Gravity (Sandra Bullock, George Clooney) — Let’s be clear: this film is a visual, special effects-laden masterpiece. For video game junkies, it is closest thing to a space-age simulator. The graphics are stunning; the HD unsurpassed; the clarity of the film almost unimaginable. In 3D, the optical impact is truly amazing. Even the indoor scenes in the various spacecraft sparkle with that bright metallic “feels” clean. The black sky of space and the stunning blue and white of the Earth pop on the screen.
It might as well be a NASA documentary brought to you in IMAX. So get your popcorn, put on your seatbelt, and let it wash over you. Give it the Oscar for Visual and Special Effects now.
Now about the movie. Three astronauts are on a routine mission when things go awry. Seems the Russians have accidentally set up a rocket that has caused what amounts to a cosmic cataclysm. A shower of debris is coming right at our heroes like a wave of schrapnel. They and their spacecraft are at risk. The mission’s leader, Matt Kowalski, played by George Clooney, is a cool customer. He is a veteran who has seen almost everything. As he cruises the abyss in his jet pack, he realizes that things don’t look good. Sandra Bullock plays Dr. Ryan Stone, a by-the-book medical scientist who doesn’t seem comfortable either in space or in her own skin. How she passed the psychological testing to be an astronaut is beyond me, but that is an inconvenient truth. The third astronaut is irrelevant. He has to die early or there wouldn’t be a movie.
Next comes the metal tidal wave, which renders the space station inoperable and sends Kowalski to his maker (or does it?). Ryan is left alone, facing a series of bad prospects. Does she succumb to depleting oxygen and the bad odds or does she triumph over adversity? Can she overcome her fears? Is she up to the task? Can she get to the Soyuz or even to the Chinese orbiter? These are the mysteries of Gravity, an irony of a name since there is no gravity in space, of course. Ah ha! Gravity is a double entendre just like Cast Away, the Tom Hanks’ film Gravity mirrors. Our stranded astronaut might as well be on a desert island with nothing but a volleyball. As a plot, there is absolutely nothing new here. The setting is definitively more spectacular but the plot is the same. Actually, Cast Away is far more compelling, just not as visually stimulating. Hanks’ character is living for his wife; Roberts’ hasn’t decided whether she has anything to live for.
The bottom line: If this film didn’t feature two Hollywood box office sure things, would anyone other than CG geeks even show up? The answer is yes: about the same number of people who go to an IMAX movie.