Gravity

 I have an uber hipster friend who comes off sounding like a douchebag more often than he thinks he does but every now and then he says some unintentionally awesome things like “At first I wasn’t going to see Gravity because I was like…Fuck Space! But then I heard Alfonso Cuaron was directing and I said to myself, ok I might see it”. Just to give you an idea, I had a 30 minute discussion with this guy once and I swear he basically quoted all of the LCD Soundsystem song I’m Losing My Edge, except he wasn’t being ironic. “What if Radiohead went back to guitars? I mean, who’s really using guitars these days?” Ugh...just shoot me. Anyway,what he fails to realize is that the movie industry has had a fairly solid run on space movies lately; you can look at Sam Rockwell’s Moon or even the last few Star Treks for a few examples. I personally think that Cuaron’s Children of Men was one of the best sci-fi films that has been made in the past 20 or so years. It’s a movie that’s so dark and depressing but it’s filmed in such a spectacular way that you can’t help but be glued to the screen.

Well thankfully Cuaron tries to outdo himself with his latest 4 ½ year effort in Gravity. He opens the film by showing you stats that prove just how impossible it is to sustain life in space; and then immediately follows that up with a continuous 17 minute shot of Sandra Bullock and George Clooney fighting for their lives after their space ship and equipment are destroyed by debris. You catch a small glimpse of how intense this scene is in the movie’s 2 minute trailer but it doesn’t nearly do it justice as you are witnessing every astronaut’s (or those who even dream of being in space)worst nightmare as Bullock drifts further and further away.

The studio tried to make him incorporate flashback scenes to give you a background story for each character but he decided to stick with a bare bones presentation of each one’s history. As Bullock and Clooney work on a structure that was her invention, you learn all you need to know about one each of them. Clooney is the jokester who likes to party and is bitter over the fact that his wife left him while he was on a previous space mission, so now his whole mission in life is to set the record for the longest spacewalk ever. Bullock however, is essentially running from her life on Earth as she lost her child to a freak accident one day and is basically going through the motions until her own life comes to an end.

Now I will say that you to begin to worry as to where the movie is headed after this scene. Are we in for another 90 minutes of her floating around space? Did Cuaron essentially blow his load and his budget with that opening shot and all we are left with is boring conversation?

***mini spoiler alert*** Skip down to the final line for my rating of the movie

 Well I’m happy to say that this movie takes the typical turn that most of Cuaron’s movies do, where the main character unexpectedly finds a new reason to live and does everything possible to better their lives or the current situation around them. Bullock is essentially reborn the second she enters a foreign space craft as she continues to fight for her survival. She immediately gets knocked out and in a sense falls into the fetal position in a scene that is an ode to Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (remember the creepy baby at the end?). And just like 2001, this movie is a visual masterpiece. The average length of each shot is 46 seconds (which is nearly unheard of) and so much time and detail is put into to each scene that you are left gasping with each cable or rod that Bullock is so desperately trying to hold into for dear life. Even though most of the 3D revolves around the CGI, there is no need to pay the extra $3.50 to see this movie as it is visually stunning enough as it is.

***major spoiler alert***

There’s all sorts of arguments as to whether or not Bullocks safe landing on Earth and subsequent rise from the water, to her crawling, and eventually standing straight up is a metaphor for Evolution; but really it’s irrelevant as that final scene is so exhilarating that you can’t help but walk out of the theater inspired and ready to handle whatever life throws at you…for at least 12 hours anyway.

I rate this movie as TIGHT and I’m still in awe of what I just witnessed. The score is absolutely perfect for this movie and thankfully no space zombie shows up at the end like in Sunshine...or does it?