Gravity!

Gravity

Director: Alfonso Cuarón
With: Sandra Bullock, George Clooney

Just earlier this year, I felt blessed to see one of the greatest cinematic splendor in Ang Lee's Life of Pi. I never thought it would be followed by another brilliant film experience in a short amount of time. But Gravity made me feel that again. Gravity is simply spectacular.

The film revolves around two astronauts -- Dr. Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock), a NASA medical engineer, and Matt Kowalski (George Clooney), a veteran astronaut and the space shuttle leader on his last mission, when an accident occurred in space leaving them stranded 370 miles above Earth.

From a technical stand point, Gravity, perhaps, is the best film I've seen this year. It made Pacific Rim's visual effects look like shit and take note, I was gushing the latter when I saw it. It just blew everything out of the water. Watching it in IMAX surely helped my viewing. For a time, it really felt like you're watching the Earth from the outer space.

All praises to Alfonso Cuarón! He managed to immerse his viewers to a thrilling ride that surely made everyone tremble at the edge of their seats. His choices of shots vary from establishing, to point-of-view, to close up and each shot was perfection. The long establishing shot of the Earth at the beginning of the film was just AMAZING. The inclusion of the sun and how it flickers each time the characters cover it is one of the littlest details I glorify in it. The auroras, the islands, the clouds, the eye of the storm, they're breathtaking. And then scene after scene, obstacles after obstacles, Cuarón keeps his camera moving and floating like we're being rewarded of a next level to a video game that we're playing, especially each time the characters survive the scene. One will find himself bending and/or moving on his chair hoping that the characters will be able to hold on to something away from the swallowing darkness of the universe. It's basically a combination of beautiful imagery, anxiety and terror. It's kind of anticlimatic to think that those were just CGIs, that these are just part of the studio and production design of the film. Because it's so realistic that it's unreal.

In space, there is no sound but the supposed noise of massive destruction of satellites in one orbit and the deadly bullet speed debris scattered in the outer space were altered by the heart racing score of Steven Price. I have never heard of him before but he will surely get recognized because of this film. His score is not only effective for the heart pounding scenes, but he also shines in the saddest and most intimate parts of the film. And at the end of the film, one would also feel overwhelmed and victorious. Price's score is a huge factor why that happens.

The script by Alfonso and his son, Jonas, also added to the effectiveness of Gravity. The right amount of drama and humor balances out the depressing state of being stucked in the outerspace. It may be lacking of depth in terms of story arcs, but it's definitely not lacking of philosophy and spirituality. Letting go and the willingness to live are some of the underlying themes of the film. Think of 127 Hours, except the setting is in an ocean of nothingness, the main character is not trapped in a canyon, rather, she's trapped in an infinite vastness of space, with a whole lot more of stressful problems and nerve racking action. But to be honest, it's really more about the plight of the character, instead of her history. There's no need for flashbacks and elaborated back stories. The humor also worked well because of Sandra Bullock's impeccable timing and George Clooney's arrogant yet charming way of delivering his lines. With great chemistry and charisma, Bullock and Clooney are two of the strongest aspects of the film. I'm elated by the fact that Sandra, who's almost 50, was given this kind of role. I never thought that she can pull this off. But she proved me wrong. She was able to develop a character that is cold in nature to become rootable and sympathetic. Her, imitating the sound of a dog, knowing that it could be the last time to hear another sound from a living thing, is heartbreaking and to think, it's not really a saddening imitation. I mean, it's Sandra Bullock, known for her comedic antics, howling. It's supposed to be crazy and funny. But she managed to make the theater quiet, while probably most of the audience's eyes were already tearing up behind their 3D glasses. It's also surprising that she has some Ellen Ripley moves in her! The way she moved inside those wrecking satellites were impressive. Her Ryan Stone is definitely in the same league with other bad ass lead characters like Sigourney Weaver's Ellen Ripley in Alien and Jodie Foster's Clarice Starling in Silence of the Lambs. I'm so proud of her! George Clooney turned out to be extremely likable as well. His character, Matt Kowalski, served as the calm astronaut in the middle of chaos in the outer space. The role perfectly suited him as his character has the ideal qualities of a confident man that Clooney is used to portraying. Of course, it also helps that these two actors look good together and their roles here have some attraction going on. There are some weak and cheesy parts in the script but those are easy to overlook as the film's really about the stunning and original visuals with great concept and superb performances.

It's pretty obvious that I love this movie. But I wish I could convince more people to give this film a go and watch it in IMAX. It's worth the time, it's worth the money, it's a great experience, believe the hype as it lives up to it! Gravity is still showing in theaters and I expect it to last a few more weeks. But in case you miss it, I believe that Gravity would turn out to be one of the most popular films of our generation, or at least its genre, that we'd be able to watch it again 10 or 20 years from now. Probably in 4D or 5D. :p