Interstellar

The Earth is doomed and humanity is staring death in the face. We need to find another Earth. Matthew McConaughey is  a farmer these days but once was a pilot. One day he is off to parents evening and within a hop, skip and a jump he's leaving his kids behind. "See ya, i'm off to save mankind, yee ha".

It's been said already...but I agree...it's CONTACT meets 2001. 

Now I am a person who could happily watch six hours straight of Wonder Of The Universe and then Stargazing Live without having my enthusiasm for the subject wain. I lap up books like A Brief History Of Time, Biocentrism and Quantum Mechanics because it's damn fascinating. 

But it's certainly not everyone's cup of tea. 

 This film falls in my ball park, and yet, if anything, it's HOLLYWOOD trappings which made it all too 'obviously film like'   were like bumps in the road. Imagine Brian Cox doing a three hour programme where he gave an Oscar baiting speech where he was in tears. To me, amongst the brilliant space scenes where just like 2001, the silence and vastness of space is effectively used, the dramatic scenes delivered by the actors brought me back down to Earth as they tried to outdo each other. Once more, it's also been said that there's only one man on the mission who seems to know how space works and it falls to him to explain it seconds before they need to know. 

Black holes and worm holes are great things to base a film around the sheer wonder of it all is something I thoroughly enjoyed. But the drama back on Earth was a weight around its neck. 

Within the first three minutes ish there is a happening involving a bookshelf which immediately had me think "oh that's going to turn out to be because...." and two and a half hours later I was proved correct, delivered in a big reveal way which had me thinking 'did anyone not know that?'. 

I place the film in the 'really good' category but certainly not in the great category. I've seen it, I enjoyed it, now on to the next film. It seemed to be ending for ages and i rolled my eyes three times in the last half an hour as every loose strand seemed to get neatly tied up. 

I prefer Inception and Memento. 

Good but not great. Half an hour too long.