Yeah, that’s all fair and correct. I was overly focused upon the mindshare and opinions of commentators and reviewers I respect, which often doesn’t correspond to box office performance. I do think, however, that after the Dark Knight series Nolan had a “get out of jail” free card that ensured a lot of interest and box office in Interstellar regardless of merits, and ultimately he would have paid a higher price for such a bad misfire if he hadn’t righted the ship with Dunkirk.
Now seen Dunkirk - amazing and unique. Very different from traditional war movies, and IMAX should be mandatory since it really would lose a lot of its effectiveness on a screen smaller than it was filmed for and intended to be displayed on. You’d get half of the film.
I am, admittedly, a fan of Nolan’s work. I feel like even the weakest of his films are better than most of the garbage coming out of Hollywood and Interstellar is no exception. Interestingly enough, the list of top 10 Nolan films shown above has Interstellar ranked 4th only surpassed by The Prestige, The Dark Knight and Dunkirk. Myself, I would have had it behind a few others like Inception and Memento but I still liked it quite a bit, especially after a recent repeat viewing.
Just saw it in 70mm. It was incredible. I’d be very curious to know how many lines of dialogue in total were written for the film. It was almost a silent movie. Except for the amazing sound effects, of course. And that music! Wow, Hans Zimmer outdid himself.
Does Tom Hardy have some sort of face covering rider in his contract?
It’s very different from those sorts of movies - told solely from the perspective of a handful of characters, and the audience only knows what those characters know - it’s almost a virtual reality type experience, so its 106 minute length is perfect. Anything lengthier would have been more draining than enjoyable.
I thought it was an enjoyable and interesting movie, although I don’t think I am enthused as some others here.
First the good, I really liked how the different stories nonlinearly interacted. It made the movie feel like a Nolan one. I also really liked how economic he was with the dialogue, yet some of the character events were really touching. The movie got me a bit towards the end when the pilot did a sweep over the beach. The sound and music were fantastic. The climatic major set piece really worked for me. It was tense and thrilling.
I felt the movie was really lacking in scale and context, although I think this was very much intentional. There was such a strong disconnect between what is maybe 500 guys on the beach (not easy to do, don’t get me wrong!) and the officers talking about 400,000 needing to leave. The big sentimental scene when the civilian ships came was really cut down when they only show half a dozen or more vessels.
I also thought the movie needed to show the Germans encircling. I didn’t get a sense of the coming dread. The characters wouldn’t have seem the advancing Germans so we don’t. That’s fine, but now the value of the movie rests entirely on the three subthreads which weren’t strong enough to make this a really great movie.
One last positive… I’ve never seen dive bombers depicted so menacingly, loved it.
I understand the French are a little upset about being forgotten about in the movie…which has some level of irony as they were kind of forgotten about during the evac. I believe World At War has a whole episode basically on Dunkirk.
Just got back from seeing the 70mm IMAX showing here in town.
If there’s one thing Nolan has gotten better and better at, it’s showing spectacle. And this was a perfect setting for him to do that. The audio editing and music editing did a lot of the work, and they were both astounding. If you’ve got a 70mm showing near you, I would highly recommend it.
A warning though: the movie was really really loud. I cannot understate that. The lady beside me and some people in front of me had fingers in their ears for every action scene, and even a lot of action-less tense scenes where the music was nevertheless really loud. I enjoyed it, as did my brother sitting next to me. But that’s definitely not for everyone.
The reveal at the end was amusing:
Christopher Nolan: Check it out, I snuck Tom Hardy into this movie, and you never knew the whole time.
I guess you got me there Nolan, not that it matters in any way. :)
I thought Interstellar was decent not great. I’m planning on seeing Sunday. I guess I shouldn’t be a such cheap bastard but geez $19.50 to see the movie in Titan LUX
I dunno why people keep assuming Nolan was doing a big Hardy reveal in the end, when you could clearly see his face at least twice at the beginning of the movie before he put his oxygen mask on.
As somebody who is really appreciative of Nolan’s technical chops but usually finds his movies utterly empty of purpose other than a fine technical/narrative trick (which gets old) this one is welcome.
Certainly the best Nolan movie yet for my tastes. Getting away from convoluted fiction allows for his amazing directing of actors to show off. And his usual narrative (re)structuring and visual power are still there, put to use on something more interesting. The movie feels like a symphony. A piece of music with it’s repetitions and evolution, framed around powerful emotional moments.
I also really enjoyed the air combat. It’s not frequently you see dogfighting scenes shot with such constraint and realism. Yet they remained beautiful.
I was really disappointed after all the rave reviews. I think it was the most Hollywood WWII film since the dreadful Pearl Harbor. Ships that disappear below the wave 30 seconds after a single bomb hits them. (Only the transport hit by the torpedo could have plausibly sunk as quickly as the ships in the film). The Spitfire that is coming on a deadstick landing, seemingly forever that miraculously shoots down a Stuka
Tens of thousand of British soldier patiently waiting in queue instead of digging foxholes. The bizarre scene where the guys all stay in the boat waiting for the tide to come while the German’s machine gun.
The man in the yacht was really the only part I liked. Although the dogfighting scenes were very well done and the sound effects were spectacular.
Unfortunately I felt the same. It was fun to watch, but I was disappointed. It isn’t a superstar among war movies. It’s a decent movie, moving in parts, but one you walk away from without being damaged yourself, for better or worse.
