3-D
Films, by and large, are dreadful. Well, perhaps that deserve
qualification. The use of 3-D is dreadful, and very often little more
than a way to drive up the ticket price. In many cases the movie is not
even filmed natively for three dimensions but instead converted to be
3-D, lessening the quality.
In the end the final result is rarely worth
the price of admission, with a little needed third dimension added for
gimmicky moments in which characters zoom toward the screen, and
headaches acquired from the badly done conversion process. Almost to a
one, three 3-D films should die a quick death, because most films do not
need to be seen in 3-D.
Gravity is not one of those films.
I’m almost at a loss to understand how the particular effects achieved in
this movie could be done without a third dimension. The issue is not
merely that the movie unfolds in space. No, if that were it, then it
wouldn’t require three dimensions by virtue of that fact alone. Many
good movies have used the isolation and deadliness of outer space as a
setting, and to good effect. What Gravity does
goes beyond simply the isolation of space. Instead, it presents us with
moments that require 3-D to be as completely effective as they end up
being.
In many instances the movie takes place from the first person
perspective, with the protagonist, Dr. Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock),
whipping about, the earth spinning into view, then out, then the space
shuttle passing into view before giving way to a sight of the sun.
Circle after circle is flipped in which the added sense of depth puts a
churning into your stomach. When Stone flies toward the shuttle and
grabs desperately for a handhold, you feel you’re the one grabbing it.
That’s why three dimensions was needed here. It was a film that demanded
it.
What
makes a good movie, though? Could Gravity get by on the strength of its
effects alone? Perhaps, if it were aiming to merely be a thriller. In
fact, many times the film veered on the edge of being just that, a movie
content to indulge in its gut churningly impressive views of space as
Stone tries to make her way to safety. Accident after accident happens
it what can only be described as ‘accident-porn’. Think you’ve seen the
last of a cloud of space debris hurtling toward our hero and threatening
to kill her? Just wait, you’ll see it three more times, alongside
explosions, fires, and escape pods hanging on the edge of destruction.
It
was almost tiresome, but the movie was impressive enough that it could
have danced on the precipice of being a C-Grade, or low B-Grade film.
What was difficult was investing into Bullock’s character. What seemed
to be throwaway lines about her having a child that died and having
nobody on Earth that might miss her if she died, seemed at first to be
ways of forcing the audience to care, faux-sentimental moments drowned
by wave after wave of accidents threatening her life.
And
then, Stone finds herself struggling to survive, trying to pilot a
craft she has little training in, and listening to a radio transmission
from earth. Then, in that one scene, the movie came together. Patience
was rewarded. Gravity is
not about Bullock’s attempt to survive in space; no, it’s about her
attempt to survive the act of living. Childless, friendless, what is
there to give her reason to survive? Why should she even try? Director
Alfonso Cuaron addresses these questions using space as the scene, and
these lonely moments hammer home the things that Stone misses, wants,
desires, and how those give her the willingness to face life. In finding
the courage to face life, truly the greatest challenge for us all, she
also finds the willingness to fight back against a relentlessly uncaring
void of outer space. The answers she finds in herself give her the
answers she needs to battle against her predicament.
Aided
by composer Steven Price’s wonderful soundtrack, which evokes typical
tense moments but, more critically, captures isolation, loneliness and
the thrill of survival, the movie surges toward a harrowing and
triumphant ending. The sound direction, as well, needs complimenting.
It’s one of the few cases of stereo sound done right, with incoming
radio signals touching your left ear, then your right, as if you were
inside a space suit yourself. Finally, the most powerful moments are
graced by George Clooney’s character of Matt Kowalski. Obsessed with
setting the space walking record, he’s an ever calm presence in quickly
deteriorating circumstances. Not only a source of peace and wisdom,
Kowalski and Stone share such a powerfully moving moment that I all at
once understood what the film was trying to convey.
4 / 5 Stars.
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