Interstellar

[Yorkshire pud]

Yes I think that's why it worked pretty well, it knew it was basically an action, suspense, thrill ride and didn't try to be some huge epic so didn't take itself too seriously.  The whole human story didn't work for me but I did think it was exciting and I wish I'd seen that one in the theater.

It's one of those films that really only works on a huge screen. And one of the few that really works in 3d.

[zeebo]

It's one of those films that really only works on a huge screen. And one of the few that really works in 3d.

I can see that but I'd have to pop a couple dramamine first.   

[GeorgieForPresident2216]

It's one of those films that really only works on a huge screen. And one of the few that really works in 3d.

It was still pretty good on my 7" tablet.  That's the only way I've ever seen it.

[zeebo]

It was still pretty good on my 7" tablet.  That's the only way I've ever seen it.

Don't tell me you watch 2001 on that thing?  Don't do it, don't tell me that.   

[GeorgieForPresident2216]

Don't tell me you watch 2001 on that thing?  Don't do it, don't tell me that.   

Nah, I saw that on my neighbour's big screen 21" Art Deco Technicolor CRT TV when I was a kid.  I don't think I've seen it since.

[area51drone]

It's one of those films that really only works on a huge screen. And one of the few that really works in 3d.

I'll have to grab the SBS somewhere and watch it that way maybe then...  damn you guys.  I have such limited time to watch anything, and I was just really getting into Sean Carroll's Mysteries of Modern Physics: Time lectures.

[zeebo]

... I was just really getting into Sean Carroll's Mysteries of Modern Physics: Time lectures.

I wish I'd watched that instead of the 3-hr. dud I watched today.  Talk about time dilation. 

Btw they never discussed the difference between light speed travel relativity vs. gravity relativity.  I'm not sure if the former was even part of it since I'm not sure if they ever got up to light speed, I don't think that was explained.  But when they were zoomin around the black hole that gave em some dilation, which was only very thinly explained. 

[area51drone]

I wish I'd watched that instead of the 3-hr. dud I watched today.  Talk about time dilation. 

Btw they never discussed the difference between light speed travel relativity vs. gravity relativity.  I'm not sure if the former was even part of it since I'm not sure if they ever got up to light speed, I don't think that was explained.  But when they were zoomin around the black hole that gave em some dilation, which was only very thinly explained.

I thought it was pretty clearly explained.  The time dilation on the water planet they went to with the big waves was all due to gravity.

[zeebo]

They did say something like an hour here is seven years back home or something, but they didn't really explain why I thought (we know it was due to the nearby black hole but I'm sure many were puzzled).  Btw did they also already have some time dilation on the journey there?  Did going thru the wormhole have an effect (I don't even know if they were going near lightspeed or what.)

And could they seriously survive that huge swell?  And what's with the blocky robots that talk like the kid at my coffee bar?  And what was the whole "gravity equation" they kept talking about?  I mean for a movie that took itself so seriously alot of it sounded worse than Star Trek techno-babble. 

And what the heck did they do to poor Anne Hathaway with that altar-boy haircut?  And some of her lines about love being some kind of mystical force like another dimension or whatnot, aaaarrgh. 

And wtf is friggin Matt Damon pontificating about gravity and quantum mechanics and human nature and the survival instinct?

And if the Matthew M. guy knew he eventually made it inside the black hole, they why did he send a message back that tried to get his daughter to stop him when he would have known by definition it was useless, and oh btw wtf how did he survive the black hole and his blocky robot too, some 5th dimensional tesseract-ish timespace continuum alteration? 

Aaarrgh I'm tired and grumpy just thinking about it all.  Friggin time-loop stories.  I think I'd rather watch Bill n' Ted's, at least it's got better music and George Carlin!

Nite all.   

[GeorgieForPresident2216]

They did say something like an hour here is seven years back home or something, but they didn't really explain why I thought (we know it was due to the nearby black hole but I'm sure many were puzzled).  Btw did they also already have some time dilation on the journey there?  Did going thru the wormhole have an effect (I don't even know if they were going near lightspeed or what.) 

Hmm, I didn't think so but I'm not sure.  They weren't travelling within normal space, but rather in fourth dimensional space so I'm not sure relative time dilation applies.  Like you say, it wasn't really explained.  I was kind of getting mixed up between the worm hole and the black hole at first.  It seemed pretty weird that they ended up near a supermassive black hole with a bunch of planets orbiting it.  I suppose the unseen future human civilization set it up that way.

And could they seriously survive that huge swell?  And what's with the blocky robots that talk like the kid at my coffee bar?  And what was the whole "gravity equation" they kept talking about?  I mean for a movie that took itself so seriously alot of it sounded worse than Star Trek techno-babble. 

The holy grail of science is to combine quantum mechanics with relativity.  One of the things scientists don't understand without being able to combine these two theories is what happens inside of a black hole.  If you could see what happened inside a black hole, you might be able to figure out the answer.  So McConnaughey used gravity to send the black hole data back through the second hand on Murph's watch.

Their 'plan A' artificial habitats were too heavy to lift off the Earth using rockets but apparently if they could figure out the quantum mechanics of gravity, they could lift them by manipulating gravity -- don't ask, I don't know  .  Why they couldn't just isolate the habits while leaving them on Earth I have no idea.

And what the heck did they do to poor Anne Hathaway with that altar-boy haircut?  And some of her lines about love being some kind of mystical force like another dimension or whatnot, aaaarrgh. 

Yeah, those lines were pretty forced and out of place.  It sounded like a physicist trying to put his musings into movie dialogue.  Also, just reading a forum... McConaughey's love for his daughter is what allowed him to find her while in the fifth dimension tesseract, and start the whole process off in the first place -- because his love transcended time and space as they were talking about in that scene.

And wtf is friggin Matt Damon pontificating about gravity and quantum mechanics and human nature and the survival instinct?

I guess he was just explaining why he lied, so that they would come to his dead planet and he could hijack their ship and save himself just as McConaughey was trying to save himself instead of carrying on with the mission.

And if the Matthew M. guy knew he eventually made it inside the black hole, they why did he send a message back that tried to get his daughter to stop him when he would have known by definition it was useless, and oh btw wtf how did he survive the black hole and his blocky robot too, some 5th dimensional tesseract-ish timespace continuum alteration? 

Under the right conditions, you can theoretically pass through the event horizon of a sufficiently large supermassive blackhole without being spaghettified (I believe it has to be nonrotating and dormant).  The 5th dimension structure inside was supposedly built by future humans in some sort of time travel paradox weirdness because, I guess, they already knew McConaughey would make the attempt, just as McConaughey knew his daughter would get his gravity messages in the past.

Aaarrgh I'm tired just thinking about it all.  Friggin time-loop stories.  I think I'd rather watch Bill n' Ted's, at least it's got better music and George Carlin!

Nite all.   

Goodnight 

[b_dubb]

They did say something like an hour here is seven years back home or something, but they didn't really explain why I thought (we know it was due to the nearby black hole but I'm sure many were puzzled).  Btw did they also already have some time dilation on the journey there?  Did going thru the wormhole have an effect (I don't even know if they were going near lightspeed or what.)

And could they seriously survive that huge swell?  And what's with the blocky robots that talk like the kid at my coffee bar?  And what was the whole "gravity equation" they kept talking about?  I mean for a movie that took itself so seriously alot of it sounded worse than Star Trek techno-babble. 

And what the heck did they do to poor Anne Hathaway with that altar-boy haircut?  And some of her lines about love being some kind of mystical force like another dimension or whatnot, aaaarrgh. 

And wtf is friggin Matt Damon pontificating about gravity and quantum mechanics and human nature and the survival instinct?

And if the Matthew M. guy knew he eventually made it inside the black hole, they why did he send a message back that tried to get his daughter to stop him when he would have known by definition it was useless, and oh btw wtf how did he survive the black hole and his blocky robot too, some 5th dimensional tesseract-ish timespace continuum alteration? 

Aaarrgh I'm tired and grumpy just thinking about it all.  Friggin time-loop stories.  I think I'd rather watch Bill n' Ted's, at least it's got better music and George Carlin!

Nite all.   

Watch the movie again. Most of your questions were addressed. I also had a WTF with the robot design but then when the one robot turned itself into a paddle boat and saved Hathaway I was like "oh cool".

[ItsOver]

I'm glad I've skipped "Interstellar."  "2001" and "Alien" are hard to top.

I made the mistake of seeing "Fury."  Talk about gratuitous violence and extreme "jack-assery."  Sure, it's a war movie but I was rooting for the SS at the end.

[zeebo]

Watch the movie again. Most of your questions were addressed....

Oh man no way, can't watch again.  Other than a few interesting moments, I found much of it excruciating to watch.  I think I'll take GFP's answers above and let it go.

[ItsOver]

Oh man no way, can't watch again.  Other than a few interesting moments, I found much of it excruciating to watch.  I think I'll take GFP's answers above and let it go.

Zeebo, would you say "Interstellar" was more or less disappointing than "Prometheus?"

[Yorkshire pud]

Oh man no way, can't watch again.  Other than a few interesting moments, I found much of it excruciating to watch.  I think I'll take GFP's answers above and let it go.

Oh....like this one?


http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-TtKp7-XSo

[zeebo]

Zeebo, would you say "Interstellar" was more or less disappointing than "Prometheus?"

Excellent question 'Over.  Hmm, it's a tough call honestly, as I was disappointed so by both.  I think Prometheus was probably slightly worse since so much just was absurd.  There's a scene near the end like something out of a campy horror flick, totally silly.  Another movie I wanted to love, but which just had a disasterous script.  At least Interstellar seemed to be trying to make sense more, even if it didn't.

However Interstellar for me was actually a worse experience just because it was so dreary and slow and tried so hard to be deep and emotional but came off pretentious and cloyingly sentimental.  Some of those scenes just went on and on and that friggin soundtrack was just brutal, just repeating ad nauseum - I just wanted to shout "Ok I get it, this is supposed to be profound right here!  Please stop the music!  Please get to the next scene!"

[zeebo]

Oh....like this one?

That docking scene just went on forever.  I was like I know you're gonna make it can we just get on with it and I'm getting dizzy here. 

Much better action sequences than this in the aformentioned Gravity.  Or one that just came to mind is that cool scene in Red Planet when the ship catastrophe happens.  Or the scene in Sunshine where they're repairing the solar shield.  I could go on.

I did however like the part where they flew by Saturn, it reminded me of 2001.  And the shots of the black hole were kinda cool.

[area51drone]

Yeah, that's about all there was to enjoy about interstellar.. the space stuff on the big screen.  But you can get that sometimes from Star Trek, so...meh.

[zeebo]

Yeah, that's about all there was to enjoy about interstellar.. the space stuff on the big screen.  But you can get that sometimes from Star Trek, so...meh.

Reported ... to Star Fleet.

[ItsOver]

Excellent question 'Over.  Hmm, it's a tough call honestly, as I was disappointed so by both.  I think Prometheus was probably slightly worse since so much just was absurd.  There's a scene near the end like something out of a campy horror flick, totally silly.  Another movie I wanted to love, but which just had a disasterous script.  At least Interstellar seemed to be trying to make sense more, even if it didn't.

However Interstellar for me was actually a worse experience just because it was so dreary and slow and tried so hard to be deep and emotional but came off pretentious and cloyingly sentimental.  Some of those scenes just went on and on and that friggin soundtrack was just brutal, just repeating ad nauseum - I just wanted to shout "Ok I get it, this is supposed to be profound right here!  Please stop the music!  Please get to the next scene!"

Thanks, Zeeb.  Since I've seen the preview, "Interstellar" struck me as another over-blown, over-wrought, typical Hollywood wingding.  Will anybody remember it ten years from now?  "Prometheus" was one big disappointment.  I was hoping for more from Scott.  "Alien" and "Gladiator" still remain among my favorites.

[Agent : Orange]

I enjoyed Interstellar much more than I liked Gravity. The film had it's problems but I didn't think any of them were too serious. The science was not great but in other places done very well.

Now, having said that...

Seven years to one hour time dilation? That's huge gravity. And they escaped with that puny landing craft? Why couldn't they have spent a few years doing orbital recon before landing on the surface to find out what the conditions were like? McConnaughey was constantly describing time dilation and relativity, he should have been able to figure out the proper time the previous explorer was on the surface, and adjust to the ships coordinate time.

But that's a pretty small nitpick. I'm still impressed because I've never seen the Unruh effect in a movie before. *gush*

Makes me hope for a big screen version of The Forever War. 

[paladin1991]

But that's a pretty small nitpick. I'm still impressed because I've never seen the Unruh effect in a movie before. *gush*

Makes me hope for a big screen version of The Forever War.

The Forever War?  Now that would be shit hot!  I'm thinking it would need 3 hours, I could be wrong.  Maybe it would only seem like three hours if I were escaping this gravity well.