I rarely see a movie on opening day, so to see one three days *before* opening day was quite a treat. We had yummy Corner Taco before hand. We had a pitcher of local pale ale poured and cold. We had a large bowl of the best popcorn in Duval County. And we had two hours of a great movie.
Unfortunately, Interstellar’s run time is two hours, forty-nine minutes.
I did not know much about Interstellar before seeing it. I had seen the trailer at least once, maybe twice. And it looked, based on the trailer, to be a blend of that movie with the little girl and the shaking water glass (Mel Gibson?) and last year’s Gravity. And the Interstellar buzz on Oscar prediction lists was busy: movie, actor, supporting cast, and more. (I suppose that Interstellar is 2014’s response to last year’s Gravity. (This is especially funny because gravity plays such a big role in the semi-scientific dialogue in Interstellar.)) The buzz, though, couldn’t carry the movie through to the end.
And special effects can carry a movie only so far.
To be fair, yes, it’s BIG. And it’s visually grand. (I would not be surprised to see a golden statue or more based on such technical areas.) Most of the way through watching the film, I had it ranked far above Gravity: here, we have a story. Here, we have emotion. Here, we have a deeper layer on which to build. Alas, the story fell apart. The reaches were not just farfetched; they were nonsensical. The end made me feel like the writers took a break and when sitting back down at the keyboard, they just couldn’t get back into the script. (I understand; I’ve felt that way in writing. (Then again, I never spent millions of dollars or appealed to such a wide audience with anything I wrote.) )
That said, the first half of the movie had such promise. I loved the lingering questions sitting with the viewer, “What happened to society to get them here?” “How many people are left?” (“Did GMOs have anything to do with this? (Or might they have saved everyone?)”) But when the movie tried to bring twists and surprises, the dots just didn’t connect well enough.
Also, one part of the movie plays out by rapidly cutting back and forth between the two key locales in the film, juxtaposing the two storylines wonderfully and intensely. The movie’s plot is building, and all the brilliant technical aspects of the movie thus far leave the viewer poised, ready for something amazing. At more than one point, the entire sold-out theater was so quiet a pin could have been heard even over the climaxing score.
And then the movie tried to deliver its biggest twist yet. But it fell—flat and hard. It wasn’t foreshadowed in the way it seemed the movie wanted to pretend it was. It wasn’t mystical. It wasn’t even in the greatest stretches of imagination logical. The twist did not even get tangled in itself for its complexity; it simply was not good. And in spite of the grand technical aspects and the first two hours of entertainment and intensity, the audience left the theater with lingering disappointment. The buzz was silenced.
My movie companion and I, though, found a bright spot after staying out until 11pm on a weeknight to watch Interstellar. So once you all see the movie, let’s talk. (Not now and not here, though. wink emoticon I always promise no spoilers!) See, for now we can replace jumping the shark with a new phrase, born of Christopher Nolan’s movie. Do you remember when Fonzi jumped the shark? I do. What an odd direction for that show to take. (And for those who don’t remember it, yes, a television character actually jumped a shark one time.) It was the beginning of the end for Happy Days; ergo, we have that phrase. Interstellar, though, has given us a new one.