Interstellar: See How That Gorgeous Trailer Translates Into Lego Form
If you’re anything like us, you’re marking off the days on your calendar until you can see Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar. Everything else between now and then, while maybe a fun distraction, is little more than empty filler, killing time until November 7 finally rolls around and we blast off into space with the director of the Dark Knight trilogy. And for some reason, the trailer has now been translated into Lego.
I thoroughly enjoyed The Lego Movie, and those iconic little plastic blocks are still maybe the best toy that has ever been invented, but seriously, this is getting absurd. The first couple of things you saw get a shot by shot Lego makeover seemed fresh and clever, but now every last goddamned thing gets that treatment, and it’s boring and expected and exactly like every other attempt you’ve seen.
It’s early, maybe I just haven’t had enough coffee yet today and I’m cranky, but watching this I can’t help but ask myself why. For some movies and trailers and scenes and whatever the hell else has been Lego-ized, it makes sense, but this one simply doesn’t. The trailers for Interstellar have been so good, so gorgeous and moving, that watching them like this only makes you want to turn this off halfway through and watch the original. And it doesn’t help that, compared to the vast majority, this one feels half-assed and slapped together.
This approach works for a film like Guardians of the Galaxy because there’s such a sense of fun and humor and joy. You’re rendering all of the action as little, blocky, yellow toys after all, and it just feels so out of place here, so forced and unnecessary. Here’s the original trailer they’re aping for a point of comparison:
Interstellar is set in a near future where global climate change has progressed to a point where Earth isn’t going to be habitable for much longer. The entire planet looks like a Great Depression-era dust bowl. As a result, a group of astronauts, led by Matthew McConaughey’s Cooper, blasts off into space and travel through a newly discovered wormhole in an attempt to track down a new planet for the human race to settle on and colonize. Think of it as an intergalactic house hunt. Of course there’s more going on, like some family drama with Cooper leaving his two young kids, and it all looks incredible.
Interstellar also stars Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Casey Affleck, Michael Caine, David Oyelowo, Wes Bentley, John Lithgow, Ellen Burstyn, Topher Grace, David Gyasi, Mackenzie Foy, Bill Irwin, Timothée Chalamet, and Matt Damon. And be warned, you’ll want to avoid buying the jumbo soda when you sit down for this in the theater as its 169-minutes long, Nolan’s lengthiest film to date.
