73% on Rotten Tomatoes
Christopher Nolan's latest movie is a thought-provoking film about a future where Earth is on the brink of death, and humans are on the brink of extinction. Famines and droughts have resulted in corn crops being the only source of food left for humans, as dust storms periodically wreak havoc. The only solution is for NASA to send a team of people into space to search for other habitable planets, in the hopes of creating a better future for humans. Yet these interstellar travels come at a hefty price, namely loneliness and loss of time. We see the effects of relativity and the effects of separation, but most importantly, the effects of love and hope.
Going in to the movie, after seeing the trailers for it, I had a very very vague and ill-defined idea of what I was going to expect. I had also heard mixed reviews about it, so I was completely in the dark about how the film would turn out.
Turns out, I loved it.
It's hard to explain the plot of the film in detail, but going out of the film you really understand that the crux of the film is more than just cool space travel and cool effects. No, the crux or the essence of the film lies in this:
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light."
This is a poem by Dylan Thomas (full poem here) and this one stanza is repeated in the film. This one stanza basically sums up the entire film.
It ultimately shows you that this is a film about survival. It emphasises the one thing that us humans were programmed to do: survive. You can hear news about death, and you can accept your death, but you can never welcome it. This film is about the human drive to survive, even if that means potentially giving your own life. The paradoxical nature about our will to survive is that we will risk death to achieve it.
And that's what happens here.
The focus of the film is in the strong bond between the main character, Cooper, and his daughter, Murphy. It is a bond never before seen in a Christopher Nolan movie. It was so emotional it rocked me to my core. When this stanza of the poem was read out I had goosebumps because it was just so hopeful.
As President Snow of the Hunger Games films is never slow to remind us: the only thing greater than fear... is hope.
If we are going to die on this planet, and if we might be able to find other planets out there that we can survive on... then why not? Sure, death might be waiting in space for us, but if there is that one hope... why not?
I've always loved this idea about human survival. This idea that you can choose to die, you can choose to suicide, but when you're in that moment and when death is pouncing on you... you end up putting a fight. The movie addresses that here in I guess you could say one of the biggest plot twists in the film (if you've seen it you know what I'm talking about), and I really liked that.
Also the recurring idea that love transcends time and space. Like, how powerful is that? Read that again: love transcends time and space. That was just so amazing.
Not to mention that I love this idea of the relativity of time, and space travel, and that Christopher Nolan's directing was amazing. That all added to it.
The elements of time here were fascinating; the idea of determinism and destiny. What came first, the chicken or the egg? The idea that we are in charge of our own destinies as well was great.
The actors were amazing, Matthew McConaughey and Jessica Chastain were great, Anne Hathaway was pleasant, Michael Caine was really not much of a shocker seeing as it was a Christopher Nolan film, and some other great actors that I won't go into detail with.
I thought Mackenzie Foy was AMAZING, she has such great potential.
It was also super funny to see Wes Bentley from The Hunger Games in here, but without the fashionable beard he wore there.
Anyway I can't get into much detail without spoiling it, and I really absolutely cannot refute much of the bad points without spoiling it, so I will just say this one thing:
Yes it was a long movie. It was 3 hours. Yes it could have been a bit shorter, but I feel like that would have made the story seem more tacky and less believable. As I said, this is one of the most emotional Christopher Nolan films out there, and the film needs to be long to incorporate a realistic emotional foundation AS WELL AS the interstellar travels. So I thought that the length wasn't actually unreasonable.
In the end, I can't wait for it to come out on DVD. I will also be purchasing a box of tissues for when I buy the DVD.
So now that that review's done, I decided to do a countdown towards my favourite Christopher Nolan movie.
I was inspired to do this blog post by Screen Junkies' video, where they do a knockout of all the Christopher Nolan films.
So here are all of Christopher Nolan's films in order:
1. Following (1998)
2. Memento (2000)
3. Insomnia (2002)
4. Batman Begins (2005)
5. The Prestige (2006)
6. The Dark Knight (2008)
7. Inception (2010)
8. The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
9. Interstellar (2014)
Now I haven't seen Following or Insomnia, so I will just have to exclude them for now.
The third and most recent (and I hope the last) instalment of the Dark Knight series is set eight years after The Dark Knight, when Bruce Wayne has pretty much become a hermit after the traumatic events of the second film. However, he soon comes out of hiding when Bane enters the scene. We then have a look at the craziness that ensues, as well as the struggles, both mental and physical, that Batman has to overcome to get back into the hero he was before.
Yes, even the worst Christopher Nolan film (discounting Insomnia and Following) is pretty darn good. What makes it a good film on its own is the action, acting, introduction of Bane and Catwoman, and just the fact that it's related to Batman, one of the most loveable superheroes out there.
Unfortunately, what makes it the worst Christopher Nolan film I have seen is the fact that it had way too many plotholes. I can't go into every single one of them, but some of them make you genuinely laugh in the cinema despite it being a serious film (e.g. he spent ALL that time just making a pretty light display of the Bat signal? How does Joseph Gordon-Levitt's character just 'know'?).
You get out of the film and over time you realise that there were just so many random unnecessary stuff, as well as some stuff that just didn't make sense at all. Fortunately, it's a Batman film, so we let things slide.
Ah, the very first in the current Dark Knight trilogy. As you can tell by the title, this gives us a fresh start for Batman. We look at how Bruce Wayne trains with Ra's al Ghul and eventually transforms into our favourite masked vigilante.
I remember watching this before I even heard about The Dark Knight, because my brother borrowed it from the library. I had no idea it was the same director as Memento, as Christopher Nolan hadn't yet made a name for himself yet. But I remember being super impressed by this take on batman. It certainly was a whole heap better than the films done back in Michael Keaton's day, and I couldn't recall ever seeing a film on the beginnings of batman yet.
Even watching it now it's a pretty good film, with less plot holes than The Dark Knight Rises, and Katie Holmes will always be Rachel to me.
The focus on this movie is magic, so it would be a bit hard to describe the plot.
Basically, Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale star as two rival magicians that compete for shows, success and fame. The two both continually attempt to one-up the other, eventuating in them developing an unhealthy obsession on the world of magic.
First off, how much of a superhero movie does this sound like it would be? I mean you have Wolverine and Batman rivalling each other, Alfred being the old mentor that Michael Caine always is, and heck it's even got Black Widow (although the Avengers hadn't come out yet).
Not to mention how refreshing it is seeing Andy Serkis as a normal human being instead of a CGI puppet...
So I love the idea of magic (and who doesn't let's be honest) and that was a huge plus, but I remember just having like a rollercoaster of emotions for this film. At first I liked it, then over time I didn't really like it, then I liked it again.
The build up towards the ending is great, but I think it's the actual ending that makes it slightly less appealing. The ending will either make you very satisfied, or not at all. Because of that, it doesn't do as well as the other non-Batman films.
Let's be honest, who doesn't know the plot to this? Well, for continuity's sake, here it is:
Leonardo DiCaprio stars as Dom Cobbs, expert in infiltrating people's minds and secrets by entering and manipulating their dreams. The film focuses specifically on a task that challenges Dom and pushes the limits, with the stakes being the highest they have ever been, as the success of this task determines his chances of returning home to his family.
This was such a mind-blowing film, I remember that feeling of just confusion and awesomeness after seeing it. I was also really into the idea of lucid dreaming back then so I really knew what they were talking about and I really loved the idea of it. I remember keeping a sleep diary and eventually getting to the stage where I could realise when I was dreaming. And at first, the dream actually would collapse; I could feel myself slipping, and I would wake up. And then later when it got better, I could manipulate my dream. I loved that, and I loved the fact that the movie addressed all of that.
The only thing with this movie, though, is that it's not as exciting after the first time watching; the magic is lost.
The one that started it all.
Christian Bale returns as Batman in a gritty and dark take on his continuing struggles with keeping his loved ones safe, as he goes up against The Joker.
It wasn't the first Batman film, but this was the movie that made the Dark Knight trilogy popular.
I remember seeing this film in the cinema, getting the limited edition DVD for my birthday, and then watching it like 5 times in a couple of weeks because I loved it so much (and have since, of course, rewatched it a few more times). If anything, my copious amount of watching this has probably made this slip from #2 to #3, because I feel kind of sick of this film, or kind of like it's getting to the point where it doesn't really surprise me anymore.
It was just so jam packed with plot twist after plot twist after plot twist. You kept thinking the movie was going to end, but it didn't. I guess in a way that does prove to be a con of it, because it seems like it goes on for forever (and thus gives me quite a headache), but every single sequence is still enjoyable, regardless of the length.
The fact that this movie went beyond just cool mind blowing and actually made me cry and tear up on numerous occasions makes it stand out. It wasn't a standard Nolan film in that sense, because I definitely did not go in thinking that I would cry from it.
The story follows Leonard Shelby, a man who's wife was raped and murdered, shortly before the attacker injured Shelby to the point where he could no longer create memories. The result is a man bent on seeking vengeance for his wife, but forgetting where he is or what he is doing every ten minutes. Because of this, he has an elaborate system of carefully placed polaroids, notes, and trusting his own handwriting.
Okay so seeing as this is my all-time favourite movie, there's no way I couldn't put this as the best Christopher Nolan movie, despite it being only the second film he has directed.
It's just so clever, unique and complex in the way it was directed, that it leaves a lasting impression on you. To see how complex the structure of the film was, just look at this diagram.
You see, the bulk of the film is in reverse chronological order, giving the audience the feeling of anterograde amnesia as well. We know what's happening now, but we don't know what happened before this sequence, so we get super confused. There's also a huge cult following of this movie, as the ending is a bit open-ended, and you decide whether or not you agree with the events that played out. The ending is so amazing; I've only seen it three times but every time I see it I am just so amazed at how this movie was done.
This film is hands down the best Christopher Nolan film out there. The actors, the directing, the structure, and the ending all make it an amazing film.
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