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Review: Gravity

By Christine Petralia

Image courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

October 6, 2013

 

Visually stimulating and somewhat realistic, a broad somewhat, Gravity features just two lead characters, Sandra Bullock and George Clooney, and is basically a story about survival. But those that go to see this film shouldn’t really go to see a good storyline, but rather amazing special effects.

 

Dr. Ryan Stone (Bullock) is a bio-medical engineer on her first space mission with veteran astronaut Matt Kowalski (Clooney), who is actually on his final mission. Just as they are finishing up the job, Mission Control in Houston warns them that debris from a Russian anti-satellite test is headed their way, and they may lose communication. Sure enough, the debris interrupts communication, destroys the shuttle and sends Stone off into deep space with low oxygen in her suit. Kowalski, who is in a thruster pack, finds Stone and they tether back to the shuttle to find they are the sole survivors.

 

Together the pair works its way to the International Space Station (ISS) to hopefully board a Soyuz module and head home to earth. Upon approach, Kowalski sees that one Soyuz has already been deployed by the ISS crew, and the second one won’t make it to earth because the parachute was prematurely deployed. As they try to stay attached to the ISS, Kowalski sacrifices himself so Stone can live. She eventually enters the ISS via an airlock, after almost losing oxygen.

 

She gets into the Soyuz and after trouble detaching from the burning ISS, she starts to make her way to the Chinese space station Tiangong. Halfway there, she loses fuel and resigns herself to the fact that she’s stranded and will most likely die. However, after a ‘visit’ from Kowalski, she thinks outside the box to arrive at Tiangong. Once there, she gets into another Soyuz and heads to earth.

 

As always, Bullock plays the straight-laced no non-sense character, while Clooney brings a little humor into a serious film. Though they both didn’t stray from their normal roles, the complexity in filming this movie makes you appreciate it more than you should.

 

For space fanatics, I’m sure there are a ton of scientific inaccuracies, specifically the fact that neither character had a dark-shielded helmet to protect themselves from the sun’s intensity.

 

As usual, I didn’t see the film in 3D or IMax, as most know I am not a fan or spending that kind of cash, but I can only imagine how great it must have been in 3D, since it was filmed in 3D. I’m assuming the IMax version made some dizzy, but probably still pretty spectacular and most likely made you feel like you were in space.

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All works created by Christine McGrath; Centereach, New York  All Rights Reserved 2024

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