Gravity 3D Blu-ray Review

Nominated for ten Academy Awards and deserving of all of them, Gravity comes to Blu-ray. With the outstanding visual effects and stunning visuals, the Gravity Blu-ray needs to deliver on both the presentation side and with the bonus content. Anything less then that would be a real downer. Thankfully, the Gravity Blu-ray delivers on each and every front. With a phenomenal picture and loads of informative and fascinating bonus content, fans of one of 2013’s best films won’t be disappointed.

While the thrill of watching Gravity for the first time can’t be replicated, I was generally surprised to find out how exciting and intense the movie was on its second viewing. Watching bits of space ships getting blown to pieces, hearing Sandra Bullock’s heavy breathing, while listening to Steven Price’s excellent score was still a sight to behold. Gravity isn’t perfect with its weak dialogue among other issues, but you have to admire what director Alfonso Cuarón did in 91 minutes. He, along with his insanely talented crew, created one of the most visually stunning and intense movies I have ever seen. If you are reading this and you haven’t seen Gravity, fix that as soon as possible.

On Blu-ray, Gravity is stunning. I haven’t seen the 2D presentation in its entirety, but after watching a variety of scenes, it’s a gorgeous presentation. The indoor scenes are a little soft (tends to happen in visual effect heavy films), but the outdoor scenes are insanely gorgeous. The sound isn’t too consistent getting a little too loud or a little too soft at moments, but it’s still a great mix and completely immerses you in the film.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiTiKOy59o4[/youtube]

The 3D presentation is very similar to the movie experience. It’s not so much in your face as it is subtle. The 3D doesn’t throw Sandra Bullock at you or anything like that, and instead uses its “quiet” 3D to bring you into the movie. The depth of field could’ve been used a little more, but Gravity is still a great 3D film and I’m fine with both 3D and 2D presentations (although the brightness of the 2D presentation is certainly a plus).

The Bonus Features on the Gravity Blu-ray are:

“Gravity: Mission Control” (nine parts totaling 1:46:36) is an unbelievably extensive and fascinating feature covering the entire production of one of 2013’s biggest surprises. From the screenplay to filming to the visual effects, this feature will answer every question you could possibly have about how Gravity was made. It’s beyond interesting and unbelievable how they pulled off the film. Don’t look at that runtime and pass this by. This is an excellent feature (although they play one section out of order as it plays after the credits so don’t bail to the main menu when you see the credits).

“Shot Breakdowns” (five parts totaling 36:48) is a feature with a semi-misleading title that goes into a few different scenes in the film with the cast (well, just Sandra Bullock really) and crew talking about how the scenes came to be and what it really means (you know, metaphors and stuff). I say “semi-misleading” as I would say 3/5 parts talk about exact scenes in the film, while the other two may have fit more nicely in the previous feature. What’s important though is that all the content here is more of that great behind-the-scenes footage and facts we got in the last feature and is all certainly worth a watch.

“Documentary: Collision Point: The Race to Clean Up Space Narrated by Ed Harris” (22:28) is a very interesting documentary about all the junk in space and the dangers that can come from it. It’s brief and informative, and is definitely worth a watch so you can see that Gravity isn’t so much a work of fiction.

“Aningaaq – A Short Film by Jonás Cuarón” (10:11 with introduction) is the short released online shortly after Gravity came out in theaters back in October where we get to see what happened on the other side of the communication Dr. Ryan Stone sent out from space. This is my first time seeing the short and I just wasn’t a fan. I just didn’t feel it was anything special. I would give it a watch if you love the movie, but just don’t expect anything extraordinary.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiGX-PcPCSw[/youtube]

There’s also a “Film Festivals” section you can click on where you see what festivals Gravity was selected for.

The lack of an Audio Commentary is a bummer and a Gag Reel would’ve been especially hilarious, but it’s hard to complain with the incredible content we get here. “Aningaaq” isn’t anything special but the two incredible behind-the-scenes features and the documentary are more than enough to satisfy fans of the film. If you want to know how Gravity came to be, you’re in for a treat.

THE VERDICT

With a gorgeous demo-worthy presentation and extensive incredible bonus material, Gravity makes for one fantastic Blu-ray. Just like the movie itself you can nitpick the Blu-ray release, but you walk away so impressed and satisfied that it’s not worth complaining too much about. Fans of the film should run out and buy this Blu-ray immediately.