Interstellar

[migmit]

Until now, I always answered any questions about this movie with short remarks. Like "don't waste your time", or something like that. But now I have some free time, so I figured, why not try and review it properly? If anything, Nolan deserves to be taken seriously. When Coen brothers make something terrible, you just shrug and say "well, that's Coen brothers, it's what they do". But Nolan, let me remind you, created such masterpieces as "Inception" and "Memento", and "Batman begins" was pretty good too.

Just a warning. I'm going to put some spoilers here. Big ones. I'm not writing for the newspaper; I'm writing to my personal blog. So, you've been warned.

So, "Interstellar". Let's see what we've got.

1) Plot. A good plot seemed to be the greatest virtue of Nolan films so far. And it's very hard to make a good movie without a good plot. There are examples of that, like Bergman's "Smultronstället" ("Wild Strawberries"), but only a few of them. Even geniuses like Bergman do not succeed every time they attempt something like this.

And the plot here is really bad. Let me give you a few examples.

The characters are looking for a new home for Earth population. A while ago a few people were sent to different planets (only one astronaut per planet) and three of them sent back a confirmation that the planet is good and can serve it's purpose. Due to the lack of fuel, our heroes must choose which of those planets to visit, and they eventually choose one that was studied by the leader of the previous mission, Dr. Mann. He is still on the planet, and, after landing there, they'll take him back to Earth.

From that description it should be completely obvious to you (even if you didn't see the movie) that Dr. Mann is a liar who just (correctly) guessed that otherwise he won't be rescued. And that's exactly what happens here. The situation could be saved if Dr. Mann just admitted his lie and begged the main characters to forgive him. But no. Mann, unable to hide the fact that the planet can't be the new home of humanity, tries to kill everyone and get back to Earth alone on their spaceship. I don't know what could be more hackneyed than that. And, of course, he fails.

Another example. Why the Earth population even needs the new home? Because edible plants on Earth slowly die. It seems that there are two reasons for that: thick dust that somehow flows through the air and covers everything, and some pathogen. Yeah. So, instead of fixing the problem on Earth, they decide to just pick a completely different planet and try to make it habitable. Does it really seem easier? Well... not to me.

Or the use of aliens here. Aliens don't appear on screen (thankfully), but it seems that they created the wormhole in the Solar system, that allows humans to reach other planets. Throughout the movie, there is more evidence that aliens are, in fact, quite fond of humanity and did that specifically to facilitate humans' escape.

That much I can buy. There are additional questions — like, why didn't they create their wormhole closer to Earth, so that it would be easier to reach — but that's more or less OK. But later characters of the movie make two statements. First, aliens are "five-dimensional" creatures, they don't understand the concept of time, and, therefore, they need humans to do most of the job. And, secondly, aliens are really humans from the future, just very advanced.

You do see the problem here, right? Like, these two statements are in direct contradiction? What's more, neither of them is substantiated by the evidence, it's completely unclear how the main characters figured this out.

2) Acting. Not much to say here. Nolan, as usual, doesn't give the actors much to work with. While that worked with aforementioned "Inception" and was a bliss with "Memento", whose lead actor was just unable to act, here it doesn't work. Because of the difficulties with the plot. And Mr. McConaughey, who plays the main character here, isn't a good enough actor to overcome the limitations. In fact, as former space pilot turned farmer, who returns to being space pilot, he seems more interested, more alive, when he works on a farm, than when he flies the ship through space. And that contradicts his repeated statements that he hates the farm and was born to fly.

3) Scientific background. That was another thing that was well handled in, say, "Inception". Of course, the premise of "going into the mind of a sleeping person" was completely fantastical, but at least some consequences were well tied to the real world — like gravity. When the characters are sleeping in a van, and that van falls freely, there is no gravity in their dreams.

"Interstellar" instead sells itself as a "hard sci-fi", which follows the laws of physics as close as possible. OK, let me just give you an example.

"Hey, let's send a probe to the black hole, so that it would send back information about what's inside".

I kid you not.

And then they do exactly that. And a human — the main character — goes in along with the probe. What tidal forces?

At least this astronaut, as well as the robot doubling as a probe, didn't manage to send a signal outside. That's good. Why did he ever thought he would be able to do so is incomprehensible. I guess he was really stupid. But then there comes the part where he encounters a strange place inside a black hole that lets him communicate with his daughter who is still on Earth, sending all the collected data about black hole to her. In Morse code. Erm... isn't ASCII better for that? And, I don't know how much data he was sending, but I'm pretty certain that it was several megabytes at least. So... how long did his daughter stay there, writing down his messages? Months?

Anyway. If you want hard sci-fi, read "Martian" by Andy Weir, and do not watch this.

Was there anything good about the movie? Yes. But only one thing. Robots. Robots were helping people. Not one of them went on a murderous rampage due to some technical problems. And I especially liked the fact the were not made humanoid without any reason; instead, they generally were just big black boxes. Some thought was obviously given to their design, which made their movements (sometimes very fast) quite believable.

But that is not enough for a 3-hours movie. And, not to end this review on a positive note, here is, again, something regarding the plot.

I'm OK when an astronaut who landed in water says "Damn, our engines are wet, so, let's pump some oxigen into them; that way we would be able to make the fuel burn". I don't know if it's something that could work in reality, but at least it seems believable on screen. But, instead, we get this: "Damn, our engines are wet; we have to wait for an hour until they dry out, despite the fact that every second counts now. <skip almost an hour> Oh, there is a huge wave coming to us, and we need a few minutes more; let's pump some oxigen into the engines; that way we would be able to make the fuel burn". Erm... why didn't you do the same thing an hour ago? Or a minute ago, for that matter?

Bad movie. Bad Nolan. No cookie for him.

Comments

[juan-gandhi.livejournal.com]

Wow, pretty cool review. Thanks a lot. Replaced me the movie.

One thing. You probably should not trust anything a guy in a movie says; they may be telling lies, like that astronaut/farmer/astronaut.

[migmit.livejournal.com]

If you refer to him hating the farm, then that's exactly the problem. I didn't believe him for a second, and the movie still pretends it's true.

Read "The Martian", it's very cool.

[(Anonymous)]

You have some really good points Migmit. I'd argue about the acting, but that's picking nits. Yes there a lot of plot issues, dialogue issues, and general logic issues. But I thought the experience was worth the time, at least once.

One small thing, and it's a newer thing at that, the bigger black holes like the one depicted in the movie might work exactly as they do on screen. Now the whole 5th dimensional beings inhabiting them is absurd, but the idea that a person could fall into one and survive is at least plausible, at that point who knows what would happen. The greatest minds in the world still do not have answers for that one. Also, the whole premise of the original script was taken from a work by a top physicist and Spielberg if I'm not mistaken, thus your friendly aliens in a black hole (I think calling them 5th dimensional beings/humans from the future was a leap too).

Yeah, the whole wet engines need an hour/twenty-three years to dry was very plot forced. Mann going homicidal was pointless. Were they deal breaking for me? I'm honestly not sure. To be honest, I'm not sure it matters that much. Nolan is a good film-maker, perhaps even a great one. But even Kubrick, Spielberg, Camron, Scott, Scorsese, Hitchcock, Welles, Coppola, Brooks, Burton... etc. have made a dud or two. I think the main problem is that this one looked so promising, and it felt like it was going to be great. I wonder in retrospect if this film will be as big a dud as we feel it is now.

Either way, nice review Migmit. I enjoyed the read.

J.D. Balthazar

[migmit.livejournal.com]

Well, friendly aliens were more or less OK. Yes, that's a bit of divine intervention, but as a premise it could work. And humanity reaching back in time to help itself surviving is not a terrible idea. But don't say then that they can't comprehend what time is. We don't lose such abilities as we advance. And the big reveal that aliens are humans came from nowhere.

I agree that Nolan deserves a benifit of doubt, but... I found "Dark knight" to be mediocre (including an annoying and overly predictable Joker) and the third Batman film outright boring. It bothers me a lot. Because other Nolan works are absolutely fantastic and I don't want to lose a great director.

[(Anonymous)]

I won't even begin to argue about TDK, because that conversation could just stretch on forever.

The idea that they were 5th dimensional beings was that for them, time isn't an abstract, it's a physical place they can move through. So their interpretation of time is wholly different from ours. They don't see time moving in one direction, they see it in all directions. So one point in time is just a different space in that landscape. Sure they would probably have precise measurements like coordinates, but I could see if that 4th dimension is nearly infinite, pinpointing an exact moment/second would be difficult. I don't buy that they would be off by a decade or so though.

J.D.B.

[migmit.livejournal.com]

Yes, but that would mean their understanding of time and space is WIDER than ours. While in the movie the point was made that aliens need a human being to do the job because there are some areas in our understanding of time/space that they do not have.

I'm OK with aliens lacking some understanding that we, humans, have (while at the same time knowing a lot that we don't). I'm OK with future humans being so advanced that they can do all kinds of magic, including time travel. But I'm not OK with future humans LOSING some of the understanding in the process of advancing. It just doesn't happen.

[migmit.livejournal.com]

BTW, I can't stop calling you "Dr. Baltar" in my head. Sorry, I had to say it.

[(Anonymous)]

That's okay, Dr. Baltar is fine.

Okay, I took that whole conversation a different way. Not that humans possess knowledge that the aliens don't have, but that human perception is totally different. Because of that difference, the interpretation of time couldn't be understood by these Aliens in the same way.

As for the idea that they are us from the future, and if that's the case why don't they have the same information? Well the easiest example I can give is popular culture. Follow me for a second, but history is littered with inconsistencies and half-truths. Usually dictated by what is popular. Our only real records of history is based on subjective interpretations of events. We can cross reference accounts of events, and muddle through truths. But the author of history is really perception.

Are you telling me that in five thousand years we will have the same version of history that we do now? That some government won't restrict or outright change that history to suit their policies and prejudices? If we somehow evolve to the point where we can see time as a physical dimension, can we even being to contemplate how our society would change? What if these beings are acting from an agenda, or perhaps they are acting based on a temporal causality issue, where these events happened and now they have to fulfill them exactly. Creating a loop of nonsense.

Just spit-balling, but those are my ideas surrounding the creatures and why they acted.

J.D.B.

[migmit.livejournal.com]

OK, I'll amend my statement.

We forget information about something only when the subject is not here anymore. Later. Not before.

Yes, we might forget about some particular king. But, as long as there are kings — and, more generously, rulers — the concept of the "king" won't be forgotten.

We might not practice, say, horseback riding much — but, as long as there are horses, we would understand the principles. Even if nobody would ride the horse anymore, we still would be able to adapt and start riding horses again, if necessary.

As long as one man is physically capable of killing another, we would understand the concept of murder — even after becoming so advanced that we don't do that anymore.

So, yes, it's not completely impossible that time itself would disappear; that's a very strange event, and I can't imagine it, but that's just the limits of my imagination. The problem is, that (according to the movie) time doesn't disappear.

[si14.livejournal.com]

It's not only about "conception" of time. First, it was clearly stated that for "Ancestors" time is space-like. Space is vast by itself, multiply it by time and the curse of dimensionality makes finding any particular event very hard. It's much easier for a being with vivid memories of events in question, though, just as it would be easier for you than for me to find your home. Second, you are missing time paradox here. It can be the case that this time loop *should* be closed by this guy. Why is it so? Well, we don't know; moreover, the question can have no sense -- it's just so, with no way to find the "first loop".

[migmit.livejournal.com]

Yes, the "paradox" would explain everything... completely eliminating the need for "aliens" losing the ability to perceive time in the same way as humans do.

And I'm not really complaining about Cooper finding his daughter. But everything else?

[si14.livejournal.com]

What else? :)

I believe there is somewhat reasonable explanation for almost every weirdness in the movie, even if it's only a speculation. For example:
— regarding leaving the Earth: first, there was some "blight" mentioned in the movie. There are some pathogens already that we can't dealt with properly (think HIV); it was also mentioned that the "blight" is anaerobic and consumes nitrogen, so it can be *really* weird organism (and even extraterrestrial, I don't see why it's impossible) and it can not be possible to combat it effectively. Moreover, dust storms hint that the process can be runaway at the time: combination of soil erosion, the "blight" and Earth being on the inner border of Goldilocks zone can become synergistic and make Earth very inhospitable for humanity.
— regarding wormhole placement: it makes a bit of sense if you consider that wormhole may be very massive. It's hinted by orbits of satellites around wormhole (there were a few sparks orbiting wormhole on low orbits with very high speeds). If this is the case, placing wormhole closer to Earth could destabilize it's orbit, and placing it near Jupiter could affect a number of asteroids and potentially knock some into inner Solar system. Therefore it's Saturn, with a lot of mass of it's own and far enough from Earth to not cause much disturbance.
— regarding tidal forces: for very large black holes event horizon can be much larger than the region where tidal forces are noticeable; moreover, this particular black hole is rotating, which makes calculating tidal forces nontrivial, as shown in this http://ikjyotsinghkohli24.wordpress.com/2014/11/07/on-the-science-of-interstellar/ article (the author also considers the issue of getting an information from the black hole).
— regarding jumping in the black hole: I believe this was a form of suicide. The guy was clearly unstable at the point, given all deaths, treason and hopelessness around him, so I don't think we should judge this decision on rational basis.
— regarding venting the oxygen into thrusters: I believe the reason to postpone such venting was that their suits' oxygen supply was limited, and if the venting would not work, they will suffocate. However, they found that waves were too frequent, so they carried the risk.

The main inconsistency, of course, is the lack of remote observation — there were no point in descending on the planet to find that waves. But hey, then there will be no drama, just tedious work :)

I also suspect that the main reason behind your strong negative feelings about the movie is some sort of "uncanny valley": it was almost-believable for you, just to the point where you started to sympathize with characters, but were offputed later with some inconsistency or weirdness. You felt betrayed in a sense and later rationalized the feeling, finding reasons to dislike the movie. I have a friend that felt the same, but she reflected on the feeling and come up with aforementioned explanation, which I find probable.

[migmit.livejournal.com]

Oh, don't get me started on the pathogen! They are leaving Earth, but bringing the plants with them - and that means they would bring this pathogen as well, so what's the point?

Suicide is a reasonable hypothesis, but he was also sending a robot there, clearly expecting it to survive. And getting an information via 5th dimension is OK, but don't tell me he EXPECTED it to work this way. He doesn't seem to be psychic.

As for oxygen: he is a freaking astronaut! If he makes some calculation and declares that they can do that, but only in the last minute - that would be OK. I don't need to see that calculation, but I want at least an order to the robot to do it!

And no, I didn't really sympathize the characters (with the exception of young Murphy: that girl was really cute), and that's not what I expect from Nolan. I expect a cool story - and the story was quite troublesome.

[si14.livejournal.com]

>and that means they would bring this pathogen as well
It's way more reasonable to assume that they sterilized/controlled a very limited plant material supply that they have on board than then it's possible to sterilize an entire Earth. BTW, thoroughly isolated plantations were shown in the movie (when Cooper walks around the base).

>he was also sending a robot there, clearly expecting it to survive
It wasn't his idea. This was proposed by his African-American colleague before his death. They also said more than once that the robot wasn't meant to survive, it was "suicide mission" and there were some lines about robot feelings about the mission.

>he doesn't seem to be psychic
He is! :) His daughter despise him and is probably dead, he was betrayed by his old friend and everyone on the Earth will be dead soon and there is no need in him anymore — "population bomb" will work by itself. Robot's mission was "suicide", so I assume Cooper was committing suicide, too, maybe with a glimpse of hope that he will SOMEHOW survive or see something interesting before the death.

>If he makes some calculation and declares that they can do that
Why? There is no time for this. I believe it was a desperate attempt (the ship could be crushed by the next wave, and they will surely not go anywhere in a next hour/20 years) that worked.

>I didn't really sympathize the characters
Here is the problem, then :)

[migmit.livejournal.com]

> It wasn't his idea.

He's the captain. It doesn't matter who's idea it was. He was the on executing it.

> They also said more than once that the robot wasn't meant to survive

He WAS meant to survive long enough to collect and send the data.

> He is!

Not anywhere else.

> maybe with a glimpse of hope that he will SOMEHOW survive or see something interesting before the death.

Again, I don't have a problem with him committing suicide (or sacrificing his life to give Brand a chance to survive). But it was originally supposed to be an unmanned mission to get data, which was IMPOSSIBLE! unless you know you'd be greeted by 5th-dimensional polite green men.

> There is no time for this.

They were sitting there for hours! And he later planned the gravitational maneuver around the black hole IN SECONDS, without even asking any of robots.

It took weeks for Rich Purnell, who was a genius who didn't have anything else to do.

> Here is the problem, then :)

No. Well, not the root problem. I sympathize with characters when I can believe their actions. Not the world they live in - just their reactions to this world.

And, BTW, I didn't sympathize characters of "Inception" either, but the plot was so good that it didn't matter. Ditto "Memento".

[si14.livejournal.com]

>an unmanned mission to get data, which was IMPOSSIBLE!
Not really. Please consult the link that I've mentioned before. It can be possible to communicate from inside the rotating black hole. So there were a chance that the robot would be able to transmit something, but there were also a bigger change that it would just be destroyed without much help.

>They were sitting there for hours
I'm not sure it's even possible to estimate if flushing engine with in-board air would help. Too many factors involved.

>he later planned the gravitational maneuver around the black hole IN SECONDS
It's more like he knew about Penrose process (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penrose_process). Actual trajectory planning would need to be made by computers anyway.

[migmit.livejournal.com]

> It can be possible to communicate from inside the rotating black hole.

Could you point me to exact location in the article you've mentioned? All I see is that he wasn't doomed to fall into the singularity. Not that he (or some signal from him) could escape to the outer space.

[si14.livejournal.com]

>Now, connecting all of this to the movie. The structure above allows one (as has been reported in the literature) to use the Kerr black hole as a wormhole itself. It is therefore plausible that Cooper’s character avoids the singularity of the rotating black hole and transports to another region of the universe.
>It seems that indeed the “quantum data” that is to be obtained from the black hole singularity actually is obtained from when TARS falls into the black hole and goes through the ring singularity.

Sorry, I was a bit wrong. Not "from inside", but "after escape from black hole through the ring singularity".

[thedeemon.livejournal.com]

>From that description it should be completely obvious to you (even if you didn't see the movie) that Dr. Mann is a liar

It wasn't for me.

>That much I can bye

"buy", I guess.

>In Morse code. Erm... isn't ASCII better for that?

Depends on receiver. He sent coordinates to the past himself in binary, but his daughter at that time was into Morse code, so he used this encoding to talk to her.

>And, I don't know how much data he was sending, but I'm pretty certain that it was several megabytes at least. So... how long did his daughter stay there, writing down his messages?

She didn't need to stay there. She took the watch (that became a communicating device) to her office and continued writing down there. As long as she needed to.

>Erm... why didn't you do the same thing an hour ago?

Erm, too much water and too few oxygen?

[thedeemon.livejournal.com]

And in general: in most sci-fi movies (except maybe for really crappy ones) for all questions of "why did they act so illogically?" or "how could it be? it contradicts physics" there is always a single answer: it was all to make place for drama, plot and cool effects.

[migmit.livejournal.com]

I have absolutely no problem with Jedi laser swords or the Doctor's psychic paper. It's inconsistency that bugs me. If you want to bypass scientific restrictions any time you find it suitable, don't talk about science at all.

And there is NO excuse for OOC acting. It doesn't create drama; it kills it.

[thedeemon.livejournal.com]

They don't talk more science than Jedis with their metachlorians.
Inconsistent are people like you who are ok with travelling thru time and space via wormholes but then refuse to tolerate little things that lead to scenes making movie more exciting and interesting.

[migmit.livejournal.com]

They do. They didn't invent some pseudo-scientific mumbo-jumbo that would explain anything and everything. Instead of a magical portal to another world they use a wormhole and even attempt to explain why it should be a sphere, not a disk. They don't fly faster than light. Etc.

> making movie more exciting and interesting.

Exactly the opposite. I want to be immersed into the movie, and those things keep pushing me out.

[thedeemon.livejournal.com]

No-no-no. With gravity signal going faster than light, with all that fantasy world inside the black hole, with a little ship escaping easily a gravity well that dilates time 1 hour : 7 years... Don't even dare to call it scientifish.

[migmit.livejournal.com]

I don't get your argument. They do talk about science. All the time. And this "fantasy world", while giving the impression that the director was on drugs, is supposed to be a product of technology well beyond our imagination — which is undistinguishable from magic. So, that's not the real problem.

The real problem is that, while aliens/future people can use whatever magic tricks they choose, the nowadays people seem to be bound by physics laws as we know them. Except for the moments when they aren't. Without any real reason.

[thedeemon.livejournal.com]

That's only an illusion of science, not better than metachlorians really. So don't be demanding too much from it.

[migmit.livejournal.com]

Midiclorians.

There is a difference. The "Force" in "Star Wars" (BTW, I don't like this franchise either) is, effectively, magic. And with magic I can forgive anything. You can use magic left and right without any rules. But if you establish some rules, then stick to them and don't violate them without at least a "timey-wimey" explanation. If the sonic screwdriver doesn't work on wood, then that's it. It doesn't. Later they explained that it could, in theory, work on wood, but that would require centuries of calculations.

So, I have no problem with "aliens" doing whatever they want. But humans carry the illusion too close to the real world. It makes the rules for them be, by default, the same as physics laws.

That's what good sci-fi movies do. For example, the Doctor creates a lot of complicated mechanisms that work like magic gadgets — including his timey-wimey detector which goes ding when there is stuff. But you don't see Amy Pond doing the same thing. Amy is restricted to the usual physics. She can only go beyond it when she is helped by the Doctor or some of his machines (including TARDIS, of course).

A lot of sci-fi movies and novels give their characters some magical thingy — like a faster-than-light spaceship, for example — but again, the rest is limited to regular physics. That's the same thing, with inanimate object instead of some alien.

Diversions from the physics are OK, if they are justified by the plot. But the plot is the main issue here. It's too weak. So, yes, inconsistencies with physics stick out.

[si14.livejournal.com]

Looks like an uncanny valley to me.

[migmit.livejournal.com]

> It wasn't for me.

Oh, come on, I've figured it out as soon as they were discussing which planet to go and Brand made her very clichéd speech about love.

> "buy", I guess.

Yes, thanks. Fixed.

> but his daughter at that time was into Morse code

At what time? He was sending data to an adult woman, and a scientist.

> She took the watch (that became a communicating device) to her office and continued writing down there

OK (although we only see him looking at her while she is in her room and nowhere else). Still, sending data that way would be extremely slow. (Yes, that's exactly the problem Mark Watney faced).

> too much water and too few oxygen?

Yes, that's why I said "or a minute ago". That would give him several months on Earth.

[thedeemon.livejournal.com]

>At what time? He was sending data to an adult woman, and a scientist.

It started when she was a child. Yes, sending meaningful info happened when she grew up so they could possibly switch to ASCII, but probably were to used to Morse and considered it more convenient. It's like Huffman compressed after all.

>Yes, that's why I said "or a minute ago". That would give him several months on Earth.

And miss a beautiful scene with a giant wave and blasting off it? You'd be a very boring film director.

[migmit.livejournal.com]

> It's like Huffman compressed after all.

Hello! I'm talking about scientific data collected from the black hole. Do you think it would be in a human language? Morse code is only Huffman compressed for human interaction.

> a beautiful scene

Yes, that's the problem. Beautiful scenes with ridiculous explanations. Always a bad idea.

[thedeemon.livejournal.com]

> I'm talking about scientific data collected from the black hole. Do you think it would be in a human language?

Yes. I don't think there were much data. Maybe some formulae and main princples, enough to finish the equations.

>Beautiful scenes with ridiculous explanations. Always a bad idea.

Then switch to Discovery channel and stop watching sci-fi. Today.

[migmit.livejournal.com]

> I don't think there were much data.

Which would make this robot a scientist.

> Then switch to Discovery channel and stop watching sci-fi. Today.

I think I'll live without you telling me what to watch.

[niobium0.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed the movie (till the point whenre Cooper goes into the black hole, everything after that was just stupid and unoriginal), because I enjoy movies, which redefine the laws of our reality, and can overlook non-fatal inconsistencies.

The biggest inconsistencies for me were:

1) Needing a multi-stage rocket to lift off Earth, but not needing one to lift off the tidal planet (it was said to be heavier than Earth, wasn't it?)
2) Romilly not changing mentally after years (his words, not mine) of solitude
and of course
3) Trying to solve the issues of Earth plants by moving to a different planet (WTF?!)

I did not sense that Mann was lying. However him trying to kill everyone, and leaving in an attempt to lie and conceal the real story regarding what happened on his planet was fine: not like they will send police investigators to a different planet; since no one knows what that planet really is like, he could make up pretty much anything to explain the false data.

Wormhole physics is a complete mystery to me, so I don't know why it would have to be placed so far from the Earth.

Regarding this:
>That much I can buy. There are additional questions — like, why didn't they create their wormhole closer to Earth, so that it would be easier to reach — but that's more or less OK. But later characters of the movie make two statements. First, aliens are "five-dimensional" creatures, they don't understand the concept of time, and, therefore, they need humans to do most of the job. And, secondly, aliens are really humans from the future, just very advanced.

>You do see the problem here, right? Like, these two statements are in direct contradiction? What's more, neither of them is substantiated by the evidence, it's completely unclear how the main characters figured this out.

I don't see a problem here, because there is an analogy with how a typical human will likely be unable to make a fire/hunt/fight effectively if stranded on a deserted island. We don't know how far in the future these evolved humans are and how different they are from us. I don't know whether it is even meaningful to use the word "understand" for these 5 dimensional future humans. Maybe they are like time-travelling eloi.

Acting: I liked the girl playing Murphy! Ann Hathaway was also very convincing when delivering her stupid monologue about love (I really wanted to punch the ТП in the face). Agree to disagree.

I really liked the movie when the Mann's treachery became apparent. The idea that a person can consciously choose to bring doom upon all of humanity just for a few more years of life shook me and reminded me of von Trier's movies. I wish they would have explored the moral aspects of actions of species on the brink of extinction, rather than showing us the happy ending (after the "s-t-a-y" message I guessed that it was Cooper sending the messages to himself, and was in the mood for circular fatalistic finale, but I was let down by the creators who chose a more cheerful, yet completely bland ending for the saga).