A breathtaking ride through the terror of being trapped in space

Rating: 9/10 (12 October 2013)

When I first saw the trailers for this film I wasn't really all that impressed but something inside of me made me want to go and see it today after book club. So, I wondered up to the cinemas at Melbourne Central to see the 12:30 session, which turned out to be in 3d. Now, I am not a big fan of 3d movies because I don't feel that they add all that much to the film, unless of course the film is a certain type of film.
Gravity is that type of film.
To be blunt, there were scenes in the film that literally gave me vertigo, and while I did not necessarily feel like I was floating in space, I certainly felt that I was really, really, high up. I am seen a few films in 3d, and the only ones that actually made me feel anywhere close to that would be the 4d films that I saw at Disneyland and at Warner Bros Movie World, and even then those films had touch aspects to it to add to the illusion. Gravity is simply a film that was filmed in 3d.
This is one awesome. One could say that the tag line of Alien – in space, no one can hear you scream – really should have been left for this film because this film, with its lack of monsters, and feeling of absolute hopelessness, was much, much more terrifying. Okay, the physics may have been bent a little to add to the film, but other than a few plot devices, they were pretty spot on.
As I said, this film is terrifying. It is about a woman who is working on the Hubble Space telescope when the space shuttle is struck by debris from an exploding satellite, and is left stranded in space. The first few scenes actually has her spinning off into orbit, and the way Cuaron puts you inside the spinning space suit literally adds to the terror.
The whole concept of this film is not just the nature of loneliness, but also the nature of helplessness. In space, if something goes wrong, it is very, very, hard for people to be able to get up there to be able to help you. In a way, this scenario almost suggests that the entire space program has been set back decades, and the possibility that our modern telecommunications system has effectively been destroyed. Okay, in reality, the debris would probably only make one orbit of the Earth before heading higher, but as I suggested, sometimes it is good to bend the laws of physics to add to the plot.