"Interstellar" Review
“Interstellar” may single-handedly give NASA a new crop of aspiring astronauts across the United States. The film immerses you into its world with the enthusiasm of its lead character Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) about exploring the stars, and it’s a visual marvel! It’s also an incredible ride that looses fuel twenty minutes out from landing and crashes.
Earth is slowly wasting away, mother nature is turning on us, and our food supply is dwindling. Most humans have to be farmers in order to ensure that we might continue to live. After receiving a binary message in his daughter Murph’s (Mackenzie Foy) room, ex-astronaut turned farmer, Cooper, goes to the coordinates to find a thriving underground NASA organization.
Cooper gets a quick education as to what the organization, headed by Professor Brand (Michael Caine) and his daughter Amelia (Anne Hathaway), has been doing out of the scrutiny of the public eye, and how they plan to save the world. Cooper then has to decide if he wants to be a part of it. In an effort to save his family, Cooper makes the decision to embark on the journey, in spite of the fact that he may miss years of their lives in traveling light years away. (There is plenty of “science” that explains things throughout the film, but it’s laid out in a user friendly way.)
The strength of the film is in the relationship between Cooper and his kids, specifically his daughter Murph. Their bond is undeniable and his love for them drives each decision he makes, especially life and death decisions. In fact, writer/director Christopher Nolan pushes the point that love can triumph anything, including time and space. The father/daughter bond was so genuine and resonated with me so personally that if I wasn’t trying to be so cool during the press screening I think I would have cried a lot more.
There is no question that Nolan is a visionary. The film challenges the boundaries of cinema and dares other directors to do the same. The galaxies and planets that Nolan has created are fresh, and make you wonder what’s past our skies. Hans Zimmer once again proves to be a master of musical composition with his hypnotic, eery and edgy score. Using organs and horns, the score perfectly bridges the drama between parallel stories on Earth and in space while keeping the mood off-kilter.
Unfortunately, after investing in the well being of Cooper and his family for the first couple of acts, in the midst of the third act things start to unravel. It’s sad that all of the innovation, suspense and wonderment that is built up towards the climax is shattered by lazy writing. Regardless, more filmmakers should follow in Nolan’s shoes with efforts like this! So while the film may be worth the trip to the IMAX (you should see it in IMAX for an amazing immersing experience) this weekend, expect to see a film that swings for the stars and falls short.
Rating: B
"Rio 2" is fun for kids
Blu (Jesse Eisenberg) and Jewel (Anne Hathaway) are back with three additions to their family. Although time has moved forward, the gang is still in tact, the music rocks just as loud, and the colors are just as vibrant. Yet with all its’ shimmer, “Rio 2” is dulled by multiple themes and storylines that point in opposite directions.
The beauty of “Rio” was that it showed us an animated but authentic mock up of Rio de Janeiro and had a classic story outline that was easy to follow. Blu was thought to be the last male blue macaw bird in the world, and Jewel was the last female. After being domesticated for years in America by his owner Linda (Leslie Mann), Blu, who didn’t know how to fly, and Jewel met in an effort to keep the species alive. Yet after being kidnapped by smugglers, the two had to work together to get to freedom. Pretty succinct right? (More happened in the film of course, but it was simple.)
In “Rio 2” Linda and her husband Tulio (Rodrigo Santoro) find more blue macaw’s living deep in the Amazon. This incites a family trip for Blu, Jewel, the kids, and their motley group of friends- cardinal Pedro (will.i.am), toucan Rafael (George Lopez), and yellow canary Nico (Jamie Foxx). While Blu and Jewel struggle with raising their children with Blu’s domestication and Jewel’s living naturally in the wild on their trip; their friends are searching for new talent for Carnival.
On their way to the Amazon they attract the attention of Nigel (Jemaine Clement), a cockatoo and Shakespearean actor, who seeks revenge from Blu giving him a devastating injury that left him unable to fly in “Rio”. Once the group arrives in the Amazon they reunite with Jewel’s thought-to-be-lost family who are hiding deep in the rain forest to escape human poachers and illegal loggers. Not only do the blue macaws have an environmental fight against humans, but they’re up against a large family of red macaw’s for forest space. The youthful leader of the blue macaw family, Roberto (Bruno Mars), engages in a friendly “girl that got away” grudge match with Blu as well. Do you see what I’m talking about? There are way to many subplots in this film that take away from what it did best in “Rio”, which is entertain while keeping the story moving forward at a good pace. The film feels like it was written in chapters for each situation with a thin through line.
At the end of the day who cares about subplots and disjointedness? Certainly not the crowd full of kids that I saw the film with. I guess that’s what director Carlos Saldanha counted on. “Rio 2” will definitely entertain the kids, and allow parents a moment to relax and laugh with their children. Unfortunately, as a film, it’s the embodiment of a great first animated feature with a lesser sequel.
Rating: C+
Dark Knight Rises
Trilogies rarely stay consistently solid, increasingly entertaining films. In fact, most tend to go from great to poor. With Christopher Nolan’s “Dark Knight Rises”, a glimmer of light shines in a dark world of third installments. This is how you end a series!
The film starts as a moving train going slow enough for you to jump on, but steadily moving forward so you can’t think twice. Picking up eight years after the death of Harvey Dent, Gotham is a city of peace and fat cats. The film’s main characters are introduced to us quickly. Tom Hardy’s Bane is a hulking terrorist, with a vader-like voice, and chilling controlled intensity. He’s the embodiment of everything we fear about terrorism, the lack of conscience, focus on achieving a goal at any means, and a disregard for order. In a suspenseful extraction scene, Bane and his henchman take a doctor for a reason we’re waiting to have solved, and it’s off to the races to put the puzzle together.
A shell of his former self, we first see Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) in a silhouette, blanketed by night itself, with a can in hand at a dinner gala. When I first saw the photos of Anne Hathaway as Catwoman, I had my doubts. However, Ms. Hathaway prances into her role as Selena Kyle with confidence and earnestness. Taking the role to a different height mixing femininity and sass in just the right way. When Bruce and Selena meet the chemistry is apparent and makes for a fun tango throughout the rest of the film.
With the evil on the horizon, Bruce’s father figure Alfred (Michael Caine), tries to be the mirror of wisdom and knowledge for Bruce. It’s a conversation with orphan turned cop, Officer Blake (Joseph Gordon Levitt) that puts wind to the low burning ember that is Batman. When the Bat returns to Gotham, the spectacle that we all want to see from the franchise is turned on with a chase scene through the city. One character says “You’re in for a show tonight son”, as Batman wizzes by in our first glimpse of caped crusader.
From there it’s off to the races as our hero must defeat a seemingly unstoppable villain bent on the destruction of Gotham. Nolan’s pacing of the film is superb as we jump from action to dramatic scenes. The Bane vs. Batman fight is what every fan boy waited for, suspenseful, dramatic, and action packed. As Bane schools the Bat like Apollo Creed did Rocky, the back break is like an act break, marking the dawn of a new Gotham.
As Gotham is plunged into anarchy, all hope seems lost as evil slowly takes over. Innocence in the voice of a young boy singing the national anthem is blended in a montage of explosions going off around the city. The city’s terrorist watches from the sideline and seems to delight in inflicting pain on the community at large. In an almost ominous montage of Gotham City’s finest rushing into the sewer to thwart off evil, only for the city above to come crashing down on them, as if it’s Nolan’s nod to 911 and our current fights with terrorist acts in the real.
The movie’s statement on good versus evil, terrorism, economic collapse and truth are noticable but not over the top. In fact, truth seems to be the thing that each character is searching for throughout the film. Whether it’s Kyle’s desire for a clean slate to stop living lies, Commissioner Gordon’s wrestling with telling the truth about Harvey Dent, or Bruce coming to grips with his fear of letting go of the past. Every character has some vulnerability and inner discovery that they have to find. That’s what makes Nolan’s take on the franchise great. He understands what makes Batman a great hero. The fact that a mortal man can become more, and fight for truth
The movie’s final thirty minutes puts a nice ribbon on the series. Leaving room for spinoffs while concluding the series, Nolan can walk away with his head held high. My only gripe is that Bane’s persona takes somewhat of a nose dive in the wrap up. There are more than a few plot holes throughout the film that have to be overlooked, but they’re not big enough to fall through.
The “Dark Knight Rises” may be the weakest of the three films in the trilogy, but after establishing the new take on Batman, and Heath Ledger’s legendary performance, the stakes were high. Even so, Nolan delivered an outstanding end to the Caped Crusader’s reign.
A