Cole's Take on GRAVITY

Cole's Rating: ★★★

Jesse's Rating: ★★★

Director: Alfonso Cuarón

Year: 2013

Cast: Sandra Bullock, George Clooney

Genre: Drama/Sci-Fi/Thriller
MPAA Rating: PG-13

             In a world where basically every imaginable thriller has been made, Gravity is a breath of fresh air (ha). It exercises its unique wings and flies up, up, up (I'm done now). However, since there are so many thrillers that require the audiences full engagement (which most don't quite get), it's hard to make a good one. Open Water is a perfect example of a movie that is totally involving. Sure, it's not perfect, but it gets everything right from the beginning to end as far as script goes. Despite its inability to do this, Gravity gets my recommendation because of a few things. One, it is remarkably well shot and filmed. The claustrophobic feeling of being stuck in outer space translated to pure fear thanks to incredibly realistic visual effects and applaud worthy camerawork. Two, it harbors a cast that surely doesn't stand us up. And three, it's original, exciting, and fast-paced. I'd say that for the most part, job well done.

        Sandra Bullock and George Clooney are excellent here as two astronauts who encounter violent debris from a Russian missile strike on a satellite has caused a mass of destruction and is headed there way. They are told to abort the mission, but when time runs out and they haven't done so yet, there are cast into space and are devastatingly against the odds.

        While it lost the pretentiousness that definitely anchored the obviously commemorated 2001: A Space Odyssey, the director of this motion picture seemingly didn't have the guts to make it a true knockout. A drastic alteration to the conclusion of the film would have made it far more emotionally moving, and understandably so (lack of elaboration is a cause for no spoilers). However, he does a nice job of keeping everything moving at a brisk pace, and all of the scenes are shot very well. Director Alfonso Cuarón directs scenes with exuberance; I felt an invisible gun held to my head and heard the words "get involved" while I watched this film, but this came with a catch. In most similar situations, the victim would want to refuse or resist the antagonists' oppression, but here, I didn't want to resist, and I don't think that he is an antagonist. I think that he is a talented filmmaker that had to put up with a cop out ending from the script.

        Here's the bottom line: see Gravity. It's a good film. It's a great way to spend an exciting hour and a half with your pals.  However, unlike some of its predecessors (Apollo 13, "Space Odyssey", Open Water, Alien, etc.), this is not a revolutionary step in the sci-fi industry. Twenty bucks of my money says that it won't win any Academy Awards either (possibly with the exception of special effects). Be that as it may, I anticipate future work from the clearly talented filmmaker.

-Written by Cole Pollyea
   
Click HERE For Jesse's Take on GRAVITY