Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) is a swell, resourceful dad… and pilot… and engineer… and farmer. In short, he’s the perfect candidate for a dangerous mission to other worlds to help save mankind. The future that he and his family inhabit is bleak, cynical, and full of toxins that are rapidly making life on Earth unsustainable. The only glimmer of hope requires Coop to leave behind everyone and everything he knows to lead a crew across time and space in search of a new home. Back on Earth, our brightest minds are struggling to do their part, and these home and away teams will intersect in a most unexpected way.

Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar is clearly inspired in part by 2001: A Space Odyssey, not merely certain visual elements but also Stanley Kubrick’s unfortunate lack of urgency. Interstellar demands patience, an open mind, and a fairly high IQ, but one thing it does extraordinarily well is conjure the pain of sacrifice felt by the astronauts and those they left behind.

The movie is presented in a shifting aspect ratio owing to its disparate film formats. The 16:9 IMAX scenes can be quite lovely, with some exquisite detail and depth of field, gorgeously composed by director of photography Hoyte Van Hoytema. The 2.39:1 scenes are less impressive, lacking that final bit of nuance we expect from a truly great Blu-ray. The Oscar-winning special effects are first-rate, and an elaborate faux lens flare over Saturn is particularly dazzling in 1080p.

Nolan reportedly took a deliberately different approach to this sound mix, and the resulting DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track strikes a frustrating balance between subwoofer and center channel, the former at the expense of the latter. More than once, the dialogue is obscured by Hans Zimmer’s musical score. Personally, I found the experience to be bass-heavy and unpleasant, but the movie was nominated for both Sound Mixing and Sound Editing Oscars, so it might come down to individual taste. Just be prepared to adjust your levels, and possibly engage the subtitles.

McConaughey narrates a 50-minute documentary exploring the real science on display, largely the work of noted astrophysicist (and now executive producer) Kip Thorne. And 14 featurettes of varying length take us through most aspects of the production. There’s even an IMAX film frame included, especially nifty for folks who’ve never seen a large-format print up close.

Blu-Ray
Studio: Paramount, 2014
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1/1.78:1
Audio Format: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Length: 169 mins.
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Director: Christopher Nolan
Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain