Movie Review: "Gravity" - 2013

                                      


Movie review for General Audience: "Gravity"

 

Scream and no one can hear you. There are no sound waves to carry your noise; any noise. Cry for help and no one is there; you are alone in a place few ever go. Try to leave your life rafts in any way, and within 10 seconds your blood boils and you freeze dry. Welcome to Gravity the new DVD release starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney. Slated for release in late March of 2014, Gravity, directed, co-written, co-produced and co-edited by Alfonso Cuarón is a story which starts out peacefully enough, and turns to a thrill a minute ride through our limited capabilities for Space Travel and life sustenance in those harsh conditions. It places a significant highlight on how “Space Junk” has become an issue over the course of the Space Race and man’s subsequent journeys into space, especially in the last 30-years as space has “opened up” to other populations of possible explorers. The main characters were engrossing. Sandra Bullock as the new traveler not “battle hardened” to the harsh realities of space and George Clooney the wily old Veteran who has seen it all, prepared for it all and brings a calmness to each situation no matter how grave it may seem to be. The constant rotational orbit felt by those who venture to the Stratus is captured wonderfully by Cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki and there is no wonder from a visual, story and acting perspective this movie garnered 10 Academy award Nominations, which is nearly unheard of in the genre of Space centric filming (Konow, David). In my opinion this was a wonderful story, shot on the background of emptiness that humans can scarcely imagine, much less understand and master.

            The first part of the movie that was of interest to me personally was the depiction of space. The vehicles and equipment we currently use in space exploration, the visual of being upside down 350 miles above the surface of the Earth and whether this film caught the “reality” of being in a limitless vacuum where the temperature fluctuates from absolute zero (−273.15° on the Celsius scale and −459.67° on the Fahrenheit scale) to a boiling 300° or so in seconds depending on positioning of the sun to you (Couper, Heather, and Nigel Henbest). A place where there is not a breath to be had of anything but total vacuum (Couper, Heather, and Nigel Henbest). We stay within a relatively safe distance of only 350 miles above the Earth’s surface to partially protect us from being baked alive by the microwaves and Solar Ejections that are common place issues of major concern when maintaining life during a deep space exploration (Couper, Heather, and Nigel Henbest)(Watercutter, Angela). Except for a few minor exaggerations and missteps, very few of each, from a scientific perspective this movie was very well done in its entirety. Let's move onto a few of the more glaring missteps that are worth at least a mention as they were created to aid in the telling of a story, but in fact do give the average viewer of the movie the idea that things are a little “tighter packed” in space than they truly are.

The major idea of the film is based on the Kessler Syndrome. This is the idea that fragments of space junk will eventually cause an avalanche of problems in space and maybe render space unsuitable for several hundred years in the future because a cloud of super speeding fragmented garbage will be floating around the planet (Couper, Heather, and Nigel Henbest)(Watercutter, Angela). We get a premonition of this issue when Dr. Stone (Sandra Bullock) loses grip on a small bolt while repairing the Hubble, and Matt Kowalski (George Clooney) uses his jet pack to retrieve it and tells her, “relax, you are almost done”. That scene sets the stage for the rest for the movie; a roving cloud of space junk created by 2 satellites colliding heads toward our players Dr. Ryan Stone and Matt Kowalski as they work on the Hubble telescope. Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson came out and stated, “Satellite communications were disrupted at 230 mi up, but communications satellites orbit 100x higher” and “how Hubble (350mi up), The International Space Station (230mi up) and a Chinese Space Station are all in sight lines of one another is not a reality of current space exploration.” However, he was very happy the film actually put out a scenario involving the Kessler Syndrome which has only been featured in one other film I can think of, Pixar’s “Wall-E” from 2008 which was critically acclaimed but didn’t get a large audience. In this movie, humans left planet earth because of garbage on the planet and a cloud of space junk surrounding the planet. One other issue I noticed was when Dr. Stone gets to the first escape capsule and undresses and gets in fetal position as atmosphere fills the cabin. She would have frozen to death or asphyxiated before that point (Watercutter, Angela)(Parry, Dan).

            The characters as played by Bullock and Clooney were totally believable and realistic. Sandra Bullock is the newbie Dr. Ryan Stone who trained for 8 months to make this flight and a specific range of upgrades to the Hubble Space Telescope but wants to go “home” as quickly as she can.  George Clooney’s Matt Kowalski is the Veteran Astronaut who according to the movie, “has spent more time in space than all but one man in history”. The same level of angst, fear and trepidation she brings to her character he brings the total and equal opposite of happiness, calm and personal assuredness that only many hours doing what you love can bring. From the opening scene she is focusing on her job, hands, tools and the part she is working on, while Clooney roams around on a jet pack and tells Houston stories whether true or not; they have heard before, but since this is his last trip up, they give a little leeway for play and enjoyment of the feeling of weightless joy.

            Lastly, the film was done in a stunningly visual way. In the 3D version people were leaving the theaters with motion sickness (Konow, David). The views of space, the earth, the space stations, satellites and other things in space were created with stunning detail even using actual cutting edge devices that only NASA has access to. The movie was shot using several new camera inventions just for this film such as the incorporation of 3D axis software using a stationary object. In other words, a 3D world can now be created around characters and anything in that world can become the point of perspective (Konow, David). If you saw her ‘floating to space’ sequence, you get what I mean. One minute the Earth is the center of her focus, then the focus is on her, then the focus shifts from her perspective and how she feels like she is tumbling with no control as would happen in space. Many story line questions have arisen from the movie, because it turns out a few of the writers who assisted Cuarón actually worked on such psychological shows with deep underlying plots and twist such as “Lost”, the hit ABC TV show that ran from 2004 – 2010. These questions only add to the wonder that is this film. The writing team and the unusual film style leave many questions in the viewer’s mind. When you see the film, ask yourself if your questions have been answered.
            In summary, even with the inconsistencies, questions and odd script turns this movie is sure to be a classic in the genre of Space movies. In this reviewer’s opinion, not since Stanley Kubrick’s 1968, “2001: a Space Odyssey” earned him an Academy Award for Best Visual has a movie about space been so intense and such a thrill to see. 

 

Works Cited

 Couper, Heather, and Nigel Henbest. “DK Space Encyclopedia” New York: DK Pub.             1999. Print. ISBN-13: 978-0789447081. Print.  p. 72-106. Web. 11 April 2014.

 

Watercutter, Angela. “Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson Fact-Check Gravity on Twitter”. wired.com.  Permalink. 07 October 2013. Web. 11 April 2014.

 

Parry, Dan. “Moonshot: The inside story of mankind's greatest adventure.” London: Ebury P, 2009. ISBN-13: 978-0091928377. Print. p 15-55. Web. 11 April 2014

 

Konow, David. “Gravity Making the Case for Good 3D”. tgdaily.com. 08 October 2013. Web. 11 April 2014.