The trailers to Gravity didn’t interest me at all. A movie about two scientists lost in space seemed boring to me. Then the reviews came out, and Gravity has been labeled as one of the best films of the year and could possibly be up for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actress (Sandra Bullock) Oscars and I figured I would enjoy the movie more on a big screen than on my TV. And I was right. With its gorgeous visual effects, great performances by Bullock and George Clooney, and great intensity, Gravity is a must-see film and is easily one of the best films of the year.
Gravity tells the tale of Dr. Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) and astronaut Matt Kowalski (George Clooney) who are the sole survivors of a Space Shuttle accident.
That’s it. There’s not a whole lot of story in Gravity and that’s a very good thing. At 91 minutes long, this movie doesn’t waste your time with subplots or even other characters and jumps right into the action. Sometimes the movie can get a little slow but it immediately jumps right into one of its many phenomenal and intense scenes to put you back on the edge of your seat. So many movies drag on and on and while some scenes in Gravity can do that, they are there to break up the “action” and to give yourself a breather.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiTiKOy59o4[/youtube]
Even those slow moments are made entertaining by Bullock and Clooney’s performances. They are great in this movie. Bullock in particular nails the emotion of her character and that’s why she’s the one who will probably be up for the Oscar.
What will win an Oscar is the visual effects as they are some of the best I have ever seen. Not a second of this movie looks fake and you seriously believe that these actors are in outer space. I was so impressed with these visuals and what director Alfonso Cuarón and cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki did with them. Gravity is one of the most beautiful movies I have ever seen and is a movie that should be experienced in IMAX 3D (which doesn’t take up the full screen but is still fantastic with very immersive 3D).
Gravity isn’t perfect though. The dialogue in this movie just isn’t that good. These characters will make “jokes” at really inappropriate times. One scene (this isn’t a spoiler) where Bullock’s character is running out of oxygen and just barely survived this incident, just had to say to nobody, “I hate space.” That might not sound too bad but it happens a lot in this film, especially with Clooney’s character. None of these jokes hit and almost every great scene I think about in Gravity has no dialogue at all.
THE VERDICT
Despite the sometimes poor dialogue, Gravity is a fantastic movie. It’s intense and filled with gorgeous visuals and actors (their performances were good too). I highly recommend Gravity as it’s one of the best films of the year.
For reviews and more from me, Petey Oneto, you can check out my blog but be sure to check back to Resident Entertainment for more of my posts in the future.