Films > Film Reviews

Interstellar

29/10/14

Now, as regular readers will have noticed, the Outline film team are big fans of science fiction. As such, this year has been good to us. We've had Tom Cruise fighting aliens whilst wearing a robot, Chris Pratt fighting with aliens whilst flying a spaceship and even Scarlett Johansson playing an alien. In Scotland.

Whilst that was all well and good, what I've been wishing for this year is a sci-fi movie that's not afraid to blend the action with a little intelligence. After all, science fiction, traditionally, has been a forum for serious ideas and philosophical theory, not just little green men and laser guns.

That's why I'm excited about this month, because it sees the launch of Interstellar. Whilst there is still an atmosphere of mystery surrounding the plot, what we do know is that it's about a space mission to make use of a newly discovered wormhole to finally conquer the great distance required to travel to other stars. Which is especially lucky, because it looks like Al Gore was right, and the Earth has gone to shit.

Speaking of stars, did I mention that this film features five previous Oscar winning actors? We're talking Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Michael Caine, Ellen Burstyn and Matt Damon. If that's not enough, how about it being directed by Christopher Nolan? He's the brains behind Inception, where he used physical effects over CGI to stunning effect, and Memento, where he made the audience use their brains - to stunning effect. He, like me, also has a self proclaimed fondness for 'golden age' sci-fi epics. Brilliant.

So it looks like my wish has come true, and I didn't even need a shooting star. Don't just watch the fireworks this November, go and see Interstellar.