have to watch it again at some point as it's been a while maybe I just forgot.

[Ovation]

A lot of the science was flawed in this movie actually, other than that we enjoyed it and didn't notice the sound problems? I may have to watch it again at some point as it's been a while maybe I just forgot.

I've encountered the science complaint in a number of places and it echoes many complaints I've read over the years re: historical feature films (a professional, as well as personal, research interest of mine). In each case (science or history), I usually don't care all that much if there are flaws--commercial cinema is entertainment, not education, and drama trumps reality all the time (as it should, IMO). Such films should, at their best, act as an inspiration to learn more about the real thing, not as the final word on a subject. I guess I agree most with the late Roger Ebert's view that film is primarily an emotional, rather than intellectual, experience (something I'd have vigorously denied 30 years ago). It's not that a film cannot make one think and have an intellectual emphasis in its presentation. However, I'd argue (and likely Ebert would as well) such films are a small minority and that's not necessarily a bad thing.

In the end, when it comes to films with a more cerebral bent, even they should have an emotionally significant element. They should be prompting us to begin a journey of exploration, not serve as a closed response to a question. In my view, especially considering my daughter's significant interest in cosmology and astronomy since we watched it, Interstellar did a fine job of suggesting an interesting intellectual destination all while creating an emotional context where father-daughter bonding could occur quite easily. So a job well done.

[Chris D]

I personally have a similar approach to movies, but with a different flavor. I try to view movies as the moviemaker intends the movie to be. More often than not, this is readily apparent while viewing the movie, and I'll evaluate it on its efforts. If the moviemaker clearly is making a lowbrow, asinine movie like "Beavis and Butthead" or the classic "Animal House", I wont even try to take it seriously, and attempt to get a lighthearted laugh out of it. If it's a sappy chick flick, I'll try to suppress the testosterone and allow heartstrings to be tugged. For historical dramas, I'll view it in context of major historical facts, and allow for minor interpretations of lesser important events.

For every movie of any type, I'll give benefit of the doubt, and suspend an appropriate level of disbelief for the sake of the magic of cinema storytelling. If the filmmaker has made a fantasy film, I'll throw most disbelief out the window. If making a deep intellectual film, I'll engage every brain cell I have and educational background and scrutinize the cerebral argument or science. But here's the key -- for any film of any sort, I will evaluate its science/reality based on the world that the filmmaker creates. If superheroes can fly in Superman, I'll accept it. If the mind can alter matter in a virtual world like The Matrix or Inception, I'll accept it. But the filmmaker makes an unforgiveable foul if he/she intentionally creates and depicts the rules of the universe the film is set in, (whether reality, fantasy, or a mixture) and then violates his or her own rules. (the movie Upside Down comes to mind, or action heroines doing flying kicks across an entire room in Charlie's Angels without touching the ground)

Specifically with Interstellar, I don't find that Nolan violates his own rules too much. Yes, there are contradictions, but to me it does seem that Nolan is not setting the film in true reality, even in the future. He is adding in elements of fantasy, which I'll allow. Like I said in my original post, though, I think he tries for a mix of cerebral, cosmic storylines and events, with science fiction and elements of actual science, like he's trying to make his own 2001: A Space Odyssey. In my own humble opinion, he falls short, and this movie fails to reach greatness in so many different ways.

[aud19]

Interstellar - 8.5/10

Finally got a chance to watch this and was actually pleasantly surprised! It did a deft job of walking the fine line between a sci-fi popcorn flick and a drama IMO while actually remaining enjoyable to watch. I find most films attempting to blur similar lines fail somewhat (or a lot) there.

I took a bit off as the story has a couple small, weak points but otherwise it was well acted (McConaughey in particular) and gorgeous to look at. I did find the dialogue annoyingly mumbly in a few spots though as well but the audio was otherwise quite good.

[aud19]

Weird board glitch induced double post....

[Hdale85]

Ovation, Chris I pretty much feel the same way about movies. People take them way to seriously rather than just enjoying them for what they are most of the time. I will watch any genre of movie generally without much complaint. The only reason I mentioned the flawed science is mostly because as I watched the movie I immediately noticed that something was amiss and it bothered me a little, not really enough to make me not enjoy the movie as I said we very much enjoyed it. But regardless it was still there. Most people wouldn't even catch it as most people don't really think about the realities of time travel and such like someone like me does lol. Either way was a great film, glad I purchased it as I'm sure it'll get watched again.

[Chris D]