Here's What Everyone Is Saying About 'Interstellar' So Far

Here's What Everyone Is Saying About 'Interstellar' So Far

"Interstellar," Christopher Nolan's $165 million space epic, rockets into wide release Nov. 7, but some critics have already filed their reviews. The consensus so far? Most agree the visuals are stunning and that Matthew McConaughey is great as an engineer who ventures to another galaxy to research potential inhabitable worlds. But the first reactions haven't been as favorable toward the film's emotional heft and the pacing of its third act.

Consensus may shift as more reviews pour in before the opening -- many critics still haven't seen the film -- but here are a few first reactions to "Interstellar":

1. "'Interstellar' so bulges with ideas, ambitions, theories, melodrama, technical wizardry, wondrous imagery and core emotions that it was almost inevitable that some of it would stick while other stuff would fall to the floor. Feeling very much like Christopher Nolan's personal response to his favorite film, '2001: A Space Odyssey,' this grandly conceived and executed epic tries to give equal weight to intimate human emotions and speculation about the cosmos, with mixed results, but is never less than engrossing, and sometimes more than that." -- Todd McCarthy, The Hollywood Reporter

2. As with the twisty chronologies and unreliable narrators of his earlier films, Nolan trusts in the audience’s ability to get the gist and follow along, even if it doesn’t glean every last nuance on a first viewing. It’s hard to think of a mainstream Hollywood film that has so successfully translated complex mathematical and scientific ideas to a lay audience ... or done so in more vivid, immediate human terms. -- Scott Foundas, Variety

3. "‘Interstellar’ is about saving humanity, despite humanity. It disguises itself in science, but ‘Interstellar’ isn’t really about science. There’s a lot more Emotion in ‘Interstellar’ than I expected -- its core foundation, really -- but there’s almost too much going on in ‘Interstellar’ to the point that, at times, in retrospect, nothing is really happening even though it kind of seemed like something was happening." -- Mike Ryan, ScreenCrush

4. "While the film builds intrigue and tension in terms of establishing the stakes of the outer-space exploration as well as the perilous science behind it, the picture rushes into space only to slow to a relative crawl once it gets there. There are a few dazzling images and at least one solid action sequence late in the game, and it is always fun to see the real-world implications of somewhat abstract scientific theory. Yet the film feels less like a grand original work than it does a buttoned-down and overly 'realistic' variation on 'go into space to save the world' pictures." -- Scott Mendelson, Forbes

5. "All the setup is fascinating, as is the space travel, particularly when they journey to planets near a black hole, meaning that for every hour that the landing party spends on the surface, seven years will elapse for the crew member orbiting in the spacecraft. Cliifhanger sequences involving slow, giant tidal waves and docking with an out-of-control ship demonstrate the director's (and editor Lee Smith's) proficiency. For much of the film, Nolan (who co-wrote with his brother Jonathan) seems to be unafraid to allow this big-budget extravaganza to tell a story that's about pain and loss and melancholy and sacrifice. Until it's not that anymore, and “Interstellar” becomes thuddingly prosaic." -- Alonso Duralde, The Wrap

6. "Often when we talk about cinema being a ‘ride’, we’re hinting at a lack of substance, an absence of ideas, an opportunity to switch off. Not so here. ‘Interstellar’ is, in large part, a spectacle. But it also asks you to think hard, look hard and urges you to return for more. Why only ask for the stars when you can have moons, distant planets, extra dimensions, lectures on psychics and a sobering shot of terror? ‘Interstellar’ has it all." -- Dave Calhoun, Time Out London

7. "'Interstellar,' a near three-hour whopper of a picture, powers through its plot holes and barrels through the corn. It’s a glorious spectacle, but a slight drama, with few characters and too-rare flashes of humor. It wants to awe us into submission, to concede our insignificance in the face of such grand-scale art. It achieves that with ease. Yet on his way to making an epic, Nolan forgot to let us have fun." -- Henry Barnes, The Guardian

8. "'Interstellar' makes its far-reaching concept utterly believable, right down to an outrageous climax that stretches across time and space with bursts of psychedelic imagery that still winds up making sense. In its final scenes, 'Interstellar' struggles to bring every piece in play to a tidy conclusion, but it's comforting to watch Nolan give it a shot. -- Eric Kohn, IndieWire

9. "The space travel stuff is beautiful and realized though largely physical means. It works both inside the ships and outside, and there's a lot of "Interstellar," particularly in 70MM IMAX, that is just jaw-dropping." -- Drew McWeeny, HitFix

10. "'Interstellar' tackles some big ideas along the way. Some are fascinating -- fifth-dimensional space represented in three dimensions -- and some are cringe-worthy -- love as a universal constant -- but all of the ideas are approached with honesty and intelligence. That alone makes me like and admire the movie. I just wish I could love it; 'Inception' blew me away the first time through and has remained a film that moves me intellectually, cinematically and even emotionally. 'Interstellar' stimulates intellectually, is dead on arrival emotionally and works well enough cinematically without truly wowing in the way it should." -- Devin Faraci, Badass Digest

Before You Go

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