The Earth is a dustbowl; Miller's planet is covered in water, Mann's planet is covered in ice. And space is, well, space - empty and black. Then, just when you think there's going to be something visually astounding found in the black hole (something akin to 2001's stargate sequence, perhaps), even that gives way to discovery that the fifth dimension is - for Cooper - just endless corridors of book cases. It's almost like Nolan intentionally shot himself in the foot from the start to prove he could make something visually dynamic out of such drab settings. Some of the set-pieces set in space are, by contrast, breathtaking. The journey through the wormhole is spectacular, as is the slingshot move across the imposing, glowing Gargantua. But these aren't enough to compensate for a film that, for the most part, works in monotonous shades of beige and grey. With Nolan's usual DoP Wally Pfister gone off to direct movies of his own, acclaimed cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema was drafted in to lense Interstellar. Responsible for the gorgeous Her and Let the Right One In, Hoytema's photography here is plain and unmemorable. Maybe he and Nolan didn't click, or maybe there was never much room to find optical inspiration on Interstellar in the first place.
Lover of film, writer of words, pretentious beyond belief. Thinks Scorsese and Kubrick are the kings of cinema, but PT Anderson and David Fincher are the dashing young princes. Follow Brogan on twitter if you can take shameless self-promotion: @BroganMorris1
