Not for the weak of heart... literally

Rating: 9/10 (20 October 2013)

Now if you have a weak heart in any way, do not watch this movie. Im not kidding, this was the single most stressful experience of my life. Watching this movie was a very intense and frightening experience, its definitely one of my favorite movies of the year, and it just works so well, its a must see.
The movie kicks off with Clooney and Bullock in where? Thats right, space. A mission specialist named Ryan Stone, played by Sandra Bullock and a vet. named Matt Kowalski, played by George Clooney are working on attaching some new hardware to the Hubble telescope, which will from what I gathered allow it to see much further than it currently can. Now this is where thing really start to go wrong, the Russians are destroying one of their satellites, and the debris from the wreckage has caused a chain reaction to other satellites, which has caused millions of silent killing pieces of shrapnel speeding towards our main protagonists.
Now the silence is key in this movie, because for those of you who know that in a vacuum no sound can travel, as in space, being a vacuum, the same occurs. Because of the silence, you constantly feel like nothing is rely going wrong in the movie, then things get ripped apart. The silence lulls you into a false sense of security, making you feel like every thing is peaceful and calm, but as bits of old satellite come wising past making no sound at all, you just feel terrified. Its one of the most affective scare tactics I've seen in a long time. If these silent explosions weren't, well, silent, it would be no where near as affective. Just seeing a space station silently be ripped apart by speeding pieces of shrapnel is so frightening and exciting, it really made to movie what it is.
The director of this movie, Alfonso Cuaron, loves his long takes, those of you who have seen children of men will be familiar with this. This movie has very long, very interesting and very masterful takes, and just beautiful camera work. The camera moves so smoothly, panning and tracking its way around the characters, it made me feel like I was in space. And the way the characters move is just so accurate from what I can tell. In fact, if someone told me they filmed this in space, I would believe them.
I did some research and apparently all of the space stations, shuttles and other space craft are exact to what they look like in real life. I also red that the fact that the satellites hit the space stations is impossible, that they orbit at a different distance from the earth, but this is just such a minor flaw that I'm sure wont matter to anyone who watches it. Another thing I wanted to mention was the music. This is so key to the scares and tension. The way it just pounds, like a heart beat, and how it suddenly rises up to the point of ear drum bursting, then suddenly cuts out was just fantastic. Because of the way the music is set, you have to go see it in the cinema, or with surround sound to really get the full affect.
I also want to talk about the acting, Im not a fan of Sandra bullock, I hated her in things like the heat, and when I found out she was in this I was honestly put off. But after seeing this, I have to say she has earned some serious browny points. She is so good at portraying the character, that I was genuinely scared for her. If it wasn't for her I wouldn't have enjoyed this movie so much I don't think. Now, as for Clooney, he was great. I really enjoy many of Clooney's work, other than those Nespresso adds, I think his a fantastic actor, and gravity is no exception, however, Im kind of sick of him playing the cocky middle aged guy. He seems to always play this character, and Im a little tired of it. However, he was still amazing in this movie and Im glad he was casted.
This movie is one of the greatest pieces of cinema I've seen I a long time, with its masterful use of camera work, music and acting, it left me wondering what would happen next for its full hour and a half. It was so intense I don't know if I could have taken much more of it without having a heart attack. This was amazing, a must watch movie.