A Rip-Roaring Crush of Emotions, Gravity Doesn't Let Up Until the Credits Crawl

Rating: 9/10 (17 February 2014)

A fascinating blend of opposing extremes, Gravity is gripping and white-knuckle intense from the word go, but also unexpectedly intimate as a character study. Many of its successes are due to an excellent application of sound design, which flutters from loud, echoey destruction to the sudden stillness of panicked breathing amidst the silence of a total vacuum. Outstanding visual effects up the ante a few more notches, expertly visualizing the helpless chaos of a rapidly-compounding disaster in low orbit in a way that's both picturesque and graphically terrifying. That the rules and environments are all so foreign and unfamiliar only makes it easier for the viewing audience to forget that so much of what we're seeing is CG. The underlying moral is more than a little blunt, and a few laws might get bent along the way, but to zero in on those is to ignore the focus of the ride itself. A cinematic roller coaster in the truest sense of the word, it's one of the most physically suspenseful experiences I've ever sat through.