Gravity

Gravity, one of the most acclaimed films of 2013, further pioneered the usage of IMAX porn imagery, convincing everyone that, especially movies having something to do with space, should be viewed with the extra ticket price.

That's exactly what I did too 2 years ago, even though I really have something against 3D glasses that have been covered with a coating of dirt caused by countless amounts of pass users. and just the concept of 3D in general. I also bought the front row seats popcorn available and sat down in the theater with a few other people I brought along.

So yes, I was one of the many people who were fooled by the theater experience. I walked out of the theater thinking I had found the best film of that year, hope in 3D, and maybe a potential new favorite. Then I re-watched the movie recently after a long time (on TV) and slowly saw the once existing magic and awe evaporate in front of my very eyes.

Don't get me wrong: Gravity is by no means a bad film, even if the whole experience gets more ruined the smaller your screen gets. The visuals are above solid and the cinematography by Emmanuel Lubezki is amazing. Alfonso Cuaron does an excellent job of keeping balance between emotional moments and tense claustrophobic scenes and creating a fast pace (not only does he direct, but he also edits all his movies, so it's his work you see on the screen). But that's pretty much it. All the film has succeeded in doing is implanting sequences of space debris chaos and Sandra Bullock panicking.

The plot: Dr. Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock), a medical engineer, is on her first mission in space alongside Lieutenant Matt Kolwalski (George Clooney), who's last mission before retirement is this very one. Things seem to be going swell when disaster strikes: The shuttle is destroyed from incoming debris which was part of a defunct satellite, and now the two must find a way to safely return to Earth.

There are supporting characters in the movie, but I didn't mention any of them because all of them are killed off within 10 minutes of the movie. This leaves us with Sandra Bullock and George Clooney's character for the rest of the film. Sadly, neither of the two are interesting enough to shine in the midst of stunning effects and an environment where intense character development can not happen. Dr. Stone is your typical workaholic intellectual who is in distress because of past tragedies involving her family. She lost her daughter to an accident and feels guilty about it, but I don't remember much beyond that because movie doesn't say. Matt Kolwalski is another typical character who the writers picked up at the Cinema Depot for half price. Just imagine a laid-back and easy-going veteran who cracks jokes and makes unnecessary and unfunny quips (my favorite: when the debris from the satellite cuts power being sent to America, he actually says; "half of America just lost their Facebook").

Afterwards there is a lot of panicking and spinning, which is very effective as the entire frame is focused on the moment of the two main characters as the camera keeps rotating with very few cuts. Then after all the tension peace comes as Stone and Kowalski regain oxygen and slowly head their way towards to the nearby "Tiangong", a Chinese space station.

I won't blow what happens to the two of them and if they get safely back home or not, but I will say that nothing particularly innovating happens after the amazing shuttle sequence that convinced everyone to see Gravity. Cuaron seems to be aware that Clooney is not a particularly good actor to focus on when trying to extract raw emotion from the vastness of space and the contrasting human psychological strains within, so for most of the film it's a Sandra Bullock one-woman show. Alright, she delivers, but once she takes over she divides the film into two parts - the first being a cataclysm of stunning imagery, and the second part, of course, being a mediocre drama set in the bleakest place in the universe.

Thus, the film tries to be one of those films that blends imagery and intense dialogue and acting together, yet fails on both parts. It could have gone for a minimalist direction, by focusing mostly on internal conflicts and have the obscure space as an effective backdrop, or maybe go on full surreal like 2001: A Space Odyssey did and have Dr. Stone and Kowalski have the experiences of their lives - and in the end turn them into another one of those 4th dimensional space babies. However, like I said above, Gravity lacks the ambition, and the fear of being different from other space survival films, and even when it has ambition, it is wasted.

Apparently Sandra Bullock got nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in this film. This is (1) another sign that this film was heavily over-praised back then in 2013 (and still is) and (2) showing that the Academy has maintained it's low standards. According to these standards, Children of Men should have won every award available. But the Academy folks didn't do that and Curaon and his buddies had to resort to making a film that would save them from financial dept.