Beautifully Hollow.

Rating: 5/10 (2 November 2013)

Film critics need to stop name-dropping 2001: A Space Odyssey. Seriously, enough. There's no quicker way of piquing my interest, and no better way of ensuring my disappointment. Don't get me wrong here. Gravity is a decent movie. It can be quite arresting in its best moments, remains visually stunning throughout, and is reasonably entertaining for most of its duration. You could certainly do a hell of a lot worse for the price of admission these days. But despite its considerable strengths, none of them amount to a truly great film worthy of the absolute universal acclaim it has garnered.
I'm not going to devote a whole lot of effort into explaining the strengths of the movie because they've basically been enumerated by nearly every single critical review on the internet. Yes, this is an undoubtedly gorgeous film. The visual fidelity is really something to behold, especially during scenes depicting space station destruction. The particle effects are definitely the most eye-popping I've ever seen. What's even more impressive than the visual effects though is the truly free-form, highly original camera-work and cinematography. The vast majority of the movie is shot with lengthy, tightly choreographed yet completely unhinged floating camera pans that are dizzyingly complex. The camera-work is really the most resounding success of the film as it completely creates that feeling of weightlessness and spatial disorientation that the characters are feeling and transmits all of that directly to the viewer.
So yes, Gravity is certainly a spectacle and a visual feast, but honestly that's where the good things I have to say about it end. Thematically, this movie is essentially barren. All that's really at its heart is a half-baked attempt at reversing a traumatic, potentially damaging experience into a moment of rebirth, reinvigoration, and self- actualization. It's not even an original idea to begin with, but this isn't a particularly compelling rendition and the characters are at fault. This has got to be some of the most bland, undercooked characterization I've ever seen in a film with such positive reviews. After spending a full hour and a half with Bullock's character, all I feel I've really learned about her is that she's pretty damn efficient at taking on and off a space suit. Oh, and she has a pretty impressive lung capacity. I'm obviously exaggerating a bit- there's a very vague back-story involving the death of her daughter which gives us some perspective into her decidedly withdrawn and, frankly, boring demeanor. But it just isn't substantial enough to make her intriguing as a character and makes it very difficult to really buy into her transformation at the end of the movie.
What's frustrating to me too is the fact that a lot of these issues could've been resolved with a little more exposition. This isn't a long movie at all. It easily could've been 30 minutes longer without even the remote danger of being bloated. Just 30 extra minutes of scenes devoted to characterization could've done wonders for the film and really gave it some weight and emotional resonance. Bullock's breakdown scene in the fuel-less escape pod is the perfect glimpse into the movie this could've been. It's by far the best scene in the movie and the only time where I was truly absorbed in the story rather than just admiring the pretty visuals. In this moment, Bullock's character shows a moment of complete vulnerability as she realizes the bleakness of her situation. She is completely alone, both in the overtly obvious physical sense but also in an emotional sense as well. This is such brilliant moment because it takes the character's emotional isolation since the death of her daughter and weaves it directly into her current physical isolation, creating a nice metaphor that instantly breathes life into the movie and gives it a sense of purpose. The character has essentially been drifting in this dead escape pod ever since her daughter died, and it isn't until this moment that she has finally come to terms with it.
This moment is just as fleeting as it is powerful though, and it comes off as too little too late at this point. I do have some other more minor quibbles with different scenes in the movie that I thought were handled poorly as well. Early on in the film there's a nice moment where Clooney's character says something to the effect of "nothing beats the view" and the camera pans over Earth with some really nice ambient music that kicks in. But as it re-circles back to Clooney the music fades to complete silence a little abruptly and the transition into more dialogue feels awkward. There's also a particularly hokey moment where Bullock's character verbally compares her flight in the escape pod to the times where she would "just drive" after her daughter's accident. It comes off as a very forced attempt to integrate the relatively useless back-story into the present moment and just ends up being cringe-worthy. There's definitely more moments like this too- Bullock's howling along with the dog on the radio transmission or the corny, triumphant line of dialogue towards the end where she essentially announces something to the effect of "well, whether I live or die this has been a hell of a ride!" I realize these are relatively petty criticisms but the film stumbles like this enough for it to take me out of the moment and detrimentally affect the viewing experience.
At the end of the day though, this isn't an awful movie. It offers up some very compelling set pieces, unbelievable visuals, and some truly phenomenal camera-work that alone makes it worth the 10 bucks. But it's also a film that is ultimately very hollow, essentially devoid of compelling characters, and severely lacking in substance. Yes, it provides the superficial thrills and the eye candy. But for a film with so many accolades, it really leaves a lot to be desired.