Gravity will leave you breathless.

Rating: 10/10 (15 November 2013)

After viewing the film Gravity for the first time in theaters, I was at a loss for words, unable to explain the sheer magnitude of work that must have been put into such a groundbreaking experience. From the title sequence, I knew that I was going to love this film when it began by blasting my ears with such loud music only to immediately cut to silence. This emptiness that accompanies the first shot really shows the audience exactly how vast and diverse space can be. One of the reasons this shot had such a great impact was because of the 3D sound that made you feel like one of the astronauts. As each person on the radio was transmitted, I was able to hear what he or she was saying in front of me and behind me. Usually in films, I never really pay that much attention to the sound quality or editing, as most of the films I watch at home are either binaural or monaural. When a film like this splits up each sound into a separate quadrant of the room, all of the work that went into the sound editing really shines through. The film only gets better when it starts to pan around the space station, beginning one of the infamous Cuaron long shots. The cinematography in this film was simply amazing, focusing on specific objects floating in space to provide the audience with comic relief or to provide some back- story for one of the main characters. If there is one thing I would have to criticize about the cinematography, however, is the choice to splash water onto the camera. In many films, some directors find it necessary to break the fourth wall by indicating that there is indeed a camera filming the entire movie, such as the opening shot of Inception. The problem with doing this in Gravity is that the film rests on the fact that it could be a very real experience, and by showing something hitting the camera, it really took me out of the film. Next, the music was able to make the film incredibly fun to watch with there being very little sound. Before watching the film, I was worried that there was going to be extended scenes without sound, making the action scenes incredibly awkward and difficult to watch. However, the film went completely in the other direction, using the loud music and incredible score to make the film seem like it had some sort of sound during the scenes of debris flying into the main characters.With all of this said, I have not even gotten into the incredible performance as Ryan by Sandra Bullock. Throughout this movie she is able to constantly give a tour de force performance by perfectly adapting to gasps of air, screaming, and depression. Despite nearly every scene being about her not knowing what to do and almost giving up, this movie shows a complete sense of courage, something rarely seen in any movie with a female lead. Besides Silence of the Lambs and the Alien Anthology, I do not think I have ever seen a stronger female lead. Finally, this brings us to the symbolic purpose of the film, which is to show a characters rebirth via isolation. Much of the imagery in the film was directly intended to evoke a sense of pregnancy. The first clear example of this was when Ryan was floating in the Russian space station in the fetal position with her extension protruding out like an umbilical cord. Later in the film, as she is drowning in the lake that her landing pod crashed into, we see a frog swim by, representing the metamorphosis of Ryan as a person, so that she can grow her own legs and stand on her own. Finally, as she attempts to stand up, the audience can see that she is learning to walk again, not just literally, but as a new member of society so that she can happily live knowing that she has a purpose.
First, the film was created entirely in animation with only the voices of Clooney and Bullock to get a feeling for how the finished product would look, before investing all of the time and money into a large special effects budget. Next, they created a large light box that suspended Bullock in mid-air so that they could provide the proper lighting for her face, matching all of the shadows from the debris with the light from Earth, while being able to completely rotate around her body 360º. In many of the finished scenes this was necessary as most of the shots were completely CGI with the only live-action part, being Bullock's face. For the scenes where Bullock is floating in the space ship where we can see her entire body, that was done with puppetry by suspending her on several wires, so that puppeteers could control her according to where the zero gravity would lead her. By using this method, she would have complete control of where or how her body moved, while the puppeteers could control the gravity of the scene. Finally, the film was converted into a 3D format. While most films that succeed at 3D are filmed with a 3D camera and all done in pre-production, the 3D for this film works because of what it is representing. By showing how much space is between Bullock and Earth, the 3D can clearly show us how far away she is from help and civilization.
Overall, this is my favorite movie of the year, and one of my favorite sci-fi movies ever. This is definitely a film I look forward to watching again and owning on a home video format.
Grade: A-