# Interstellar - Blu-ray Review



## Mike Edwards

n/a


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## tcarcio

Great review as usual Mike. I have been looking forward to this film and your review just made it easy for me to make this a buy when it gets released. :T


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## asere

Thank you for the review. Would you say it's a sub killer kinda like the opening scene of Edge of Tomorrow?


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## Dwight Angus

Nice review Mike. Day one BD buy for me


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## tripplej

Thanks. I never heard of this movie. I will check it out after reading this review. The trailer by the way, looks great. Also, it is interesting that you had to watch it several times to get more out of this movie. I will have to pay very close attention when I first view it.


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## Jon Liu

I am a huge fan of Chris Nolan’s films and this one is no exception. I love the depth (and length) of his films and I love the requirement for critical thinking that also is needed. The wife and I had a blast watching this one in theaters, but somehow missed seeing this one in the IMAX presentation. I caught The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises in IMAX, and even Inception (though no IMAX sequences were shot). I am thoroughly looking forward to seeing the IMAX sequences in this film! I can’t wait to watch this one over and over again.

Regarding the hard-to-hear dialog you experienced, that was actually done on-purpose by Chris Nolan. He got a took a lot of flak for that decision in this movie and even for Bane in TDKR, but unlike that one, he preserved Interstellar’s audio levels. Personally I had no problem with it in theaters, but my wife did mention something after we got out of the theaters.

Eitherway, next week's release can't come soon enough!


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## Mike Edwards

Jon Liu said:


> I am a huge fan of Chris Nolan’s films and this one is no exception. I love the depth (and length) of his films and I love the requirement for critical thinking that also is needed. The wife and I had a blast watching this one in theaters, but somehow missed seeing this one in the IMAX presentation. I caught The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises in IMAX, and even Inception (though no IMAX sequences were shot). I am thoroughly looking forward to seeing the IMAX sequences in this film! I can’t wait to watch this one over and over again.
> 
> Regarding the hard-to-hear dialog you experienced, that was actually done on-purpose by Chris Nolan. He got a took a lot of flak for that decision in this movie and even for Bane in TDKR, but unlike that one, he preserved Interstellar’s audio levels. Personally I had no problem with it in theaters, but my wife did mention something after we got out of the theaters.
> 
> Eitherway, next week's release can't come soon enough!


interesting about the dialog. I wasn't aware of that tidbit. Do you know the reason why he chose to do that? I'm actually curious now


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## Mike Edwards

tripplej said:


> Thanks. I never heard of this movie. I will check it out after reading this review. The trailer by the way, looks great. Also, it is interesting that you had to watch it several times to get more out of this movie. I will have to pay very close attention when I first view it.


you hadn't heard of one of this years BIGGEST summer blockbusters???


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## Jon Liu

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/behind-screen/christopher-nolan-breaks-silence-interstellar-749465

Mike, that gives his explanation for the sound design choice.


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## tripplej

Mike Edwards said:


> you hadn't heard of one of this years BIGGEST summer blockbusters???


Yeah, I am behind the times when it comes to movies in theaters. Truth be told, my kids often tell me about the movies before I even know them.  I will check this movie out. Thanks again for your outstanding review.


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## JBrax

Thanks again for another quality review Mike. The wife and I caught this one in theaters and loved it! I can't wait to watch this one again here at the house.


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## ps3forlife

Bought this on my ps4. I loved the movie (so much actually I'm gonna watch it again tonight) the sound effects and lfe are amazing. I don't have a killer sub but the little nxg made me feel like the ship was in my basement. Great flick for anyone.


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## asere

I might rent this one or buy it. Your review was interesting plus I have read other reviews and people love it others say it is slow :dontknow:


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## JBrax

asere said:


> I might rent this one or buy it. Your review was interesting plus I have read other reviews and people love it others say it is slow :dontknow:


 Just buy it. Well worth owning and somewhat like Inception in that with each viewing something new might be learned.


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## Jon Liu

Picked my copy up already! Watched a little bit and am REALLY looking forward to seeing the rest of the IMAX shots and hearing the soundtrack!!


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## vidiot33

Just watched this today and it earns an unqualified recommendation! Deep, visceral bass, an engaging story (if questionable science). It is immensely entertaining, and isn't that what we're about here?

Sent from my iPhone using HTShack


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## Jon Liu

The science is most certainly questionable, but that is because it is all based on theory. However, that being said, they worked meticulously with a theoretical physicist to try to get it as close to accuracy as possible. Having just finished my second viewing of the film I can say I love the film even more. It's not an easy film to get from just one viewing, but most of Chris Nolan's work are the same - they truly require multiple viewings to really grasp and appreciate their scope.

I am looking forward to sitting and viewing the extras later today. I am also looking forward to my next viewing of the film itself!


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## vidiot33

Jon Liu said:


> The science is most certainly questionable, but that is because it is all based on theory. However, that being said, they worked meticulously with a theoretical physicist to try to get it as close to accuracy as possible. Having just finished my second viewing of the film I can say I love the film even more. It's not an easy film to get from just one viewing, but most of Chris Nolan's work are the same - they truly require multiple viewings to really grasp and appreciate their scope. I am looking forward to sitting and viewing the extras later today. I am also looking forward to my next viewing of the film itself!


Well said. I enjoy theoretical physics, but it is very speculative. Wormholes may not even exist, and if they do, they are likely very tiny and would need prodigious amounts of exotic matter to open them up. As for entering a black hole, you'd be "spaghetified" before you were able to get very far. All that said, it made for a very entertaining film!

Sent from my iPhone using HTShack


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## Dwight Angus

Great review Mike. I bought the BD yesterday & look forward to watching it today.


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## NBPk402

Thanks for the review Mike. I wish I had read the review before watching, but I was afraid of spoilers (of which there were none). I enjoyed the movie too, but I will need to watch it several more times to fully grasp everything that is going on in it. The screen format changes were a little irritating to me at times, and at other times I didn't even noticed the screen had changed to 16x9 until it changed to the wider format. Audio was very good except for a few whispers that were difficult to understand... Maybe they were meant to be hard to understand or maybe I needed to listen at a louder level than -25? :T


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## Jon Liu

It's interesting to see how divided people are on the aspect ratio changes. People seem to either hate it or love it, with little in the middle ground.

Personally, that was one of the things I looked forward to most about the video release. Since I missed the IMAX presentation in theaters, I looked forward to seeing the shifting AR at home.

As for the audio, some of the quiet dialog was done on purpose by Christopher Nolan. People question that decision, but after reading his response and now also watching the 13-ish minute featurette on the music of the film, I can appreciate the decision whole-heartedly. The organ and orchestral accompaniment truly was a character and very important element to the film.

I’ve watched it two times already and I anticipate watching it a number of times more. There is just so much detail that goes un-noticed! Chris and Jonathan Nolan are truly masters of their craft.


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## NBPk402

Jon Liu said:


> It's interesting to see how divided people are on the aspect ratio changes. People seem to either hate it or love it, with little in the middle ground.
> 
> Personally, that was one of the things I looked forward to most about the video release. Since I missed the IMAX presentation in theaters, I looked forward to seeing the shifting AR at home.
> 
> As for the audio, some of the quiet dialog was done on purpose by Christopher Nolan. People question that decision, but after reading his response and now also watching the 13-ish minute featurette on the music of the film, I can appreciate the decision whole-heartedly. The organ and orchestral accompaniment truly was a character and very important element to the film.
> 
> I’ve watched it two times already and I anticipate watching it a number of times more. There is just so much detail that goes un-noticed! Chris and Jonathan Nolan, are truly masters of their craft.


My problem with the changing aspect ratio is my projector automatically senses the aspect ratio and zooms or un-zooms to match. Maybe next time I should turn off the auto feature for the movie.


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## asere

Wife and I just finished watching the movie. The film was very good but left us asking many questions. There were times it got too confusing. The dialog did not help matters. Many times I had to keep the remote on my hand and had to raise the volume to -5 and even in the pluses. At those levels with any other movie
it would be too loud. The film did have stellar cinematography and the audio was really stunning. Also for me TARS was a distraction. Sometimes seeing him moving around talking was weird. I'm being picky though 
I say the movie was still really good and I agree with Mike you would need to watch it more than once to really appreciate it. 
I was on the fence whether buy or rent and something told me to rent and am glad I did. I just don't know if I would sit and watch it again even if that clears things up a bit.


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## vidiot33

The fact that it's something like 2 hrs and 45 minutes long makes repeat viewings somewhat challenging.

Sent from my iPhone using HTShack


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## asere

vidiot33 said:


> The fact that it's something like 2 hrs and 45 minutes long makes repeat viewings somewhat challenging.
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using HTShack


I agree!


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## Medi0gre

I thought this movie was great. I'm glad I've tried reading The Brief History Of Time. Seemed like a primer for this flick.


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## jdent02

vidiot33 said:


> The fact that it's something like 2 hrs and 45 minutes long makes repeat viewings somewhat challenging.
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using HTShack


Having a wife upstairs that doesn't like the walls rattling makes repeat viewings hard too  With the brutal bass levels of this movie it's pretty much impossible to avoid.

I thought it was a great movie but I wonder what I would've thought if I hadn't read an FXGuide article that explained what Cooper was doing at the end of the movie. The whole bit around the black hole was a little weird too. Almost felt like a cheat after the fairly realistic (sounding) physics of the rest of the movie.


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## vidiot33

jdent02 said:


> Having a wife upstairs that doesn't like the walls rattling makes repeat viewings hard too  With the brutal bass levels of this movie it's pretty much impossible to avoid. I thought it was a great movie but I wonder what I would've thought if I hadn't read an FXGuide article that explained what Cooper was doing at the end of the movie. The whole bit around the black hole was a little weird too. Almost felt like a cheat after the fairly realistic (sounding) physics of the rest of the movie.


 Yes. Why can't a movie be made with more plausibility, maybe have the ship destroyed by the gravity and the astronaut morph into pure energy?

<CSIHelper: 0x16ede4d0>


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## jdent02

That or just not have such a conveniently 'happy ending'. Although it didn't irritate me as much as Source Code, basically the same thing happened: the movie builds itself up towards a hopeful but downbeat conclusion, but in the last ten minutes the director pulls a Spielberg and everything ends up unicorns and rainbows.


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## gdstupak

I give the audio 2 stars.

I read the article explaining Nolan's rationale for the un-intelligibility of the dialogue, here is a snippet...

"_...Michael Caine’s character talks with Jessica Chastain’s character from his hospital bed. Said Nolan, “The creative intent there is to be truthful to the situation — an elderly man dying and saying something somewhat unexpected. We are following the emotional state of Jessica’s character as she starts to understand what he’s been saying. Information is communicated in various different ways over the next few scenes. That’s the way I like to work; I don't like to hang everything on one particular line. I like to follow the experience of the character.”_

If you know ahead of time which parts of the dialogue are meant to be NOT understandable, then it's not a big deal. But if you don't know ahead of time, when you experience a scene, such as quoted above, you think you've missed something and end up playing the scene over and over again, readjusting the volume to try and understand the dialogue. I kept thinking maybe something is wrong with my system, and that takes me out of the moment.
Later I find out that it isn't my system that's wrong, it is Nolan's rationale.

I'm glad I didn't have friends over to watch this, they would've been laughing so hard that I spent so much money on my system and yet you can't understand the dialogue.

_*EDIT****_ ...I didn't phrase this post well using the term rationale. I'll try again.

I completely agree with Nolan's idea that not all dialogue should be heard or understood, this can create a good atmosphere of mystery. I don't agree with his editing methods. With Nolan, you think you were supposed to hear and understand something but you missed it. Other movies have done this but through better editing, you know that you weren't supposed to hear and understand it.


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## asere

gdstupak said:


> I'm glad I didn't have friends over to watch this, they would've been laughing so hard that I spent so much money on my system and yet you can't understand the dialogue.


Haha that's funny!


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## Jon Liu

I honestly think he made the right choice. Too often do I find myself cringing/wincing at the fact that dialog lines are "too" audible and intelligible in movies that it seems completely out of place. Like talking in a roaring car, talking through a helmet on a motorcycle, or even dialog during bar/club sequences. In real life, having been in those situations, I can even barely hear myself yelling, let alone anyone else, so it's a nice change of pace to have a director understand and stand by the decision to have dialog as part of the bigger (audio) picture during some of the sequences. In my opinion it adds to the believe-ability. Going back to watch The Dark Knight Rises, where people complained about the inaudible dialog from Bane, Nolan changed it to make it audible, but honestly, it felt out of place. It was important to get a lot of Bane's dialog across, so I understand the need to change it, but it didn't seem like he should be speaking through an amplified voice box.

In the case of Interstellar, it's true, it's quite jarring and unnerving when you don't know it's coming, but at the same time, it still makes a lot of sense. The ambient, along with the not-so-ambient, noises and the music are just as important in driving the movie experience and emotion forward.


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## jdent02

It makes sense on an intellectual level, but audiences don't always play along. When it's obviously an important revelation (like Caine's dialog), decades of movies have taught us that you're supposed to be able to hear it clearly. While Nolan might have a good rationale for making it inaudible, it doesn't always mean that its a good decision to fly in the face of that much established history.


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## Talley

Just watched it for the first time...

Loved it. Very well executed. Audio was amazing. Gotta buy this one.


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## Mike Edwards

despite the dialog I was absolutely amazed at the LFE. the first 40 minutes or so was really light and I was thinking "where's the bass?", but those extended moments with the black holes literally were some of the most frightening moments of extension that I've heard in a long time. my subs hit 16hz with AUTHORITY and they were still straining REALLY hard meaning they were easily dropping below that makes me wish I had the money to install a couple more 20 amp circuits and go sealed to see how deep it actually went


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## chrisletts

Take a large dose of 2001, add a bit of 2012, and garnish with virtually any other 'space' movie.
There's nothing original at all about this film!


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## JBrax

chrisletts said:


> Take a large dose of 2001, add a bit of 2012, and garnish with virtually any other 'space' movie. There's nothing original at all about this film!


 I couldn't disagree more.


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## Savjac

What an amazing movie, start to finish. Personally I had no issues with the dialogue as it was always understandable, albeit somewhat down in the mix as needed, but not a word was missed. Relativity is such an interesting subject and how it relates to our day to day lives is still a mystery but a good try was made to put some light into how theorists see it working today.
Visually stunning with sonic's that will test the will and meddle of a home theater system. I am lucky enough to have my home theater away from everything so no amount of noise will creep out. There were scenes that literally shocked me into sitting upright (the docking) and scenes that were so tenderly placed that I had goose bumps. I dont remember hearing a more demanding soundtrack in my room before, it was, at times, explosive.

At first I thought this to be a Phillip Glass penned score but no it was the master of loud once again, Hans Zimmer. I still use parts of his score for Gladiator to test equipment and loudspeakers in my system, it is a hammer to be sure. 

I tend to agree with Mikes ratings on the movie, visuals and sound, he got it right. :T


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## Savjac

JBrax said:


> I couldn't disagree more.


Absolutely, there may be points of homage, but this movie is very original.


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## gdstupak

Savjac said:


> ...Personally I had no issues with the dialogue as it was always understandable, albeit somewhat down in the mix as needed, but not a word was missed. :T


That's interesting since the director said he purposefully edited it so not all dialogue could be heard/understood.


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## Savjac

gdstupak said:


> That's interesting since the director said he purposefully edited it so not all dialogue could be heard/understood.


I believe those are your words Glenn, not his. The dialogue may be down in the mix, in order to preserve a more natural vocal range as compared to the bombast around the characters but the dialogue is there. Even the scene much discussed about Michael Caine, he is quiet indeed and his last few words trail off as they should be they are there.


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## tonyvdb

I would have to agree that the dialog was tough to hear at times. My poor pB13u struggled with the extra low LFE so the volume went up and down a couple times LOL


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## Savjac

tonyvdb said:


> I would have to agree that the dialog was tough to hear at times. My poor pB13u struggled with the extra low LFE so the volume went up and down a couple times LOL


Yes on occasion it was tough but it could be heard, and yes, there was a volume issue but I kind of set it and tried.....or should I say hoped, nothing would let go.


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## JBrax

I had no troubles hearing the dialogue but it was somewhat muted in parts. I thought the movie was great and we're kind of nitpicking with the dialogue issue. I'd say overall the audio was outstanding and my subs were moving some serious air.


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## Todd Anderson

So, this flick was a so-so experience for me at my local commercial cinema. Just didn't float my boat. But, I picked up a copy on Blu-ray and watched it with my 12-yr old. We absolutely loved it. Not sure why the shift in my enjoyment...but, wow, what a great story.

In my HT, the audio was simply off the charts. My dual PSAs subs absolutely devoured the sub-20Hz material and made my entire room creak and rattle in ways that I don't quite remember hearing in the past. 

This film has a lot of great touches of realism (visually) that were matched with some incredibly spooky audio effects... I think anyone that had reservations about this movie should give it's deeper content some thought and revisit it with fresh eyes.

My only real complaint is the switching between cinemascope and 16:9. It's not a huge issue, but isn't ideal for my fixed cinemascope screen. I opted to fit the image to 16:9, thus leaving the 2.35:1 images slightly smaller.

Thanks for the review, Mike!


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## tonyvdb

Hey Todd, could it be that you watched it in non 3D mode at home? I find most of the movies I watch in the theater in 3D look much better at home in non 3D. The glasses annoy me so much I loose some of the movie enjoyment in the theater.


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## Todd Anderson

tonyvdb said:


> Hey Todd, could it be that you watched it in non 3D mode at home? I find most of the movies I watch in the theater in 3D look much better at home in non 3D. The glasses annoy me so much I loose some of the movie enjoyment in the theater.


I watched it in IMAX at the theater...so it wasn't that. Must not have been in the right mindset that day? Don't know.:huh:


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## Jon Liu

I can see how it could be a so-so first experience. Not knowing what to expect going into this Sci-Fi flick, I’d imagine a lot of people expected a lot more action. In fact, there hardly is any action in film. Plus, I can also imagine that people were not expecting it to be as long as it was.

I just love that at the basis of the movie, it’s a story about a father and his love for his daughter. Being a father to daughters, this made it even easier for me to love it. Plus, for a non-action sci-fi film, it is incredibly gripping and tense. I think that is wholly thanks to Hans Zimmer’s beautiful score. At times it is eerily haunting and other times it is just heartbreaking. The audio dynamics (which have been a topic of debate) of the music actually had me white-knuckling.

I also think too often I think that sub tracks are boomy or too pressurizing; this was neither. As the space ship shakes and rattles, your room is similarly rattling!


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## Todd Anderson

Jon Liu said:


> eerily haunting....as the space ship shakes and rattles, your room is similarly rattling!



100% agree on both accounts! "Eerily haunting" is a great description!

I also like the father-daughter connection and I could tell that my daughter was particularly tuned-into that as well. For most children, the removal a strong parent-figure (father or mother) is a terrifying proposition. The movie conveyed that so well.

A-plus stuff


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## gdstupak

This link is an article explaining the timeline and events of the movie.
The comments following the article are very entertaining.

http://screenrant.com/interstellar-ending-spoilers-time-travel/


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## JBrax

One of the things that makes this movie great IMO is its replayability (grammatically incorrect…I know.) I'm probably nearing 5'ish viewings and every time is enjoyable and I usually catch something new. Couldn't agree more with the audio being eerie and really adding to the tense nature of some scenes. Kudos Hans Zimmer!


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## chashint

We saw it on DVD and I really enjoyed it.
Kept me on the edge of my seat for most of the movie.
My wife said if they had given her the editing shears she would have cut an hour out of it.


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## JBrax

chashint said:


> We saw it on DVD and I really enjoyed it. Kept me on the edge of my seat for most of the movie. My wife said if they had given her the editing shears she would have cut an hour out of it.


 I could have easily watched 2 more hours worth. Like you it kept me enthralled the entire movie.


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## Jon Liu

chashint said:


> We saw it on DVD and I really enjoyed it.
> Kept me on the edge of my seat for most of the movie.
> My wife said if they had given her the editing shears she would have cut an hour out of it.


I agree with you and I’ll have to disagree 100% with your wife. Honestly, what I love is the time that Chris and Jonathan Nolan take at fleshing out each of the characters. Pretty much everything in the movie needed to be there, otherwise the pay-off wouldn’t be as big or likely even matter to the audience. If they cut anything out between the relationship between Coop and Murph, the underlying story of the entire story would have become insignificant. Dr. Brand and Professor Brand also depict father-daughter relationship and sacrifices that paralleled Coop and Murph. The conflicted love that Dr. Brand had for the unseen astronaut, Wolf Edmunds, drove the desire to continue to the final destination of the movie. I could go on and on… The Nolan brothers put a lot of time into making the film work, and that’s not even talking about the scientific aspect. Theoretical physics and science can likely be debated, but the Nolans along with Kip Thorne even put enormous amounts of time into trying to get that as close as possible. Putting an hour of the movie on the chopping block would just make this film an incoherent mess and be a complete disservice to the Nolans’ work.

I’m probably coming off as a huge fanboy, but I just can’t help have such a huge respect for everyone involved in this movie. What they made is just so refreshing when compared to overwhelming amount of rehash, reboot, brainless, comicbook-based, or otherwise formulaic films that are being released.


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## Jon Liu

JBrax said:


> One of the things that makes this movie great IMO is its replayability (grammatically incorrect…I know.) I'm probably nearing 5'ish viewings and every time is enjoyable and I usually catch something new. Couldn't agree more with the audio being eerie and really adding to the tense nature of some scenes. Kudos Hans Zimmer!


I've seen this film 5 times, once in theaters and 4 times since it's release on Blu-ray, and it is just as engaging the 5th time around as it was the 1st time.

I actually still find myself tearing up at the part where Coop is watching the culmination of videos and the progression of his family.


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## Jon Liu

JBrax said:


> I could have easily watched 2 more hours worth. Like you it kept me enthralled the entire movie.


I also agree with this. While I absolutely love the film, one of my all-time favorites, I do have minor quibbles with it. One of the biggest being the lack of relationship establishment between Coop and his son. I would have loved to have seen even more resolution at the end with Coop and Brand (although I am not sure if that would've paid off any better or worse). I would've loved to have seen more between Murph and Professor Brand, their interaction and relationship, as well.


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## Todd Anderson

JBrax said:


> I could have easily watched 2 more hours worth. Like you it kept me enthralled the entire movie.


It did have the feeling of a movie that should never end.


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## Todd Anderson

Jon Liu said:


> I actually still find myself tearing up at the part where Coop is watching the culmination of videos and the progression of his family.


A sensitive man of the '90s standing his ground in the new millennium! I like it!! 

I have to agree, those scenes have a certain realism and a level of helplessness that really tug at the heart strings. One of the many elements of the film the was executed to perfection.


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