per se yes, we dont know, but thats a bonus as far as im concerned.
2001 doesnt attempt to convince you of anything, neither does Solaris (though its much more of "an answer" to 2001 than Interstellar is IMO).
"We have no need for other worlds. We need mirrors." - Stanislaw Lem
And that's the crux of the matter. The more you hear of Nolan in the interviews and what went on around the making of the script, the movie was to go one step more than 2001. It's the 'answer' to 2001.
im already invested, the ending subtracted from that interest for me, didn't add to it
I don't mean invested in terms of wanting to see the movie; I mean in terms of seeing the movie and being inspired by the message of it and pursuing science/space. The movie doesn't try to be open-ended or vague (like 2001). It's saying: we can get our own answer and this is how fantastic that answer can be. I'd have to say that I'm well-aware of the science in the movie; but I definitely get a tingle seeing Coop's hunch come true and
actually affect the human race. To see him then go forth and not rely on that triumph; but move on. Makes me wish I were a scientist! LOL. I can remember as a child how interested I was in dinosaurs after Jurassic Park - and Nolan himself mentions how important 2001 and the whole Apollo missions were in him wanting to know more about space. I think that's the exact kind of impact he wanted for this movie and without that ending, it loses a chunk of the uplifting/positive feeling IMO.
From the off, the very beginning, the movie is hinting at a solution (even the old people reminiscing about the past in cuts); it is then trying to show you
how that can happen and to inspire. For a Nolan film; it's actually very linear and without the kind of open-ended twist as you got in
Inception. Even if you had guessed that Coop is the Ghost; it's actually irrelevant. It's
how he becomes the Ghost that is important.
assuming the whole tesseract thing is real then Coop and Murph did save the world.
Coop can't better that as far as im concerned, making a Santa Claus-esque visit to his daughter just to give her a pat on the cheek is a step down for me.
Of course it is all real (I think people thinking it was some kind of dream are really off the mark) but at the end of the day it leaves it far too open (not that this is a bad thing but it simply wasn't the kind of movie Nolan wanted to make). At the end of the day; even as it is, there are a lot of open questions - who 'they' are is still a mystery because insofar as the characters are used as exposition at times; it's simply their take, not the actual truth. Everyone (the characters) thinks x, y and z is happening in order for them to survive; but it's only when they actually do that x, y and z become solid truths in the movie; rather than guesses by the characters.
And why I say all this is simply that Nolan DIDN'T want to make that kind of movie. I'm fairly sure he is more than well aware that he could have ended it at such a point (it's a very obvious thing to do) but that wasn't what the whole set-up of the movie was about. Some people may have rather preferred that ending; but I think it's wrong to assume the Director made a
mistake because that assumes he wasn't aware of that choice. I just think it's his artistic choice and personally because of how I perceive the rest of the movie and the intentions behind it; I love that choice. That earlier ending would have made it a different kind of movie.
Fair enough with your points though.
