Gravity: Movie Review

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

When I first saw the trailer to "Gravity" I was amazed that they used a complete scene instead of a decoupage of randomness, or "quick-to-get-annoying" quips that plague so many trailers.  It was a bold, dangerous choice that quickly got boring, so boring, in fact, that my brothers didn't even want to see the film, and we sighed whenever the trailer was replayed.  What was the plot line--most trailers give it away--and what was the point?  Why did I want to waste precious money and time on a film about a couple of people getting trapped in space?  I saw "2001: A Space Odyssey" at 2:00 a.m. once, and have yet to recover from that drug trip.

I didn't know that Sandra Bullock was in the movie.  That discovery was made when the latest Vogue issue came in the mail.  She is interviewed about movie's process and why she decided to join the project.  They were going to film the anti-gravity scenes, which make up the entire movie, in one of those planes that creates several seconds of weightlessness, but instead the affect was created while being suspended with strings.  I wanted to see that, and going in with that knowledge made me appreciate the movie all the more.

George Clooney is also in this movie, too, and he's good, but this is Sandra's film.  She plays Dr. Ryan Stone, a medical engineer, and this is her first space mission.  She's not even use to zero gravity, fighting the effects and slight nausea.  Then tragedy strikes (if you've seen the trailer you know what that is.)  I won't give anything away.  I can't.  The not knowing actually made the movie more breathtaking and exciting.

The movie has it's moments of intensity, but it also has moments of solace.  Space is both dangerous and beautiful.  Even astronaut Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the Moon, gave The Hollywood Reporter his review on this new film:

"I was so extravagantly impressed by the portrayal of the reality of zero gravity. Going through the space station was done just the way that I've seen people do it in reality. The spinning is going to happen -- maybe not quite that vigorous -- but certainly we've been fortunate that people haven't been in those situations yet. I think it reminds us that there really are hazards in the space business, especially in activities outside the spacecraft . . . This movie gave great clarity to looking down and seeing the features of Earth … but there weren't enough clouds, and maybe there was too precise a delineation from space.  I know: If you're looking down at Earth, you're looking through an atmosphere that has a bit of haze in many places and not just occasional clouds. Here, the precision was remarkable, though you might need a pretty good spy telescope to see that well."

I was literally on the edge of my seat through the whole of the movie, breathing and sighing with the movements, uncomfortable with the characters . . . trying not to annoy the people I was sitting next to.  Gravity is available in 2D/3D/IMAX3D.  I saw it in 2D, to save money, but I may need to splurge to see the film in IMAX 3D.  There were so many scenes where I thought, "That would be cool in 3D!  That would be cool . . . oh, wow . . ."  So I'll have to make the effort to see this film in a more dazzling platform, which I've read is quite amazing.

     
Not what I was expecting.

Not at all boring.

MPAA: Rated PG-13 for intense perilous sequences, some disturbing images and brief strong language.