Gravity: Critically Acclaimed Yawn-Fest

There is a sort of fascination about humans exploring the unknown of the space. So, since it was critically acclaimed, in 2013 I decided to see Gravity.

Maxim Trevelyan
Writer, Ravenclaw

I always enjoyed the movies about space, ever since I saw Armageddon with my father when I was a child. There is a sort of fascination about humans exploring the unknown of the space. So, since it was critically acclaimed, in 2013 I decided to see Gravity. That was the first time I actually fell asleep during a movie in the cinema. I revisited the movie a week ago to see if I did it injustice. Nope, still boring.

Matt Kowalski (George Clooney) is the commander of NASA Space Shuttle Explorer, which is situated in the Earth’s orbit. Dr. Ryan Stone, played by Sandra Bullock, is on board, as a part of her first space mission. Her job is to do routine upgrades on the Hubble Space Telescope. While she is spacewalking, Mission Control gives the two astronauts a warning that a Russian missile has hit one of the defunct satellites, but caused a chain reaction, sending space debris at them. Mission Control orders them to return to Earth immediately, but before Kowalski and Stone can do that, communication is cut and space debris is threatening their very lives.

Credit where credit is due, the visuals of the movie are amazing, especially when seen in IMAX or any big screen. You could really imagine yourself being in space, next to the actors, seeing what they are seeing, almost feeling their experiences as though they were real. Cuaron (the director), despite his flaws, is a master of the camera and how to frame a shot just perfectly, from the big, vast panoramic views to a single tear drop floating in zero gravity. 

With the cast they also went with less is more, as throughout all of the movie, only two characters are prominently featured, with the rest of them (whopping four) being delegated to voice-acting only. I think Clooney and Bullock did a very good job with what they had. That being said, the worst thing about the movie was the lack of a good dialogue. It seems as if Cuaron focused too much on what he wanted to show us, so the writing suffered.

Is it worth a watch? Maybe, if you are into existential, deep-thought provoking movies. Gravity is not really your average space adventure. Then again, maybe I just was not its target audience and it fell completely flat because of that.