“Interstellar,” the long-awaited ninth feature film from distinguished director Christopher Nolan, has enormous expectations to fulfill upon its release a week from now on Friday, November 7th.
The film stars Matthew McConaughey as Cooper, a NASA engineer/astronaut who’s recruited for an interstellar space mission to save Earth from extinction in the face of famine and disarray caused by the death of crops across the planet in the supposed near future. Along for the mission are Anne Hathaway and Wes Bentley, two other engineers who join Cooper in the search for other habitable planets on which humans could start anew as the crew of the spacecraft “Endurance.” Other notable cast members include Michael Caine, Jessica Chastain, John Lithgow, and Casey Affleck. In total, the movie features five Oscar-winning actors.
Nolan, a big proponent of traditional film projection and presentation, insisted that Interstellar be shown not only in IMAX, but in 70mm IMAX, most likely making it one of the last feature films to be screened this way in those formats, as the switch to all-digital projection will soon be total. Many, including myself, will be flocking to see the film in IMAX, as Nolan always uses IMAX cameras for part of the production on his films dating back to “The Dark Knight.” Interstellar features nearly an hour of IMAX footage, the most ever included in a traditional feature-length movie.
As previously noted, “Interstellar” marks Christopher Nolan’s ninth cinematic outing. His previous films include some of the most critically lauded and beloved of the last 15 years, such as “Inception” (2010), “The Dark Knight” (2008), “The Prestige” (2006), and “Memento” (2000). At this point, Nolan’s films hold a sort of promise that creates a mass amount of anticipation, especially among cinemaphiles such as myself. There is an expectation that “Interstellar” will go down in cinematic history as one of the best space movies of all time, among the likes of “2001: A Space Odyssey,” “Apollo 13,” and even last year’s “Gravity.”
However, early reviews have suggested that the film isn’t as amazing as its trailers and credentials imply. Surprisingly, critics suggest that Interstellar is the first disappointment of Nolan’s career, which, at least to me, is hard to believe given the director’s outstanding track record. I’ll get to voice my opinion on the film in my review next week, and hopefully I won’t be disappointed by it as well.
“Interstellar” opens everywhere on November 7th, 2014.