"Love is the one thing we're capable of perceiving that transcends time and space."

Void. Then, as the monologue continues, the void is filled with cringe. "Oh, Nolan", I think to myself. "Will you ever be able not to take gigantic resources as means to tell over-complicated, spectacle-centered stories that lack emotion?". But of course, these thoughts probably won't reach Nolan anytime soon, and my internal monologue will only be shared with you guys. Let's get into it.

Interstellar is a 2014 film, directed by the beloved and critically acclaimed Christopher Nolan. The movie follows a group of astronauts on a race against time to save humanity from extinction, looking for a new home planet for our race. Apropos a race against time, time has a lot of meaning in this film - a foreboding, looming presence that you fight against, a sacrifice you make, your one-way ticket to the end of everything you know. At least, this is what the film is trying to communicate.

Nolan, who has delivered great material in the past (as of the time I'm writing this review, Memento is in my top 15 films of all time) but also lacking-in-emotion, over-complicated stuff (The Prestige being a prime example of that, and I think I might've been a little soft giving score to this film). I recommend reading my review to The Prestige for more insight about the way Nolan approaches cinema, but in short, I think that Nolan's biggest problem is looking at cinema as if it was a magic trick, as if the only thing that matters is to surprise and amaze. His way of doing that is turning to spectacles, to complicated concepts with cool visuals, but by doing so he often compromises the emotional aspect of the film, and the flow of the story, too.

In this case, I feel like most aspects of the film are just okay, just there to support those massive moments regarding time and space. The amount of work going into some of the visuals is truly magnificent, but I feel like I can't be moved by this film, not really. The characters are far from being three dimensional or interesting, only managing to be just a little above the bare minimum needed to sustain the plot. The dialogue is nothing more than okay - decent at its best moments, cringe-worthy at its worst.

I mean, the only thing truly working here is the film's way with the most epic moments of the story, the moments that make you feel how powerless, how small humans are in comparison to the universe in general. I'll also admit that the pacing felt much worse on first watch, when so much of the film went on and on about scientific terms and laws of physics (the dialogue felt super forced here) and then tried to push this half-baked philosophy about the importance of love (which was forced, too, and definitely felt like Nolan's poor attempt in finding an excuse to this film's concept) that I felt like it just crawled sometimes. On rewatch you know what to expect, and I could let myself enjoy the more fun moments, the grand moments, easing into the spectacle as much as I could.

Still - spectacle doesn't compensate for the dryness of anything else. This is maybe to worst thing about this film - it thinks it's deep or smart when it isn't, not at all. The grandest moments work best, the "philosophical" moments or the moments in which the film tries to outsmart the viewer...well, this is Nolan's biggest weakness as a director. It's not horrible, but it's disappointing in its utter mediocrity. I'm feeling a 5.7/10 on this one.