[Movie] Travelling through 'Interstellar'
I think its fair for me to say that this movie was one of the greatest in 2014, and possibly for many years to come. I didn't know about it at first, but apparently people are comparing this movie with one of Stanley Kubrick's works, '2001: A Space Odyssey'. So when I first watched this movie, I was actually watching it to spend some free time, while waiting out for a free slot in the bowling alley in my local mall. Hey, the poster did show a man in space suit walking on a barren ice land. Not my fault thinking it't a boring movie at first sight.
But then, I was captivated. I can't believe how epic the movie was. Starred by Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, David Gyasi, Wes Bentley, Michael Caine, John Lithgow, Matt Damon, and many more. Because the movie took a span of almost a hundred years, so there are many characters that started young, becoming adult, going old, and some of them died.
It wasn't revealed exactly what time this alternate story took place, only that it was somewhere in the future, and future wasn't doing well either. Our blue planet was on the verge of stopping being blue due to relentless and voracious crop blight that was killing, well, crops. Famine was everywhere, food shortages was so critical that at some point, Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) commented that the army is no more because they don't have sufficient food to supply the army.
It got so bad, that when Cooper was attending the Parent-Teacher conference, the principal recommended to Cooper that his son should be a farmer. Instead of, you know, going to college. Because, you can't eat degree certificates anyway, so why bother? And humanity needs more farmers more than ever.
There was even a hint of malicious social engineering involved at that time where the teachers are teaching the students a 'corrected version' of facts.Like, first landing on the moon was a hoax, and building rockets and space programs are wasteful and the mark of decadence of the 20th century. Things are really really bad, I guess
Can it get any worse? Other than his daughter being haunted by a ghost? Well, luckily it wasn't a vengeful type of ghost, but more of a talkative ghost that leave coded messages in binary. Being a man of science, Copper decided to investigate because, fuck it, like he doesn't enough problem already. And if the ghost is real, maybe he can eat it, or something.
Turns out, the ghost coded messages lead Copper straight to NASA secret base. Secret, because NASA was not supposed to be around anymore. Led by Professor John Brand (Michael Caine), NASA saw humaity's hope on Earth, as a vain effort. Apparently, food shortages is the least of their problem? The blight, thrive on nitrogen gas, which reducing the oxygen level in atmosphere. The last person to starve, will the first to suffocate, so said Prof John Brand.
Well things really went from bad to even worse. So Cooper, being a former pilot and engineer, decided to pitch into the super secret mission of saving the world. There were 2 plan, plan A is to find habitable worlds and lead humanity in exodus to space, while plan B is to find habitable worlds and start a colony anew.. leaving the people on Earth stranded.
Because the problem is time, and from what Prof John Brand told Cooper, they don't have enough. Their biggest break was the sudden appearance of a wormhole near Saturn, that leads to another galaxy, which they managed to identify multiple habitable world. But with the food shortages going critical, resources are scarce, they don't have enough juice to jump in on their merry way.
The angle of the cameras in film was quite quaint. No fancy CGI with laser beams or big explosions. Just, enough to illustrate what's necessary. Even the robot design was minimal. Its a box of square. But interesting enough, because the square robots can interact like a normal person.
Ironically, the whole plot revolves around the theory of gravity and relativity. Which in a way, it felt like the 'Gravity' film in 2013, but in that movie, gravity wasn't really discussed in depth. So in this movie, Cooper and the expedition team was struggling to not only look for habitable world, but also to solve the problem of reconciling gravity equation and relativity with quantum mechanics.
It is very important that solve that problem because the only way humanity can leave Earth in substantial amount, to start a colony, is by harnessing gravity. If not, then they can still colonize a planet using incubated fertilized eggs. But the humanity on planet Earth will be, kinda screwed big time. With didn't sit well with Cooper because he left his 2 children back on Earth
I can see how this movie in influenced by the '2001: A Space Odyssey'. The plot almost the same, but a world apart. In the Odyssey film, the AI killed the human expedition team, and had to be shut down. But in this film, the AIs took the roles as the assistant and comic relief. Seriously, I like TARS.
So what happened in the end? Lets just say that gravitational pull from a black hole can really stretch time up. Oh, did I mentioned that the some of habitable worlds that they went to inspect was near a gargantuan black hole? Gargantua, the old gentle singularity.
I'm glad I decided to watch the film before going for my bowling game.
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