[Off-topic] Dirk:
Gravity - So i watched this last night. Went in with high expectations, and aside from a couple of gripes i have with the film, i'd say it didn't disappoint. So everyone should know what it's about by now. A Space Shuttle crew are doing Hubble upgrades, things go wrong, s**t gets real. The rest is a survival story.

Visually it's a feast for the eyes. There's a real novelty value in the setting that gives the film a unique feel. There's obviously quite a technical challenge in portraying characters in space but you can see that a lot of thought went into making the Zero-G environment seem as believable as possible. For the most part they got the physics of the thing down really well! The visual effects are incredible and the attention to every detail is plain to see.

The camera work itself was well thought out too. The point of view changes from that of an outside observer to a first person perspective when it's called for, so that for a moment you get to feel as disoriented as the character with as limited a field of view as they have. At other times the camera is another object floating around, free of the effects of gravity itself, rather than appearing to shoot from a fixed position. Everything really does appear to be weightless.

There's no sound in space, a fact we are reminded of in the opening dialogue. What we hear is what the characters hear from inside their suits. Radio chatter comes through clearly, but the breathing, the rustling of the suit itself and any other noise transmitted through contact with the suit is muffled as you'd expect. Put your fingers in your ears and you'd get the idea. The attention to detail here is impressive.

It's another aspect of the sound that brings me to my first gripe though, the music! It's well done, and at times used to brilliant effect, complementing what we're seeing on screen. But once the action starts it always seems to be there. There are times, especially during some of the tense moments, when it would have been better if there had been deafening silence instead. The sound of our characters panicked breathing against a backdrop of silent destruction would have been a perfect combination. The music just seemed incongruous during those moments and runs against the realism that the movie seemed to be striving for.

Unlike Apollo 13, the obvious choice for comparison here, there are only a few characters during the entire movie. There's no switching back and forth between different people and various perspectives. Sandra Bullock alone has to carry the burden of the acting work as the focus is almost entirely on her. It's a big ask but she does an amazing job with what she is given. It's a believable performance with subtlety and nuance. She plays the role so well it's impossible not to feel the moments of panic, disorientation and claustrophobia that the character is experiencing. I really liked George Clooney's character too. As the more experienced astronaut of the group, his calm demeanor is used as a counterpoint to the chaos, providing some much needed comic relief at times and displaying a level-headed temperament that you might expect from a well trained NASA astronaut with the right stuff.

I don't want to pick apart the scientific inaccuracies of the movie here. There aren't that many that are particularly obvious and they don't really detract from the film at all. For the most part i had no trouble suspending disbelief, although there are elements of the plot that were just too convenient. I feel the writing for the movie could have been better in more experienced hands, and that's my second gripe really. There was one particular scene that really didn't do it for me at all, feeling clunky and more than a little cliched. There was also back story introduced during the film to provide emotional context that really didn't need to be there, or should at least have been handled better. The short run time of the movie wasn't too much of an issue. It kept things moving along although maybe it was a little too frenetic at times.

Overall the movie was a great technical achievement, a visual treat and an adrenaline filled, emotional roller-coaster of a ride. I want to give it a nine, but i think 8/10 is more appropriate. It's a strong eight though! :good: