Gravity

Rating: 10/10 (26 November 2013)

The preview trailer for this film grabbed me immediately, from Oscar, BAFTA and Golden Globe winning director Alfonso Cuarón (A Little Princess, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Children of Men) and Harry Potter producer David Heyman, the critics were all raving, giving positive reviews, and Jonathan Ross said that it should definitely be seen on the biggest screen in Britain, the Odeon BFI IMAX in London, in 3D, so that's exactly what I did. Basically from the Space Shuttle "Explorer" a small crew of astronauts are making repairs to the Hubble Space Telescope, commanding the mission is veteran astronaut Matt Kowalski (George Clooney) on his final expedition, and on her first journey into space is Mission Specialist and bio-medical engineer Ryan Stone (Oscar, BAFTA and Golden Globe nominated Sandra Bullock). Everything is calm as the astronauts work, but then the voice of Mission Control (Ed Harris) warns them a missile strike by the Russians has occurred on a defunct satellite near their location, a chain reaction has caused debris to scatter and is speeding towards them, they must abort the mission before it reaches them. Communication with Mission Control is lost, but the astronauts continue to transmit hoping to be heard, the debris strikes and causes destruction, in panic Stone is forced to detach herself from the shuttle, leaving her drifting alone in space, with only her suit keeping her alive, and she is scared as her oxygen level is low. Eventually Kowalski responds to her call for help, locates her, and they make their way back to the damaged shuttle, it is unusable and the rest of the crew are dead, the only option is to use the thruster pack to travel to the nearby International Space Station (ISS), at least a ninety minute journey before debris threatens them again. En route Kowalski asks about Stone's life back on Earth, she tells the sad story about the death of her young daughter, they reach the damaged but still operational space station, the crew evacuated and the parachute from the other capsule has accidentally deployed, it cannot be used to return to Earth, Kowalski suggests they use remaining equipment to travel to the nearby Chinese space station "Tiangong" and use a module to return home. Another problem occurs when Stone's leg gets tangled in the parachute cords, the thruster pack has no power so if she keeps hold of Kowalski they drift into space together, so even with her protesting he detaches himself, as he goes into the distance he stays on the radio to give her instructions and further encouragement, as she runs low on oxygen and tries to make it into the ISS airlock. Inside Stone settles and gets things ready to journey to the next space station, but a fire ignites and forces her to enter the Soyuz and escape, before the capsule can travel she goes back out to release the parachute cords, debris hits again, she is in time before it destroys the station, and she aligns her craft to reach the Chinese station not too far away. However the craft thrusters are out of action, using the radio she only manages to communicate with a fisherman with a baby, Stone is sure that she will die, so turns off the oxygen supply to die a painless death in space, becoming unconscious Kowalski appears outside and enters the capsule, he is annoyed she is giving up and suggests using the landing rockets to travel. She wakes up realising the appearance of Kowalski was a hallucination, but she is determined to live on, she restores the oxygen supply and navigates to the Tiangong with the landing rockets, she is unable to dock, so she uses the decompression force and a fire extinguisher as a makeshift thruster pack to travel to the Chinese space station, once boarded she finds it empty, but also its trajectory knocked by the debris, and it is falling out of orbit. So she enters the escape capsule, as the ship is breaking up with it re-entering the Earth's atmosphere, Mission Control communicates with her and has can locate her position, and following the heat of the atmosphere the parachute is deployed, the craft lands in a lake, but an electrical fire starting means she has to evacuate immediately, opening the hatch water sinks the capsule, she sheds her suit and swims to the surface, she rests for a moment on the shore, and takes her first shaky steps in the full gravity of Earth. Also starring Orto Ignatiussen as Aningaaq, Amy Warren as Explorer Captain and EastEnders' Phaldut Sharma as Shariff. Bullock gives a graceful, amiable and suitably desperate performance as the talented scientist on her first mission into space, and Clooney is charming, jokey and decisive in his scenes, the direction by Cuarón is swish and polished with this mix of Speed style tension action and 2001: A Space Odyssey with the scale and spectacular effects and sounds of space. With the cool and stylish use of three-dimensional effects, the feeling of claustrophobia inside spacesuits and small capsules, and the combinations of fantasy, humanity and the fight for survival, there is no doubt that this will enthrall and immerse you into the action, it truly is one of the best 3D and space films in years that deserves accolades, a great science-fiction thriller. It won the Oscars for Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Music for Steven Price, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing and Best Visual Effects, and it was nominated for Best Motion Picture of the Year and Best Production Design, it won the BAFTAs for the Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film and the Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music, Best Cinematography, Best Sound and Best Special Visual Effects, and it was nominated for Best Film, Best Original Screenplay, Best Editing and Best Production Design, and it was nominated the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture - Drama and Best Original Score. Outstanding!