OK, so, many times when some movie comes along that is fairly popular that I just happened to miss, I often have no real explanation as to what took me so long to catch up. Such is not the case with Gravity: I know exactly why I skipped this one when it was in theaters. I have a few general fears, and one of them is heights. Trailers for this movie suggested the horror of possibly falling through space for all eternity. That idea outright terrifies me, and the way the trailers would show debris going everywhere and Sandra Bullock flying off and just missing last chances to not take a one trip to Alpha Centauri were not the sort of thing I would feel comfortable watching on the big screen.
But put it on my 4K set, and I can probably handle that.
Gravity has a simple premise: astronauts Dr. Ryan Stone (Bullock) and Lt. Matt Kowalski (George Clooney) are the sole survivors of their mission to do some basic repair work to the Hubble Space Telescope after debris from the Russians’ shooting down one of their own defunct satellites rips through the area, killing the other astronauts and leaving Ryan and Matt stranded in space. Ryan herself almost went shooting off in space, but Matt’s clear head and calm demeanor, the product of numerous space walks, manages to save her and get the two of them headed in the right direction. The International Space Station is relatively nearby, as is a Chinese space station, and as long as the two stay calm and don’t burn too much oxygen, they should still be able to get themselves safely back to Earth before the next debris field flies through.
It doesn’t help that Stone, on her first mission to space, is close to panicking here. Additionally, they’re cut off from ground control–and whoever cast Ed Harris as the voice of Mission Control was either winking at the audience or remembering there probably isn’t an actor alive who doesn’t look more like a real astronaut than Ed Harris–and they may not have enough oxygen for both of them. One small mistake can send either or both of them flying off into the vacuum, never to return. Stone will need to keep her head clear and her purpose on-target if she wants to get back to Earth. Can she?
So, really, that’s a fairly simple and straightforward story. There really isn’t much to either character. Clooney’s Kowalski is a calm veteran who knows what he’s doing and will sacrifice everything for his crew even if it is just down to one person. Stone is a scared newcomer far, far, far from home for the first time. Theoretically, this could be any story of survival, but setting the movie in space allows director Alfonso Cuaron to play with some truly groundbreaking effects shots. That’s the sort of stuff I couldn’t handle in the trailers, and those shots hold up extremely well. I may not be an expert on the science here, but what I do know suggests they did a really good job of recreating space without actually going to space with all the dangers associated therein.
That said, this is also the sort of movie that probably works much better on a large screen. Even my 4K set can only do so much there, and I think the overall representation of the vastness of space probably works best on the biggest screen possible. Of course, that is the very reason I didn’t go see it in the first place: I knew that would freak me out a little too much for my general comfort. However, aside from the survival angle, as well done as it is, I didn’t think there was a whole lot going on here. What did happen was quite good, but I generally prefer a bit more in the grand scheme of things.
Grade: B+
0 Comments