I didn’t like the pacing, but whatever, that’s a style decision.
But the whole twist at the end that justified anything that happened before just ruined it for me. It’s heavily suggested that it’s actually the humans from the future who try to save their own kind by opening the wormhole and giving humans a way off their doomed world. But the whole idea that there are ethereal beings from the future that can open multidimensional wormholes in the past but lack any way of then communicating with that past is just dumb. If you can send an interstellar superhighway through space and time, I’m sure you can send information.
Adding insult to injury at the end they can send information. But the best thing those hyperbeings can come up with is to just take a dude into their multidimensional superphone and let him throw books and wiggle some clock hands in his daughter’s room? Like… what? That’s their plan to save humanity? “Hey, man, now that you’ve entered the black hole, nice to have you here… you can now be a haunted spirit in your daughter’s past. For a few minutes. Do something to save your people’s future. Your time starts now.” The only explanation I have come up with so far is that future humans are sadistic fucks and that this was their equivalent of taskmaster style reality TV, with them throwing popcorn at the screen where the nasa farmer struggles to somehow try to send three words that could save all humans but has to do that with the dumbest means some asshole producer could come up with. “Aaaand he wiggles the clock!! I can’t believe it!” and the audience goes wild.
It just destroyed the movie for me. It felt like I was sitting through the last hour of that movie in utter disbelief that this was really the great explanation, the great twist the movie was gearing towards. It’s not often that I get angry at movies while I’m in the theater, but this movie started quite well imho, just to then take turns that made me so mad about having wasted all that time on a story that was so utterly nonsensical that I was in the end no longer wondering about what was going on but only why I hadn’t picked a career in writing just to prevent that kind of crap from happening.
I’m curious as to whether you’ve seen ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’, to which coincidentally ‘Interstellar’ pays tribute imo. I’m wondering if you were similarly infuriated by the ending.
Ehh, as much as I’m apathetic toward Nolan, ‘Interstellar’ has only some vague plot points in common with ‘2001’, which don’t even develop the same way. And the meat on the bones is quite different.
After getting through a bunch of art pieces, one must accept that they will encounter works that repeat others in some aspects, like jazz tunes do.
Not the commenter you’re replying to, but for me the ending of “2001: A Space Odyssey” is clearly some abstract artsy metaphor, so it’s ok that it has zero scientific basis. Like ending on a dream.
The ending (the falling into the black hole part) of Interstellar is actually part of the plot, it actually impacts the other characters. If you want to sacrifice all logic for some emotional ending, there’s plenty of fantasy movies like that, but it’s not my cup of tea.
Hmmm, not really — it actually has elements similar to those in ‘Interstellar’. It’s just that the happenings are delivered in a much more vague manner. From what I’ve heard, Arthur Clarke’s novel describes them clearer.
The novel is more clear. Dave has evolved, literally. The monoliths are mile markers set out by ethereal aliens; the first teaching apes how to use tools, the other monitoring our progress to becoming space-faring.
Aliens ushering us into a next plane of evolution is a recurring them with Clark. Childhood’s End has the extraterrestrials taking a much more deliberate role in our species transition.
I’d say spoilers dude, but this is all sorta common knowledge around ‘2001’ the film. Afaik the novel also has some stuff about missiles and whatever, in the end phase. I should probably get through it someday, looks like it’s quite short even.
Huh it made total sense to me. It’s like love is an attracting force, a sort of fifth element if you will, that humans have some dim like nascent control over. That’s all I needed to buy it.
But if you don’t buy that woo premise then it all falls apart. I can see how it’s a sort of rug pull given the science babble earlier in the movie.
Obviously your opinion is correct for you. I thought it was perfect for the themes on display the rest of the movie. It’s absolutely on the softer lofi end of sci-fi, which is not everyone’s cup of tea.
Reading what I wrote, I guess it sounds a bit condescending. No intent to insult here, sorry if I was too harsh.
Of course I can see the appeal of the movie and I understand that of course people are free to like whatever they choose. Interstellar is still a bit special because it really has everything I usually like. I went in there with high hopes and was really happy with how much my desire to like that movie had no problems being fulfilled at all. Until that last hour. With bad movies, it’s just a bad movie for me, but this one felt like I got betrayed after having already decided to love it.
But yeah, it’s just a movie and I shouldn’t be too invested. Great for you if you like it, I really wish I did, too.
I think what you are missing is that in the Fifth Element, the movie was intentionally cheesy so the ending being some hamfisted and contrite deus ex machina where love saves the day is consistent with the campy themes. For a movie that was up until then a rather serious science fiction thriller that spent most of the film world building and where the audience is presented with a mystery, to then solve that mystery in a very easy and contrite way is insulting because it makes all the world building meaningless and completely flips the tone of everything. It reeks of lazy writing, which is honestly is on par with much of Nolan’s work. In my opinion great world building scifi tends to resolve the conflicts by the characters finding ways to exploit the rules of the world. That’s what separates the serious works from the popcorn.
I went in there with high hopes and was really happy with how much my desire to like that movie had no problems being fulfilled at all. Until that last hour.
I’ve definitely experienced this with other movies, so I understand the disappointment.
You’re good. I don’t think you came off as condescending. It’s clear you were having a rant. And if you can’t have a good rant on the internet where is there left!
Spoilers ahead.
I didn’t like the pacing, but whatever, that’s a style decision.
But the whole twist at the end that justified anything that happened before just ruined it for me. It’s heavily suggested that it’s actually the humans from the future who try to save their own kind by opening the wormhole and giving humans a way off their doomed world. But the whole idea that there are ethereal beings from the future that can open multidimensional wormholes in the past but lack any way of then communicating with that past is just dumb. If you can send an interstellar superhighway through space and time, I’m sure you can send information.
Adding insult to injury at the end they can send information. But the best thing those hyperbeings can come up with is to just take a dude into their multidimensional superphone and let him throw books and wiggle some clock hands in his daughter’s room? Like… what? That’s their plan to save humanity? “Hey, man, now that you’ve entered the black hole, nice to have you here… you can now be a haunted spirit in your daughter’s past. For a few minutes. Do something to save your people’s future. Your time starts now.” The only explanation I have come up with so far is that future humans are sadistic fucks and that this was their equivalent of taskmaster style reality TV, with them throwing popcorn at the screen where the nasa farmer struggles to somehow try to send three words that could save all humans but has to do that with the dumbest means some asshole producer could come up with. “Aaaand he wiggles the clock!! I can’t believe it!” and the audience goes wild.
It just destroyed the movie for me. It felt like I was sitting through the last hour of that movie in utter disbelief that this was really the great explanation, the great twist the movie was gearing towards. It’s not often that I get angry at movies while I’m in the theater, but this movie started quite well imho, just to then take turns that made me so mad about having wasted all that time on a story that was so utterly nonsensical that I was in the end no longer wondering about what was going on but only why I hadn’t picked a career in writing just to prevent that kind of crap from happening.
Quality rant.
I’m curious as to whether you’ve seen ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’, to which coincidentally ‘Interstellar’ pays tribute imo. I’m wondering if you were similarly infuriated by the ending.
I wouldn’t so much say “pays tribute” to as arrogantly rips off… I may have given myself away as a 2001 fan and Nolan very-much-not-fan, though.
Ehh, as much as I’m apathetic toward Nolan, ‘Interstellar’ has only some vague plot points in common with ‘2001’, which don’t even develop the same way. And the meat on the bones is quite different.
After getting through a bunch of art pieces, one must accept that they will encounter works that repeat others in some aspects, like jazz tunes do.
Not the commenter you’re replying to, but for me the ending of “2001: A Space Odyssey” is clearly some abstract artsy metaphor, so it’s ok that it has zero scientific basis. Like ending on a dream.
The ending (the falling into the black hole part) of Interstellar is actually part of the plot, it actually impacts the other characters. If you want to sacrifice all logic for some emotional ending, there’s plenty of fantasy movies like that, but it’s not my cup of tea.
Hmmm, not really — it actually has elements similar to those in ‘Interstellar’. It’s just that the happenings are delivered in a much more vague manner. From what I’ve heard, Arthur Clarke’s novel describes them clearer.
The novel is more clear. Dave has evolved, literally. The monoliths are mile markers set out by ethereal aliens; the first teaching apes how to use tools, the other monitoring our progress to becoming space-faring.
Aliens ushering us into a next plane of evolution is a recurring them with Clark. Childhood’s End has the extraterrestrials taking a much more deliberate role in our species transition.
I’d say spoilers dude, but this is all sorta common knowledge around ‘2001’ the film. Afaik the novel also has some stuff about missiles and whatever, in the end phase. I should probably get through it someday, looks like it’s quite short even.
After a certain amount of time I think rights to spoiler warnings are forfeit. It’s been decades.
Sure, because everyone born later than those decades has seen those films.
Huh it made total sense to me. It’s like love is an attracting force, a sort of fifth element if you will, that humans have some dim like nascent control over. That’s all I needed to buy it.
But if you don’t buy that woo premise then it all falls apart. I can see how it’s a sort of rug pull given the science babble earlier in the movie.
Obviously your opinion is correct for you. I thought it was perfect for the themes on display the rest of the movie. It’s absolutely on the softer lofi end of sci-fi, which is not everyone’s cup of tea.
I think The Fifth Element did it better.
I wouldn’t compare them as movies, but Fifth Element is peak cinema, this is true.
Reading what I wrote, I guess it sounds a bit condescending. No intent to insult here, sorry if I was too harsh.
Of course I can see the appeal of the movie and I understand that of course people are free to like whatever they choose. Interstellar is still a bit special because it really has everything I usually like. I went in there with high hopes and was really happy with how much my desire to like that movie had no problems being fulfilled at all. Until that last hour. With bad movies, it’s just a bad movie for me, but this one felt like I got betrayed after having already decided to love it.
But yeah, it’s just a movie and I shouldn’t be too invested. Great for you if you like it, I really wish I did, too.
I think what you are missing is that in the Fifth Element, the movie was intentionally cheesy so the ending being some hamfisted and contrite deus ex machina where love saves the day is consistent with the campy themes. For a movie that was up until then a rather serious science fiction thriller that spent most of the film world building and where the audience is presented with a mystery, to then solve that mystery in a very easy and contrite way is insulting because it makes all the world building meaningless and completely flips the tone of everything. It reeks of lazy writing, which is honestly is on par with much of Nolan’s work. In my opinion great world building scifi tends to resolve the conflicts by the characters finding ways to exploit the rules of the world. That’s what separates the serious works from the popcorn.
I’ve definitely experienced this with other movies, so I understand the disappointment.
You’re good. I don’t think you came off as condescending. It’s clear you were having a rant. And if you can’t have a good rant on the internet where is there left!