Hooray! Another cryptic Christopher Nolan film has graced the cinema! Okay, maybe a couple of weeks ago, but better late than never, right? This time the labyrinthian auteur sends audiences into the depths of the cosmos while exploring singularity, inter-dimensionality, and just plain love, man.

Okay, perhaps I misspoke – though there’s a ridiculous amount of technobabble, I guess I wouldn’t call it cryptic, even if fans have decided to create completely unnecessary infographics (I mean, it’s pretty and all, but learn the difference between a wormhole and a blackhole). On the whole, this is a lovely sci-fi chocked to the brim with dad feels. Now, if you don’t want any spoilers (though I’ll be doing my best to keep them light), so long and thanks for all the clicks.

SPOILERS AHOY

Now, I don’t know a lot of technobabble, but I can tell a scene stolen from Event Horizon when I see one. (Sorry, couldn’t hyperlink that one, but you’ll know it when you see it.)

Another thing that really irked me was surprisingly not the “love can do it, man” mentality, but the fact that these NASA scientists were desperate enough to put their faith in the future of humankind to believe they are receiving enigmatic messages from a inter-dimensional space-travelling “They.” I mean, I’m not saying that “there aren’t aliens,” just why would they care about humans?Then again, if I was a scientist living in a future where MRIs no longer exist because the world needs more farmers than engineers, I’d probably take the Deus Ex Machina route too.

Unless, it was actually confirmed that They are future-humans who developed the tesseract in order to save humanity, but that would even be theoretically impossible because there’d be no way to develop that technology in the first place if humanity wasn’t saved. Unless They are from the only successful Colony thanks to Brand, which are still technically humans who would then create tesseract technology with their advanced future-brains (because that’s how things work) in order to send the singularity data to Murph in order to save more humans? But then what would that matter? Whoops, found myself in a tangental Möbius strip.

But as cheesy I thought the love theme was (or maybe more of hit-over-head I felt), I think one of the better aspects of the story was Cooper’s undeniable optimism. Sure, there was Mann’s “survival soliloquy,” but I felt there was something warmer about it.

I felt it was more than love (again, which was pushed like crazy), but just plain hope – that warm, fuzzy, “everything’s gonna be alright” feeling in the bleakest of times, even if Cooper had to botch Murphy’s Law to do so. (Not to mention, there were a couple times I thought I would have to step to call my dad.)

Speaking of the mood – I really dug the emotional spectrum on display – I mean, when things were, well, bleak, I believed it. And when the twist hit, well even though College Humor spoiled it for me, there was still something truly wondrous about it – and with that Philip Gla-I mean, Hans Zimmer, score, the whole ordeal was well, awe-inspiring, to be frank. (Even when the Earth stuff felt a little slow.)

I can’t really say it any better: I dug this movie. Sure, I got caught up on technobabble and untied knots, but it doesn’t make it any less enjoyable. Sometimes you need to be stimulated as well as just plain dazzled. More or less would have probably bored some people (and that thing was long enough as it is). Just go see it, be captivated, give your ol’ man a call.

Final Grade: A