Special effects that are truly special and dialogue in special need of being reworked

Rating: 7/10 (26 October 2014)

Gravity is a film written around six long scenes that are directed with technical perfection and padded with scenes that are always well done - but anchored down by expository dialogue completely unnecessary in a survival film with one character who just can't seem to either stop talking to herself or informing us very, very slow audience members about her perilous situation. Any film would be lucky to have a great sequence and Gravity has half a dozen of them and they are usually sustained by shots that don't contain a single edit for minutes at a time. There is so much in this film that is great and worthy of repeated viewing, but the whole is less than the sum of its great parts. The opening 13 minute unbroken shot is not only a technical accomplishment, but sets up this narrative without ever feeling like a gimmick or a shot designed to bring attention to itself. When Stone gets the Soyuz parachute tangled and the debris takes out the ISS, it's one of the most spectacular destruction scenes ever filmed. The simple structure for Gravity perfectly suits the film, but some cringe inducing dialogue needed a serious rewrite. There's too much that's fantastic in Gravity to let any criticisms deter a viewing. Highly recommended.