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Movie Review - Interstellar

Before you go on...I am not a Christopher Nolan fan. I preface this silly blog entry with this statement, because his fans are insane. They get confused thinking his name is an anagram for something surpeme. They think and over-think every scene and fail to watch things like credits and opening scenes, which he is infamous for giving almost everything away in. Interstellar is no different. First there are the books, the title, the dust, some names, the odes to every sci-fi film ever made and that fucking Dylan Thomas poem over and over again. Seriously, anyone who has seen a handful of films, read handful of books, paid attention in History class and puts their phone down for a few seconds, will not be astonished by the complexity of the film. They'll be bored to tears at it's obvious and never ending metaphors.

I won't take anything away from the acting. McConnaughey and the girl who played young Murph are very good. The rest of the cast is adequate, with a nice little surprise cameo about halfway through. But here's the real problem. There is never a feeling of urgency or understanding from the characters and if you're really being honest, you need that to care. The movie is almost three hours long and it feels like seven. There so many homages, that for a film fan, it's irritating. I'm sure I missed a number of the book references, but the obvious ones were in the first ten seconds. Some are just silly, like Anne Hathaway's character's name or the robots STAR & S(P)ACE, sorry I mean TARS and CASE or KIPP...the writer of the book it's based on is named Kip Thorne, who happens to be the guy who Stephen Hawking lost the bet to and had to buy Penthouse. See The Theory of Everything, a much better movie.

Listen, I'm not saying people won't find things they like about it. There are also some who might be shocked by every twist and turn. I don't need to make myself feel smart by bashing this, I can bash all of his films for that, but Nolan doesn't work for me, because I pay attention. Sometimes too much attention. I have never, and will never understand the reason for "Easter Eggs" in movies. Why the hell would you want some random thing written on a wall or some sign in the background giving away the plot twists? Why not just let them happen? This ruined Shutter Island for me in about 45 seconds and since then, I've been so keen on noticing these things, it destroys so many films. This is why things like The Usual Suspects and Stalker are brilliant. I'll stick to those and I have to admit, I don't think I'm rushing out or putting the next Nolan film anywhere near my Netflix queue. Oh sure I will, because I'll want to say I figured it out again.

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