Interstellar & Fury

IMAX

Today I made the trek up to DC to see Interstellar in 70mm IMAX at the Smithsonian, then came back home to Richmond and saw Fury.  I can say that it was one of the stranger double feature experiences that I have ever had.  I want to preface everything that I am about to say with a few things.  One, I plan to discuss all parts of Interstellar so if you haven't seen the movie don't read any further.  Two, I love Christopher Nolan.  I think he is a genius film writer and an innovative director who never shies away from pushing as many boundaries as possible.  I am a Dark Knight Rises apologist and despite all of its many flaws, I still love the movie.  I have been looking forward to this movie since it was announced and made sure that I didn't watch almost any of the trailers for it because I didn't want to know anything about the film going in.  Three, I am not a fan of Shia Lebeouf and I think too many of Brad Pitt's movies become "pitted" in that they adopt a tone of melodrama.  Finally, no matter what I think of both of these films I hope you go out and see them.  I think that I can be at times ultra critical of films because I search for perfection within art and have very strong opinions.  Neither of these two movies are Man of Steel, so I hope you enjoy, dislike, or don't give two shits about what I say.  Also this blog is called Grant's Rants & More, the purpose of it is usually built for a rant, although rants do not always have to be bad things.  I will deal with what I liked and didn't like about both films, not a plot synopsis, because if you're reading this I expect you've seem the films. (Although I won't be as specific with Fury).  With all of that being said.

Fury is a good war movie.

Interstellar is a problematic film.

Fury:  Fury is a good, not a great, but a good war movie.  It's best arguments come from the fact that it is unapologetic, it isn't war propaganda nor is it anti-war.  It shows the final days of the War in Europe as they were, bloody, raw, unforgiving, and terrible.  One of the film's best qualities is in its character development and its actors.  Labeouf is standout, delivering what I believe is his best performance ever.  Bernthal and Pena prove to be good supporting characters although I wish more time was given to Bernthal.  Lerman and Pitt drive the movie and while I believe in the genuine nature of their relationship, for that matter Pitt's relationship with everyone, he and Lerman make tonal mistakes.  This is an issue considering the fact that the movie as a whole works with tone and context masterfully where there is uncontrollable laughter immediately followed by horrific death.  But their relationship becomes boss-underling, big brother-little brother, father-son too quickly and despite Pitt hardening Lerman to the horrors of war he then proceeds to baby him (not to a Disney level), but it becomes too "movie-esque" rather than "realistic film" quite quickly.  The movie needs some cutting.  The dinner table seen after Norman scores could easily have been cut.  A lot of the scenes went on for too long and not too long in the sense that we don't need to see the violence, but too long in the ending dialogue which becomes repetitious from other points in the scene and movie.  One of my biggest problems was with the music.  I am not a big fan of a score telling me how to feel like in 12 Years a Slave, this score ran into some of those problems.  With the horrors these men were facing and the sound of battle, no sound was needed.  Finally I didn't like how the sound dropped out when a death occurred.  It took the realism out of the film.  The dialogue at the end becomes repetitive and cliche.  Overall, this is a good movie, with some good acting and I would encourage those with empty stomachs to see it.

Interstellar:  As we drove home from DC we, my friends and I, discussed the film and within our car of four we each equally disliked it.  But after some reflection I can say that it isn't that I disliked the film, it isn't that it is a disappointment, but it is that I found the film to be ok at best, and mediocre to bad at worst.  There are parts of the film that I like.  It is visually stunning and is worth the price of admission just to see the camera work and the visual effects.  Nolan certainly knows how to make his crazy ideas come to life.  It was also well cast.  Matthew McConaughey is quickly beaming a really good actor.  After his string of terrible rom-coms he has built up a string of films including Killer Joe, Mid, Dallas Buyers Club, & The Wolf of Wall Street, not to mention True Detective.  Once again in this film he shines as easily the best actor/character of the film.  I also love the cameo in the film that when we all saw it in the theatre no one saw coming.  I love that they have no sound in space.  And finally I love the message that the film is trying to posit.  But in the end I feel that this was a convoluted movie that Christopher Nolan out "Nolaned" himself making, had too many plot wholes, too many script problems, and too missing parts to be a good movie.

The entire film posits two concepts.  One is that human beings are at their best when plunging into the unknown and the second is that family and love are the most intrinsic features to the human race and that they will always conquer all.  These concepts make for a great film.  Too bad the movie gets in the way of the concepts.

1.  The entire film is predicated on a plot line that cannot possibly be true.  The only way the movie exists is because there is a wormhole put in space by "they" a group of other beings trying to help humanity.  It is later explained that "they" are future humans that exist within a five dimensional reality rather than our three dimensional one.  This is explained hastily in exposition in the final third act of the movie as Cooper plunges into a blackhole and manages to arrive in a Tesseract (unfortunate name for Marvel fans) which allows him to use a morse code bookshelf to talk to his daughter in the past.  It is explained that the human race many eons in the future became five dimensional and created this place so that Cooper and get to his daughter because these future beings knew that they were the ones who "saved" humanity.  Get all that?  Because the dialogue is so dense and problematic that it is nearly impossible on first viewing.  But the real problem is that this entire concept exists within a paradox that cannot be explained.  The fifth dimensional creators built the wormhole and the tesseract so that Cooper and Murph can save humanity therefore making these five dimensional creatures exist.  But how did these future humans first survive to make these things given that there would have been none of these things to save them in the first place?  Cooper could not have traveled to this place and had these experiences unless he had been successful but because he has yet to do them, these future beings could not have possibly existed.  Also are you telling me that future people can control five dimensions but the best they can do in helping their creators is to put Cooper behind a wall?  Really?  They turn him into the Indian in the Cupboard. Or why didn't they just give the equation to the professor?  Cooper nearly dies a billion ways before getting to the blackhole.  Shitty plan future humans.   Also I can get behind gravity making the lines in the dirt and gravity pushing the books off the wall, but I cannot get behind gravity being able to move the hands on a watch into morse code.  Gravity doesn't control watches.   

2.  So many plot contrivances.  For a movie that is this long so many things happen to go perfectly right.  How in the world did Cooper figure out that the dirt on the floor was morse code and that it led to coordinates that just so happened to be within driving distance and when he arrived it just so happened to be led by his former boss and even without him ever saying specifically how he found the location they task him to drive the ship that is the last hope for humanity?  REALLY?  Did NASA have a pilot lined up already if Cooper hadn't shown up?  Why didn't they just drive down the road and get him a few years earlier?

3.  Why did they have to send humans in the first place since the robots (used as poor comic relief) were obviously evolved?  This was dealt with in one line from Matt Damon when he says the reason why we send humans is that they fear death.  Sorry not buying that as an adequate enough reason.  So let's say that we lose a few dozen robots.  We should have been sending all of them.  One made it through a black hole.  

4.  The idea that love conquers all is a beautiful idea.  That love "is the one thing that transcends time and space."  But it doesn't.  Or at least not for Anne Hathaway who says the line.  The basis of the concept comes from her desire to see her lost love scientist, but as the movie ends they kill him off entirely so Cooper can have a person to go and find.  So in essence love for Cooper transcends time and space but not for Brand.  

5.  Nolan's view of the future is actually really nice.  We live in a society were the military has collapsed and we are running out of food and yet there isn't really any crime and where are the starving masses trying to get food?

6.  Much in the same way of the Prometheus crew, they make massive assumptions about planets they can't understand.  On the first world where one hour equals seven years, they land in an ocean, which they can walk on (and yes I heard the argument that because of the massive tidal wave that the water is lower in that area, but waves in that shallow of water don't look like that) and see a massive tidal wave which causes them to lose 23 years and a lot of other problems. They leave the world and say it isn't livable.  WELL NO SHIT.  They landed in the ocean.  If I were exploring the earth and landed in the middle of the Pacific I might also say, well crap, guess I can't live here.  

7.  Murphy's Law actually does mean: anything that can go wrong will go wrong.  

8.  Other than Cooper, there are no three dimensional characters in the film.  Casey Affleck and his family, Topher Grace, Michael Caine, John Lithgow, Wes Bentley, and David Gyasi are all one note characters.  Even Matt Damon is one note after he plays a couple lines of bullshit.  And don't think I missed the reference "Man's greatest enemy is Mann."  The biggest disappointment is Murph.  She plays an upset kid from the time Cooper leaves all the way until she Michael Caine dies.  Then she magically switches back to being sentimental in a flash.  

9.  They killed Wes Bentley for no reason.  Anne Hathaway was the character who was far off the ship and Wes Bentley was already right next to it.  There is no effort that he makes to go and get her so he remains there yelling.  He had no business dying.

10.  Wait so did Matt Damon blow up David Gyasi (Romilly) ?  Also how did he not go insane when he lives in space alone for 23 years?  

11.  They've been on a ship for multiple years and yet they adapt to a new planet's gravity in short lines about how "gravity sucks".  

12.  For IMAX viewers they fucked up the sound mixing so Hans Zimmer's music was louder than a lot of the lines and there are gaps where the sound drops out on accident.

13.  You can receive messages from the world in a wormhole but you can't send anything out.  Ok?

14.  Why does Cooper have to go out to a glacier to figure out the planet is unlivable?  Oh, because it is a plot contrivance.  

15.  How can he talks to the robot in the tesseract because we've already established radio's don't connect in a black hole?

16.  The script isn't Nolan's best work.  He has long bits of spacey dialogue that we aren't given the opportunity to understand a word of it and then he runs into exposition dumps when he has to progress the story.

17.  Please stop Michael Caine from saying that poem again.

18.  The whole movie is about Cooper getting back to see Murphy and Murphy upset and longing for her father.  Then when we finally get to see them together they spend half a minute, barely connect, and she tells him to go get his game on with Brand, who for all anyone knows should be with Edmunds her true love.  I understand the reason they give "no parent should have to see their kids die," but he left her once, do you really think he would leave her again?

19 & 20:  What's the point of the whole movie?  What information did the team learn that he then gave to Murphy through the morse code bookshelf (holy shit a morse code bookshelf) that helped her solve the equation?  It couldn't have been much.  Made it through the wormhole.  Stop.  First two planets aren't livable.  Stop.  I'm stuck in a tesseract that is a paradox.  Stop.  I sent Brand off to a different world having no idea if she made it or if it is livable.  Stop.  

So what did she do with the code?  Create double gravity space stations on the outskirts of Saturn?  HOW?  Why did they go through the wormhole in the first place if the generations saved by Murphy never did?  

In the end Nolan out did himself.  He created a super complex plot that deals with way too many plot holes to make it a singular entity.  The script felt like a first draft and it lacked specifics for characters that weren't the leads.  I love Christopher Nolan and I want to see him succeed.  This isn't a terrible film, it just isn't a good one and as a guy who anticipated it for years, it was a real let down.  

I still love you.  My love for you transcends your plot holes and mismanaged scripts.