_Interstellar_ is probably the most ambitious film I’ve seen all year. It aims high in terms of scientific accuracy, storytelling, and cinematic scope, and it very nearly succeeds. But not quite. That’s not to say it’s a bad movie, but I was hoping for a great movie and this is just a good one.

I’d like to make it clear that you should totally see Interstellar. It’s a visual feast and you probably won’t see anything like it for some time. If you’re into movies because you love the visuals, and there’s nothing wrong with that, then you won’t be disappointed.

My problems lie in that the writing was a bit of a mess. The film attempts to reconcile hard science with “love is the answer” and it doesn’t quite work. There’s not a lot I can say without delving headfirst into spoilers but suffice to say that you can’t spend a whole movie building on cold, emotionless, scientific fact and then go full Spielberg in the last act.

This is especially true if you are Christopher Nolan, a director who I love but whose style of storytelling strives to be as emotionless as possible, and rather than showing us how people are feeling sets all his characters around a room and has them simply talk it out. That’s the other problem with Interstellar: if you’re making a movie to show us how epic the universe can be then show us that and don’t stop the film to then tell us all about it, too. The scenes of exposition break up the pacing of the film, as does all the cutting back to Earth in the latter half.

But it’s not bad, it just doesn’t really on every level and the type of movie it wants to be doesn’t really jive with the Nolan’s style.

Combine all that with plot twists that are utterly predictable –even though there are red herrings that try to misdirect you– and you have a mess. A hot mess, but a mess none the less.