GRAVITY - A GRAVITATION OF MASTERFUL VISION

GRAVITY is entirely set in space and the only life form that you will encounter throughout the entire movie are that of two characters, Sandra Bollock and George Clooney.
There are NO menacing aliens, NO futuristic setting, NO star wars of any scale, NO post nuclear struggle and NO quest for dark ancestral entities.

You might ask then, "where o where" is the adventure, thrill or suspense that you might expect as in the case of any good sci-fi movie? What could this movie possibly offer especially with NO futuristic vision, laser marauding army, intelligent-ugly aliens or that epic space war of which the fate of all mankind is on the brink of extinction?

The vision, synchronicity, virtual lighting and innovation of Gravity is breathtaking

Comparing this with other sci-fi themed genre movies on the shelfs of DVD stores would be a mistake. Such movies as the groundbreaking Aliens or Star Wars (which I must confess that I have not watched a single screening before) all created much hype then due to it's appealing 'star alien' and engaging futuristic props as well as spacecrafts…but we have learned that even then, maybe quite despairingly, that sometime even those can't save some movies - Damon's incorrigible Elysium or Ridley Scotts disastrous Prometheus comes to mind.

Indeed, all that GRAVITY boasts are that of vast space, the art of space walking, a dreaded space debris - the space equivalent of a tsunami, empty space stations and more space nothingness of endless darkness with specks of light far yonder.

BUT PLEASE, LET ME WARN YOU - MISS THIS AT YOUR OWN PERIL!

Sandra Bullock is Mission Specialist Ryan Stone 

STORYBOARD

"At 600 Kilometres above the planet earth, the temperature fluctuates between 120 degrees Celcius and -100 degrees Celcius".

"There is nothing to carry sound. There is no oxygen, no air resistance and no air pressure".

"LIFE, is impossible"!

The movie opens with these words spread across your screen and the endless vast, dark emptiness of infinite space and the orbiting splendour of Earth.

A movie that is gravitationally (pun intended) a masterpiece

The camera then pans across and introduces us to Mission Specialist Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock), a medical Engineer who is on her very first space mission aboard the Space Shuttle - Explorer. She is commanded by the veteran astronaut Matt Kowalski (George Clooney) and their three strong crew (who are almost non-existent as we are only introduced to their 'voices'). During their routine mission spacewalk to repair some non-functionality of the Hubble Space Telescope, they are alerted by Houston (Mission Control - voice of Ed Harris) of a possible threat involving space debris from a Russian satellite that has exploded and its chain reaction of debris that is fast 'clouding' in their trajectory altitude and direction.

As Ryan and Matt scavenge to return to the Explorer, the high speed debris suddenly appear out from the dark space and ravages the Explorer and Hubble. In the hailstorm of debris, the mission ends up with devastating damage to the Explorer and in the process, its crew are killed. Ryan and Matt are hurled violently over space and as the debris threaten their mortality, Matt and Ryan are saved, ironically, they are detached from their tether line. But now, Ryan is hurling off into space altogether with completely no control and to her death as the oxygen level in her space suit inevitably depletes.

George Clooney is Matt Kowalski, a veteran astronaut

THE GRAVITATING 

Imagine, being thousands of miles from earth, completely on your own, floating, no sound and just vast dark space all around you, flickering lights as far away as your eyes could see and the humbling truth knowing that the debris that had just devastated your entire hope for life, will indefinitely be completing the orbital journey around earth and thus, straight at you. Your choices are, pray that either your oxygen runs out before that or by some miracle, help arrives.

Fearlessness to overcome every personal barrier drives Ryan Stone 

Help does arrive for Ryan, as Matt comes for her and the both of them carefully tether towards the Russian Space Station a few miles out as the Explorer proves to have perished indefinitely. But by now, the debris has already made their orbital circle and the oxygen level is fast depleting, including the backpack space travel fuel. The debris again hails savagely upon our space travellers and by now, the viewers are now at their seats edge and deeply immersed into this journey of absolute terror in space. Amid this, the emotional roller coaster that the viewer experience is tremendous but surprisingly, the emotional banter in the movie is kept at a minimal from start to finish. Its almost as if the viewer is left to fill in the blanks on their own or to replace these with equally personal experience of the same visceral context. In many ways, this directive is the reason why the audience will feel the suspense almost right to the end of the movie.

Space debris devastates the mission and survival of the Explorer space crew

The adversities that are conceptualised are perfectly timed, perfectly directed and brilliantly performed - interlacing with the deeply emotional moments, amid the struggle to overcome the adversity or celebrate the victorious degree of triumph. The peacefulness that come from knowing that you had survived. The surrender to the knowledge of how vast the universe is and that no human could ever understand its nature and the will to fight for your very own survival, defying the very nature and your own fears.

The movie, in its purposeful way, seem to question our very existence and our endless journey as individualistic humans are subtly interlaced into the scenes and are connotatively suggested. There is a particular scene in the movie, after an adversity of great challenge, Ryan finally hurls herself inside the safety of the Russian space station, and peeling off her space suit, to be left only clad in her under-clothing, she then, in complete peace and oneness with herself, floats in mid-air, slowly tucks her knees towards her and with the uncanny setting of the lit airlock as its background. It was reminiscent of a foetal position in the womb of the mother and at that instant, i felt this was quite the visionary strokes of both Alfonso Cuaron and cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki. The sense of realism and its underlying insinuations quite the triumph.

The premise of space and the cinematography and digital realism is spellbinding

WHY WATCH

Its very difficult to exactly describe why GRAVITY, is for me, THE movie that will matter for quite some time. The innovative boldness and directive brilliance of Alfonso Cuaron is breathtaking. The screen writing of both Alfonso and his son, Jonas is sheer movie philosophical mastery. The brilliance of setting the entire movie in space but being able to assert everything as true to life and as we know it, simply is magical. It is devastatingly intricately detailed in every shot that you witness. If you keenly watch, the determination to meet the exact accuracy of each scene is quite spellbinding and leaves you in desperate awe. For example, there is a scene where the reflection mirrored off Ryan's space helmet show intricately identical viewpoint to that of what Matt would view in the following scene and in yet another example, the earth landscape from space is transformed to coincide with the sun setting and the earth orbiting.

Alfonso Cuaron has set the new benchmark for movies in this genre

The concept of a single character, determined in his or her quest is all too familiar in Hollywood movies. But GRAVITY has successfully developed this adaptation to far greater heights and is set to be the new benchmark in this categorised theme. Without any reliance for the stereotypical futuristic gimmick, multi-developed characters, sexual bravado or violent gratification, Director Alfonso Cuaron has emerged quite literally - an authentic genius. Sandra Bullock is endearingly captivating as the character who we learn have tragically lost her daughter to a freak accident and in that self punishing solidarity finds herself in space, fighting for her own life and although completely lost of all hope, fights to keep her sanity and overcome her fear to survive.

Sandra Bullock in the Russian Space Station attempting to contact George Clooney

The photo realism is staggering. The incidental music is exceptionally haunting and at times, almost numbing to without any warning, suddenly fade, abruptly into complete silence. The realism of its premises and overall physical principles are simply remarkable. The pace of the story is tremendous. It's a visceral experience, almost a primal experience of velocity to the audience.

IF YOU HAVE TIME TO ONLY WATCH ONE MOVIE THEN GRAVITY SHOULD BE IT

Everything that is said, every sound that you hear, every visual that you see and every moment of the movie that you watch is almost as if it is astoundingly driven towards its own fearlessness and its eventual journey into the metaphoric connotation of adversity, failure, life, survival and re-birth.

DO NOT MISS THE OPPORTUNITY TO WATCH THIS !

Rating 9 of 10