Space Movie Review - Interstellar and A Theory of Everything

I am too poor to travel to beautiful cities like Prague and Vienna, but I take comfort in knowing that there is still Taipei. Cozy mountain cafes overlooking the city, cheap and delicious food, big and clean bookstores that you can sit and read in all day, historical streets with the charm of the Japanese colonial era, private hotsprings, and just the slower pace of life in general.

I must have been having a space-craze while I was there, because I also visited the Taipei Astronomical Museum and Planetarium. I wouldn't recommend the guided tours if you are not fluent in Chinese, because you definitely won't understand the astronomy jargon. but anyway without the tour admission is cheap, and it opens from 9 to 5, so that is worth a visit.

A Theory of Everything

This is one of those films which can be rather forgettable, but has a feel-good vibe to it. Maybe because of all the excessive crying I did, which was, in a word, cathartic. As a neuroscience student I really do understand the extent and depth of cruelty of a neurodegenerative disease, not just as depicted in the movie, but like, how everyone easily forgets how incredibly delicate and vulnerable the brain is, how lucky we are to be born with the ability to do the things we take for granted, like speech, expression, body language. The cast delivered Oscar-worthy performances; a lot of well-written poignant moments, deep conversations, small gestures etc, that made the characters very relatable and real.

Eddie Redmayne, who plays Stephen Hawking, is one of those people you'd like to invite out on a delightful coffee chat. His interviews are always interesting. Video link

Interstellar

It wasn't just me, but most people I know who watched it thought it started out really dry, had no idea as to where the plot was headed, but I was so glad the pace picked up sometime into the movie after the wormhole part, because I honestly don't expect Christopher Nolan to make disappointing movies (after The Dark Knight, duh). But it was disappointing for me, because of the very fact that it only truly "began" from the halfway point.

But in hindsight there were a lot of big and interesting ideas, like using gravity to manipulate space-time. I'd love if the time machine were actually invented in my lifetime. o.o  just saying though, the music is still my absolute favorite thing about the film. Don't believe anything the Screen Junkies dude says in the Honest Trailer: that it was hard to hear the dialogue, or that it sounded like Hans Zimmer fell asleep on his organ. Hans Zimmer is still one of the best film composers out there. And organs are perfect for the space theme.