Depending on which critic you generally listen to for your movie recommendations, Christopher Nolan's Interstellar is either a genuine masterpiece, full of verve, energy and jaw-dropping visuals, or it's a turgid, shallow sci-fi with cheap, hokey sentimentalism.

InterstellarMatthew Mcconaughey [L] plays a widowed engineer in Chrstopher Nolan's 'Interstellar'

The big-budget movie stars Matthew McConaughey as a widowed engineer who travels into space to embark on a voyage through a black hole. They're the places in space where gravity pulls so much that light can't get out. They're also invisible - despite being the size of 1 million suns together.

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Interstellar has been shrouded in mystery for the past few months though over the past week, preview screenings have been taking place across the US and UK and press embargoes appear to have gone out of the window. However, there's been a peculiar division in critical reaction - leaving Interstellar to settle on a rather paltry 64% on the review aggregating website Rotten Tomatoes.

"An emotional powerhouse when it isn't hokey, and a stunning spectacle when it doesn't get bogged down in plot logistics, "Interstellar" binds its strengths and weaknesses into a riveting whole," said Tim Grierson of Screen International.

Interstellar'Interstellar' is coming - are you ready?

"A spine-tingling blend of brains and heart, a high concept sci-fi opera that's as unafraid of cerebral ideas as it is of heart-on-sleeve emotion," wrote Emma Dibdin of Digital Spy.

"May represent an apotheosis of sorts, as it illustrates the very best and the very worst of Nolan as a writer-director," wrote Alonso Duralde of The Wrap.

More: what we know about Christopher Nolan's 'Interstellar'

"Nolan's "Interstellar" spends hundreds of millions to take the audience on a journey to the farthest parts of the cosmos ... so they can be told sentiments as close, and as cheap, as any of the offerings at your local Hallmark card retailer," said James Rocchi of The Playlist.

"It's a movie designed for people who watched the bedroom sequence in 2001: A Space Odyssey and wished there was more exposition about who built the room, how, why and what thread count was on that bed," said Devin Faraci of Badass Digest.

So there you have it. The jury's out in Christopher Nolan's Interstellar - but don't let that put you off watching it. In glorious IMAX, preferably. 

Watch the trailer for 'Interstellar':