It’s been the top movie for two weeks in a row so many of you have probably already seen it, but I took advantage of being off today to finally go see GRAVITY in theaters. Warner Bros synopsis of Gravity is:
Academy Award® winners Sandra Bullock (“The Blind Side”) and George Clooney (“Syriana”) star in “Gravity,” a heart-pounding thriller that pulls you into the infinite and unforgiving realm of deep space. The film was directed by Oscar® nominee Alfonso Cuarón (“Children of Men”).
Dr. Ryan Stone (Bullock) is a brilliant medical engineer on her first shuttle mission, with veteran astronaut Matt Kowalski (Clooney) in command. But on a seemingly routine mission, disaster strikes. The shuttle is destroyed, leaving Stone and Kowalski completely alone—tethered to nothing but each other and spiraling out into the blackness. The deafening silence tells them they have lost any link to Earth…and any chance for rescue. As fear turns to panic, every gulp of air eats away at what little oxygen is left.
But the only way home may be to go further out into the terrifying expanse of space.
“Gravity” was written by Alfonso Cuarón & Jonás Cuarón, and produced by Alfonso Cuarón and David Heyman (the “Harry Potter” films). Chris deFaria, Nikki Penny and Stephen Jones served as executive producers.
The behind-the-scenes team includes multiple Oscar®-nominated director of photography Emmanuel Lubezki (“Children of Men,” “The New World”); production designer Andy Nicholson (art director “Alice in Wonderland”); editors Alfonso Cuarón and Mark Sanger (VFX editor “Children of Men”); and costume designer Jany Temime (the “Harry Potter” films). The visual effects were handled by Oscar®-nominated visual effects supervisor Tim Webber (“The Dark Knight”). The music was composed by Steven Price (“Attack the Block”).
Warner Bros. Pictures Presents an Esperanto Filmoj/Heyday Films Production, an Alfonso Cuarón Film, “Gravity.” The film will be released in 3D and 2D and IMAX®, and will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment company.
My synopsis of Gravity is just slightly different. My would read more like:
Holy S#!+, this movie will make you soil yourself more than any horror movie ever. There is so much tension that you will white knuckle yourself until your hands fall asleep. You will experience more motion sickness than on a roller coaster. The 3D will suck you in. Grab a diaper, a dramamine and a tether and go see Gravity today!
Okay. I know my synopsis won’t look good on a press release, but it’s the truth. And shorter.
Gravity is a movie that probably won’t be for everybody. It does pack quite a punch and it gets to it frightfully fast. I actually found myself experiencing the “fight or flight” response as I was watching the early scenes when things started happening. I actually felt panicked. There were moments where I actually felt like I needed to get up and leave. I wanted to remove myself from the situation. I guess that means I’m more of a flight than a fight kind of person. I kind of figured that out in grade school so thanks for bringing back those memories, Alfonso Cuarón. I think most of that feeling is achieved because of the masterful use of 3D in this movie. You can actually “feel” just how far up they are when you see Earth in the background. It’s these things that make me love 3D. I don’t care about things jumping out at me, but I love it when you can feel depth on the screen. It is a great tool for making you focus on the screen and nothing else. This movie needs to be seen in 3D. Period.
Alfonso Cuarón does more than just use 3D though, he uses disorienting camera angles, which probably mimic what actually space walking is like, and even uses a first person view several times. When you put it all together, the word that keeps coming to my mind is “immersive”. There were only a few times when I was pulled out of the movie and that is only because of my environment. There are several really, really quiet scenes in this movie. It’s in space so that is how it should be. However, it got so quiet that I could hear my friend crunching his M&M’s a seat over. That crunching noise was almost deafening. There was also lots of noise from the movie in the next theater that kept barging into my experience. None of these things are the fault of Gravity, but just keep in mind that you will probably have less tolerance than normal for the jerk that answers his cellphone. When you get yanked out of experiencing this movie for him to take a booty call, you won’t be happy.
I remember reading about Apollo 13 and how they used a plane, affectionately known as the “vomit comet”, to get just outside of Earth’s atmosphere to achieve weightlessness. It made those scenes amazing, but the limitation is that they can only be a few seconds long. With Gravity, the filmmakers developed a new harness, along with special effects and lighting to create the most realistic looking space movie I have ever seen. There were no moments where I could obviously tell that something was “fake” or where I could tell they used wires. It was exactly what special effects should do for any movie. Not be seen.
Is it all perfect? No. After a while, so many things go wrong that you start to think, “yeah, sure” a few times. There are way, way too many last second handholds before tumbling away. I know it is supposed to ratchet up the drama, but enough is enough. Does any of this really detract from the experience? Absolutely not. Gravity is still a movie that you need to see. If you want to really be scared this Halloween, then don’t go see Slasher 15 or Torture Porn 27, go see Gravity and feel real fear.
