Post by erik on Nov 16, 2023 23:42:07 GMT -5
Quote by Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) in GRAVITY:
For all the talk about DC Comics or Marvel Comics films, and the hundreds of millions that studios spend on CGI, science fiction movies in the 21st century are not a dead species. Witness a film that came out ten years ago in the fall of 2013, the incredible sci-fi/suspense film Gravity. So many CGI/SFX movies rely to an unhealthy degree on plots that defy credibility, but this isn't one of those films.
Probably about as original and realistic a film as any there is that is set in the vacuum of space, even if just above the Earth’s atmosphere, that Hollywood had made after films like 2001: A Space Odyssey and Apollo 13, films that it takes inspiration from, Gravity stars Samdra Bullock and George Clooney as astronauts doing a routine repair job on the Hubble Space Telescope who find themselves in the middle of a severe crisis when a huge debris field, created by the accidental missile hit on a Russian satellite, destroys both the shuttle and the telescope itself, as well as the shuttle crew. The horrifying incident leaves the two of them stranded some 400 miles above the Earth’s surface, with only their spacesuits protecting them against the airless and soundless vacuum of the void.
Their only hope for survival is to reach the International Space Station. Unfortunately, the debris field caused by the satellite explosion has created a chain effect of other satellites being destroyed in orbit, creating a massive swath of debris that keeps hurtling at them at thousands of miles per hour. Some of that debris has already destroyed the I.S.S. and killed the crew. Clooney sacrifices himself in order to get Bullock into the remaining Soyuz escape pod still attached to the I.S.S.; but again, complications arise. Only after a hair-raising, eye popping dilemma does Bullock get into the pod and head for the nearby Chinese space station, which itself has also suffered extreme damage. Bullock, understandably in a huge panic, has only a limited amount of time before she gets into the Chinese escape pod and survives the intense heat of re-entry, plus another debris field created by the Chinese space station as it re-enters the atmosphere.
Whether seen in the regular wide-screen format, in 3-D, or in the specialized IMAX 3-D (where it would share a further comparison with the 1987 IMAX documentary about the space shuttle program, The Dream Is Alive), Gravity succeeds as great science fiction; and while it may occasionally overwhelm the viewer with the 3-D process and the avalanche of CGI (though the budget stayed at around $80 million), the effects don’t overshadow the storyline or the characters, which is a marked and refreshing contrast to most Hollywood big-budget spectacles of the 21st century. What is perhaps most remarkable about Gravity is that it was a Mexican filmmaker, Alfonso Cuaron, who also directed 2001’s Y Tu Mama Tambien, and 2004’s Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, who both and directed and co=wrote it (along with his son Jonas). Even with all the high tech wizardry at his disposal, Cuaron in general made Gravity into a film that has a great deal of the dogged realism and tension of Apollo 13, and the sense of realism, awe, and wonder inherent in 2001, films that it can stand up to comparison quite well.
Much of this film’s focus is on Bullock, using her intelligence and hard-won courage to ensure her own survival, which had best been hinted at before in the 1994 action blockbuster Speed. Even Clooney is on for only the first 40 minutes of this 91-minute saga; and Harris, who portrayed NASA flight director Gene Kranz in Apollo 13, is only credited with being the voice of Mission Control. In essence, Gravity is an outer space character study, and Bullock is the character in question; and she carries that role quite well.
Gravity won a mind-busting seven Academy Awards in 2013 (for Director; Cinematography; Film Editing; Music Score [Steven Price, who utilizes synthesizers and glass armonicas]); Visual Effects [natch!]; Sound Editing; and Sound Mixing); and Bullock, who carries much of this film on her own, got a nomination for Best Actress, and rightly so. This is one of the best science fiction films of this highly visual/aural era in Hollywood, and is a masterpiece on par with 2001 (IMHO).
The way I see it, there's only two possible outcomes. Either I, make it down there in one piece and I have one hell of a story to tell. Or I burn up in the next ten minutes. Either way whichever way, no harm no foul.
Cos either way, it'll be one hell of a ride. I'm ready.
Cos either way, it'll be one hell of a ride. I'm ready.
For all the talk about DC Comics or Marvel Comics films, and the hundreds of millions that studios spend on CGI, science fiction movies in the 21st century are not a dead species. Witness a film that came out ten years ago in the fall of 2013, the incredible sci-fi/suspense film Gravity. So many CGI/SFX movies rely to an unhealthy degree on plots that defy credibility, but this isn't one of those films.
Probably about as original and realistic a film as any there is that is set in the vacuum of space, even if just above the Earth’s atmosphere, that Hollywood had made after films like 2001: A Space Odyssey and Apollo 13, films that it takes inspiration from, Gravity stars Samdra Bullock and George Clooney as astronauts doing a routine repair job on the Hubble Space Telescope who find themselves in the middle of a severe crisis when a huge debris field, created by the accidental missile hit on a Russian satellite, destroys both the shuttle and the telescope itself, as well as the shuttle crew. The horrifying incident leaves the two of them stranded some 400 miles above the Earth’s surface, with only their spacesuits protecting them against the airless and soundless vacuum of the void.
Their only hope for survival is to reach the International Space Station. Unfortunately, the debris field caused by the satellite explosion has created a chain effect of other satellites being destroyed in orbit, creating a massive swath of debris that keeps hurtling at them at thousands of miles per hour. Some of that debris has already destroyed the I.S.S. and killed the crew. Clooney sacrifices himself in order to get Bullock into the remaining Soyuz escape pod still attached to the I.S.S.; but again, complications arise. Only after a hair-raising, eye popping dilemma does Bullock get into the pod and head for the nearby Chinese space station, which itself has also suffered extreme damage. Bullock, understandably in a huge panic, has only a limited amount of time before she gets into the Chinese escape pod and survives the intense heat of re-entry, plus another debris field created by the Chinese space station as it re-enters the atmosphere.
Whether seen in the regular wide-screen format, in 3-D, or in the specialized IMAX 3-D (where it would share a further comparison with the 1987 IMAX documentary about the space shuttle program, The Dream Is Alive), Gravity succeeds as great science fiction; and while it may occasionally overwhelm the viewer with the 3-D process and the avalanche of CGI (though the budget stayed at around $80 million), the effects don’t overshadow the storyline or the characters, which is a marked and refreshing contrast to most Hollywood big-budget spectacles of the 21st century. What is perhaps most remarkable about Gravity is that it was a Mexican filmmaker, Alfonso Cuaron, who also directed 2001’s Y Tu Mama Tambien, and 2004’s Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, who both and directed and co=wrote it (along with his son Jonas). Even with all the high tech wizardry at his disposal, Cuaron in general made Gravity into a film that has a great deal of the dogged realism and tension of Apollo 13, and the sense of realism, awe, and wonder inherent in 2001, films that it can stand up to comparison quite well.
Much of this film’s focus is on Bullock, using her intelligence and hard-won courage to ensure her own survival, which had best been hinted at before in the 1994 action blockbuster Speed. Even Clooney is on for only the first 40 minutes of this 91-minute saga; and Harris, who portrayed NASA flight director Gene Kranz in Apollo 13, is only credited with being the voice of Mission Control. In essence, Gravity is an outer space character study, and Bullock is the character in question; and she carries that role quite well.
Gravity won a mind-busting seven Academy Awards in 2013 (for Director; Cinematography; Film Editing; Music Score [Steven Price, who utilizes synthesizers and glass armonicas]); Visual Effects [natch!]; Sound Editing; and Sound Mixing); and Bullock, who carries much of this film on her own, got a nomination for Best Actress, and rightly so. This is one of the best science fiction films of this highly visual/aural era in Hollywood, and is a masterpiece on par with 2001 (IMHO).