A Visually Dazzling Emotional Survival Ride

Rating: 8/10 (16 January 2019)

7 October 2013. Gravity begins in a way suggestive of cautionary film producers of movies that offer drastically new, unknown potential, hedging their bets on an unknown audience by incorporating brief written explanations of what actual outer space is like or perhaps that introduce some dazzle as a way to ensure captivating the audience at the start of a movie, like Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) that spent time offering fascinating tidbits of tantalizing visions of outer space and the Starship Enterprise or like even Event Horizon (1997) that offered up the almost by now obligatory space shots of weightless objects spinning in space for the audience's vicarious space experience. Additionally, George Clooney was provided with an almost by now clique dialog seemingly formulaic in the same manner as Space Cowboys (2000). And whether or not the Executive Decision (1996) plot element was added as a psychological twist ploy and was even technically accurately portrayed was necessary or not is debatable. Like with Avatar (2009), Wall*e (2008), Life of Pi (2012), or Titanic (1997), Gravity presents its audience with a sharply breaking visual cinematic experience which may in time soften its innovative impact with future generations. But it can't be argued that this huge spectacular survival story bombards its audience with new amazing visions of space travel and space debris that have not been seen on film that delight and awe.
Interestingly this movie resembles the action version of an earlier lonely space station movie Love (2007) and uses the thrilling action visuals somewhat like Apollo 18 (2011) used its fresh and well edited space dialog and space behavior that captured the audience's attention. Gravity retains the same sense of eerie foreign exhilaration of the classic 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) by adhering to the stark ambiance and the potentially frightening personal isolation and dynamically different physical environmental effects of outer space or the monsters of the frozen tundra of The Thing (1982) or duplicating the psychological trying experience of attempting survive one night in a simple haunted hotel room of 1408 (2007), or the technical mysteries and dangers in science of Splice (2010). Overall, Gravity like The Andromeda Strain (1971) presents on screen an amazing compelling dramatic science fiction scenario that is also closely related to the personal survival theme from Touching The Void (2004) that brings its audience into personally experiencing a prolonged harrowing life struggle event. It can't be argued that this movie brings into full explosive and thrilling life the wondrous terrors of outer space into the darkened auditorium of the theater. It is Sandra Bullock's performance a little ways into the movie that really shines here (ignoring the early dialog like Clooney's that doesn't seem logically suited to the reality of the situation) that allows one to ignore the unlikely events that occur written for dramatic sake and make this movie into one of powerful presentation of human frailty and courage from a deeply personal place.