Movie Review: Gravity

While on spring break this year, I did some traveling across the US and watched "Gravity."


WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD


"Gravity" is a film set in space inspired by the Kessler Syndrome (a theory about space debris). Dr. Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) and astronaut Matt Kowalski (George Clooney) are on a mission dealing with the Hubble Telescope when debris from a Russian satellite destroys their shuttle and sets them adrift in space. After the two are separated, Stone must find a way to get to another space station or die in space.

The story, mostly seen from Stone's perspective, is easy to follow and pretty much is about a situation where everything in space goes wrong. The film is definitely intense and keeps you interested; I spent most of the movie sitting on the edge of my seat, wondering what would happen next. The only scene that I didn't like was when it looked like Kowalski ended up miraculously surviving but instead turns out to be a hallucination who urges Stone not to give up; I can't really explain it, but I wasn't overly fond of how Stone found the motivation to keep living.

The actors were well-chosen. I liked Clooney as the talkative, charming Kowalski who acts calmly and bravely in the midst of the chaos. Bullock did an excellent job as Stone, who is afraid and doesn't know what to do; she acts like all of us who have absolutely no experience in space, and it makes you sympathetic to her and what she feels.

The film is visually beautiful, and the effects are amazing. The views of earth in orbit and the stars are stunning, and the effects for no gravity and how things react in no-gravity are well-done. What really impressed me was how realistic the sound was. In most space movies like "Star Wars," you get sound in outer space; however, the director Cuaron does an accurate portrayal so scenes where the space stations are being destroyed are silent, except for any sound that the characters make, and this makes those scenes even more intense.

All in all, I enjoyed the film. It definitely deserved all those awards that it was nominated for and won. It is a bit too intense to be something that you watch over and over again, but it's certainly worth an occasional viewing.

I give it four and 1/2 out of five stars.