First, about the pain, which is mostly due to the sound. I don't know how many times we're in a rocket ship blasting off somewhere with everything shaking, the cameras jiggling, the astronauts grimacing, and the sound track roaring, screeching, thundering, blasting the eardrums—I really did have to plug my ears by the end of the movie. Add to that the so- called music, which consisted mostly of even higher mountains of noise, mostly produced by a big pipe organ pumping out its gargantuan decibels in the form of a few simple chords—hardly music, merely a musical instrument adding to the overall accumulation of noise. I don't think anybody should be credited with creating "music" for this film.

As for the stupidity, I was lured into the theatre by publicity claiming that the film had got the science right, or at least the graphic representation of a wormhole and black hole. Well, the graphics may have been right, but they were pretty standard stuff as far as eye candy goes, hardly worth the price of the ticket. What about the science? Maybe it was correct on every point, or on most points, or only on a few points—who knows? Only someone with degrees in quantum mechanics and astrophysics would be able to judge. For the general audience (obviously, the audience the film was aimed at), the science talk came across as sheer gobbledygook. There was no effort to explain the ideas for the public. The jargon was just spat out here and there with the purpose of raising a smokescreen for the current plot point. Very annoying.

I wanted to enjoy this film. I hated not liking it, knowing how much money and effort went into making it. But by the time we got to the last 20 minutes or so, I'd had enough and had to fight the urge to walk out. In fact, I did get out of my seat and watched the last 10 minutes or so from the back of the auditorium near the exit door.