quote:
No, he needed to be young because time didn't pass the same way as on earth. He would only have been gone for a short period of time compared to the time that passed on earth. To make him old would be to break the continuity.

That's not the point. The point was he was in his late 50s or early 60s when he left Earth, not how long he's been suspended for.

quote:
But I thought his character was highly unnecessary. There is enough tension without adding an almost deus ex machina device in Damon to add more. Add to that the fact that Damon figuratively shits the bed with the limited role and that entire portion of the film is just bad. Which is a real shame because, but-for that portion, I think it's probably Nolan's best work or at least on par with Memento.

IMO, they should have scrapped the character entirely and figured something else out. The rationale of the character made no damn sense and was a wasted opportunity.

What I think Nolan was going for was an idealistic zealot who cracked, and those two actors have been known to play characters who can do this and take out anyone who stands in their way from achieving their insane views. Damon just came off as a pussy, and nothing more.

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Posted by illuminatic

Manipulating politicans&rappers

Member since Sep 2012

6962 posts

Posted on 3/19/15 at 2:33 pm to wildtigercat93

quote:
It was supposed to "restart our interest in space" like come fricking on

I know right? Space is so gay. There's like nothing to do.

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Posted by LoveThatMoney

Who knows where?

Member since Jan 2008

12268 posts

Posted on 3/19/15 at 2:48 pm to OMLandshark

quote:
The point was he was in his late 50s or early 60s when he left Earth,

Was he? Don't remember.

And I don't really care if Nolan's point was to have a cracked ideologue who had been held up as a visionary. None of that came across on film. And I don't think the actor would have mattered. It was not fleshed out enough to come across that way, so the only way you could think that was his point is by projecting your own ideas as to what Damon should have been. So it failed.

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Posted by OMLandshark

Member since Apr 2009

108098 posts

Posted on 3/19/15 at 3:04 pm to LoveThatMoney

quote:
Was he? Don't remember.

I don't think so, but he seemed to be written as such. I think him being a bit older and more of a mentor figure would have been better and more believable. They were really tooting this guy's horn before meeting him, which led me to think of him being some inspirational visionary. Him being the reassuring teacher type would have been better.

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Posted by meeple

Carcassonne

Member since May 2011

9312 posts

Posted on 3/19/15 at 3:39 pm to LoveThatMoney

Spoilers...

LTM, here are my thoughts on the Damon casting and that sequence, which I believe to be very important in the film. This response was to OML when the same debate and responses were made in another Interstellar thread

quote:
I see where you are going, but IMO I feel like he nailed it with casting Damon because I'm looking at it from the perspective from the back-end of the mission, if that makes sense. I wasn't expecting Damon to emerge from that sleep chamber, and immediately I felt myself liking Dr. Mann even more BECAUSE he was Matt Damon (not to mention all of the other praises of Dr. Mann throughout the film), who is so recognizable and admirable in most of the roles he plays. And then he unexpectedly pushes Cooper off the cliff and everything came crashing down on me leading to the climax of the film. It was truly a wave of emotion when I saw that entire sequence of events unfold.

LINK

ETA: Spoilers

This post was edited on 3/19/15 at 3:57 pm

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Posted by wildtigercat93