Photo By IMDB
By Nia Rutledge
The film Gravity was directed and partially written by Alfonso Cuaron and Jonas Cuaron. Alfonso Cuaron is most commonly known for his work on Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban.
The whole movie featured only seven characters, five of which were faceless voices. The main focus of the film centers on Sandra Bullock and George Clooney.
Gravity possesses sci-fi and thriller aspects, so I was extremely anxious to see this movie.
After watching the trailer it was kind of hard to imagine where else the story would take me. It felt like they released the whole plot. I also heard a lot of talk about the effort put into the sound engineering of the movie, so I really wanted to see what all the hype was about.
Usually I just watch movies on my laptop, but this time it was insisted that I see the movie at the theater. So I bought a ticket to the 3-D showing (which I do not recommend if you wear humongous glasses as a necessity, as there is absolutely no way to look cool wearing two sets of glasses) and picked a seat.
I was expecting the movie to have an agonizingly slow start. Considering that you can’t go many places with a movie about an astronaut that becomes detached from their shuttle, but the whole movie took only about 15 minutes to get past the exposition.
Upon finishing the film, one of the most impressive parts about it was the sound engineering. The most memorable being that in scenes that were to be void of sound, it really felt like the sound was vacuumed right out of the theater. To the point where I felt as if I had lost the ability to hear for those few seconds.
It is a must to see the movie in the theater to get the full space-like effect. I would definitely also recommend paying the few extra bucks to see Gravity in 3-D. It was basically flawless and the CGI was perfection. I was that idiot who kept thinking that they could reach out and touch the effects (especially the drops of water).
Not only does Gravity feature spectacular special effect, the story has sentimental aspects trickled into the mix. I do think that the film could have taken on a stronger emotional aspect if there was more focus on the emotional side of Gravity. Personally, I could not get into the sentimental parts, but for some Gravity might not only be a teeth grinder but a tear jerker as well.
The acting was as to be expected. The characters were relatively basic but not horribly generic. The acting did not take away or add to the story, it was just average. The only bad thing about the acting was that every time Sandra Bullock would scream it was a weird collaboration between a weak scream and hyperventilating, which would probably be an accurate depiction. But, it just felt a bit forced, unrealistic and awkward.
The only major downfall of the movie is that it continuously has scenes where Sandra Bullock becomes detached and she can not grab something or she keeps floating away in a super intense moment where the audience is supposed to think that this is it.
The movie visits this kind of intense life or death moment around eight or so times and it became repetitive around the fourth. I often found myself thinking “d***it Sandra, just grab the f****ng hand holds.” Every time she became detached or disoriented.
All in all, the movie was pretty good. I really enjoyed it because I am fascinated by all thing unexplored and unknown, but I believe that even someone who isn’t all that jazzed about the cosmos would enjoy Gravity.
If you want to see it, go to the theater and watch the 3-D version. After the film was over I kind of felt as if I had been ripped from outer space. It was really easy to become consumed in the movie with the cinematography and sound effects. If you are like me and can not afford the $250,000 dollars it takes for a personal ride into space, this is a nice alternative.
Rating: 7.9/10