INTERSTELLAR
Oh yes, the new Christopher Nolan film was coming, and its arrival was quickly upon us. This is a movie that I've been specifically avoiding in the hopes of not receiving spoilers and to keep my first viewing experience as unblemished as possible. The teaser, released quite some time ago, was enough to sell me on the film. The trailers that I was subjected to was giving me a few too many details than I cared for, but I had faith that since Nolan was behind the director's chair, I would be pleasantly surprised by the film regardless.
As I was browsing Reddit, I saw a title along the lines of "What the film reel of Interstaller looks like on 70mm." It was an image, and as I surmised the contents I deemed it safe to click on, so I did. What I was presented with was an image of a gigantic film reel on its side, sitting in a projection room ready to be loaded up. Nearby objects revealed the size of the film, and it was gigantic. I had heard of 70mm projection before, but now it was time to take a look into this. My theories were correct: 70mm is quite a bit larger than a typical film cell, resulting in a dramatic increase in picture quality. In this case, Interstellar was filmed in IMAX, filling the entire 70mm frame in a glory that can only be experienced in two theatres in Ontario. This IMAX experience differs from the mainstay screens you see branded with the IMAX name, in that this 70mm projection would be film, while all others are digital. And those digital projections can't match the resolution - so to speak - of a film cell this large.
After messaging Cale and some others, I attempted to convey the benefits of watching this film in 70mm and quickly, a trip was planned to go downtown Toronto. Unfortunately Cale had some other responsibilities (re: family) so he was unable to go, but my friend here was up for the journey. We booked tickets for a 3:30pm show, left for Toronto at 10 in the morning and found our way, with a couple of pit stops, to the theatre. We progressed to our reserved seats, and sat down. Immediately we noticed the size of these chairs as being particularly small. We were shoulder to shoulder, and remarked that this was an older theatre and could only surmise that the general populace is growing horizontally at an alarming pace over the past fifteen years as the new theatre in our hometown had wide, comfortable seating. The screen in front of us was massive, a true IMAX screen. I got excited.
Right on cue, the lights dimmed and screen lit up with various studio logos. There were no trailers or previews here. Those digital elements were not welcome here, and I can only assume that studios don't bother sending out trailers on film anymore. This was going to be a pure experience, but if only somebody told customers. People were waltzing in up to ten minutes after the film started, thinking that they were going to avoid some of the previews. This distraction could not compare to our first disappoinment: the deep bass of the score seemed to be out of sync (assuming multiple subwoofers), creating this sickening low end droning that would drown out the movie's vocals. After a few minutes of this at the beginning of the film, I felt a headache coming on. This was not supposed to happen. And it happened four or five times throughout the movie.
The second disappointment came from the picture quality itself, which was a significant point as I had just set aside an entire day and hundreds of kilometers to see this movie in the best image possible. First, not all the film was shot in IMAX. Yes, it was silly of me to assume the entire thing was, and perhaps I was a bit too optimistic or my detail-denial of this film obscured some of this information. It's the same thing as Nolan's The Dark Knight, where some scenes are in IMAX while others aren't, and you can determine this by the complete change in aspect ratio. The non-IMAX scenes, or regular film scenes were out of focus and muddy. This was present throughout the entire film, and nagged on my mind throughout.
The IMAX scenes were breathtaking. They were sharp, in-focus and magnificently large. There were plenty of scenes to be seen in this way, and each one delivered on all fronts as promised. I've never see an image as good as this, even going back to seeing Star Trek (2009) in the IMAX in Chicago years ago. That film wasn't shot in large format, but the image was the best I had seen and is the gold standard for picture quality afterward. Nothing has matched it since, except these large format sections of Interstellar. It's all the more disappointment when you understand that this could be the movie presented in this 70mm format. The filming process is expensive, as is distribution. Digital projection is prevalent and the new standard, to the point where studios don't send out film reels anymore. While I'm glad to have seen this in 70mm, I'm upset that it was such a poor theatre experience.
What of the movie itself though?
It was really fantastic. While I step back a little to ensure that I don't view the movie with any kind of bias because of who directed the film, I can't help but see the shine of a truly good director come through here. I own all of Nolan's films, and have confidence in saying that I won't be stopping that habit anytime soon. The genre really appeals to me, and this science fiction film throws out a lot of science that may be incredulous, but presented in a very believable way. The plot is basic: the Earth's plant life is dying, and our crops are nearing impossible to grow. Humanity looks to the stars for a new home. Of course, there is much more.
Something bad has happened in this world, and I enjoy that it's left to our imagination to fill in the blatently gaps. No armies exist anymore. You have a choice to pay taxes? NASA is operating in secret? All little tidbits that help add some depth to this universe while keeping the focus on the story and the characters. In fact, we never really leave the small farm or town - aside from the sweeping space travel. This juxtaposition is important to ground our characters, keeping a focus on their motivations. And yes, the sweeping space travel is incredible. We're presented with some really incredible visuals and sights that we get to experience with awe. Nolan allows us time to consume what we're seeing. The incredible score brings us through the voyage and personally, had me on the edge of my seat.
If you've seen 2001: A Space Odyssey, you'll be right at home here, as well as being able to catch much of the inspiration. A scene from Event Horizon - of all films - is duplicated here nearly verbatim, and it doesn't involved demons from hell. The pacing is a bit slow at first, as the film spends a lot of time on exposition. It's almost jarring when we get into space, and from there things come along at a decent clip. The movie still clocks in at 180 minutes and you can't help but feel some of the latter part of the film was compressed a bit, so we can always hope for a longer cut on home release. The science was pretty heavy at times but at no point was I overwhelmed and in no way am I saying I understood it all. Perhaps it's that I didn't try to wrap my head around much of it that allowed me to enjoy it. You don't need to fully understand the mechanics of time relativity to fully appreciate the emotion that is delivered afterward. I think they've made a pretty accessible film by focusing on the basics, while providing us quite a bit more to chew on.
I don't want to say too much about it, so you can experience it as fresh as I did myself, but I encourage going out to see it, and I will most likely be going out to see it again. A) for the experience of the movie itself and B) for a hopefully better theatre experience, with proper sound and an in-focus picture. Although those IMAX scenes were incredible.
