Gravity

Plot: A team of astronauts are forced to be resourceful and find their way back to Earth after debris destroys their space shuttle and leaves them stranded in Earth’s orbit.

Thoughts: Gravity is, first and foremost, a story of survival. Sandra Bullock portrays Ryan Stone, one of the crew members stranded, and shoulders the burden of carrying the movie almost entirely. Her character wasn’t fully developed, there were only hints and nods as to who she really was. This made it especially difficult to connect with Stone. Given the limited run time (just over and hour and a half) we didn’t have time to delve into the intricacies and nuances of the characters. All we could do was empathize with their plight and root for them to be victorious.

Now that the standard run time for feature films has ballooned to around two hours, this movies thirty-minute shorter run time made it seem underdeveloped.  By the time the film reached its “turning point” I felt like it was the beginning of the second act, then POOF, just like that the movie was coasting toward the end. The structure wasn’t awful, but by the end of the movie I felt like it was missing the “it” factor that would have taken it to the next level. On the other hand, I’m sure two hours of watching people in space would have gotten boring much faster and longer than this movie.

Aside from those two issues, I must say that this was a beautiful film. I’ve always been particularly infatuated with the cosmos and this movie captured that in a way that few can (of course I saw this in IMAX 3-D, it was totally worth it). As my friend Kevin from the blog Who Would Watch This? explained (and I’m paraphrasing) seeing this movie in any other format does not do it justice.

In this way there are a lot of parallels to James Cameron’s Avatar. The story was simple and straight forward, but the film technique was revolutionary. The first thing I noticed about the direction of the Gravity was how fluid the camera was, weaving from extreme close-ups to as far a shot as I’ve seen. In total their were only approximately 140 cuts (I counted). The opening scene lasts for about ten minutes and is all done in the same shot; it reminded me of a modern day version of Hitchcock’s Rope (Sorry for never posting a review of this one).

This movie also had elements similar to the movies Buried (click link to see review) and Moon (I saw this too, but still haven’t gotten around to writing the review), in that it required a single actor/ actress to carry an entire film.

Overall, I wouldn’t recommend seeing this film unless you’re really into space and don’t have a problem paying a little extra for IMAX 3-D. George Clooney is great in it. There are some laughs, attempts to make you cry, and a few feel-good moments.

P.S. I just realized how many reviews I’m missing from movies I watch back in 2011. Shame on me.