Just saw it today and wow, is this the best movie of all time ever in the history of the universe or what?

Sure you can quibble and nitpick (I did on a couple of things) but what a spectacular, beautiful, tense movie. I literally cannot remember the last time I was so enthralled by a story and in sheer awe of what I was seeing. That I saw it at the IMAX in 3D was the cherry on the proverbial icing.

Loved all the details and most of all how it trusted the audience to understand what was going on. There seemed very little pandering to idiots. I would bet that in any other movie, Stone would have commented to herself on how she was feeling the effects of gravity as she lay on that beach trying to get up.

To borrow a phrase; Gravity is a perfect movie and if you don't agree then you're Hitler.

Well, I've only seen it the once and didn't notice anything especially egregrious about that scene. I thought Bulloch's performance was pretty great throughout, it seemed like a real, genuine character - her voice would break a little when she raised it and the range of emotions that played out on her face on her journey home and in her eyes was exemplary.

Do you really mean it was awful, or was it actually just less awesome than the rest of the movie?

I think that scene works precisely because it's so cringeworthy and pathetic what she's doing. When she realizes how pathetic it is and breaks down weeping, it's a very real and emotional moment.

That was the way I saw it as well.

So... perfECT!

Wow, that scene actually worked for all you guys? It seemed obviously bad to me. Whatevs. I'm never going to love this movie as much as most people. It's a visual marvel with some cool symbolism. Not the greatest sci-fi movie ever, or even the greatest movie of the year.

I just didn't see the point of it, and if it was a better scene that wouldn't have mattered. Like I said earlier, I don't think we need a scene of her talking to that random guy. Cuaron was kinda jumping through hoops to get some lines in there for Bullock, to give her someone to talk to. It would have been so much bolder to just cut the bullshit and have almost NO dialogue after the first few scenes. All Is Lost did this perfectly.

I guess this gets back to the idea that I was expecting a much more minimalistic movie, and I got a relatively dense and layered one instead. I'd like Gravity a lot more if it was the former instead of the latter. Because come on, we see this kind of scene all the time. The lone hero, at his/her lowest point, reaches out to someone to spill their guts right before the climactic sequence. It's in Die Hard for god's sake.

Yeah, but the other problem is that Gravity doesn't have a whole lot to say. There's some conception/birth imagery which is interesting but I don't understand what this whole "grand vision about humanity" is that you're talking about. What did you get out of it that I didn't?

I like all of those interpretations a lot. It's still not what I wanted the film to be, but for what it is, Gravity kicks ass 99% of the time.

Apart from the stunning VFX (those render times must have been horrendous), I enjoyed the fact that the movie was NOT about saving humanity. There was no portal to close that was about to let an alien invasion take place. There was no evil super villain.

Having only two characters and lots of still scenes and long takes make excellent use of the 3D. Other 3D movies suffer by having too many edits, shaky cam, and too much action for the brain to process.

A couple of minor downsides: the 'gotta get back on the horse' character-arc sub-plot was a bit forced, and a couple of physics quibbles (fire extinguisher, Clooney sacrifice).  Not enough to ruin the movie though. No where near it.

Yes, that did make it refreshing. Just plain old real adversity.

The one major inaccuracy that I've not seen anyone talk about? All EMUs have SAFERs attached to them, even when attached to the arm. These Simplified Aid for EVA Rescue packs are a little propulsive unit that fits onto the main backpack and are designed specifically to allow astronauts to move around and return in case of trouble. So Stone should have been able to stabilise and return to the shuttle on her own. I looked, she's not wearing one.

Now one could have made the argument that this was before these were introduced, back when the bigger MMU was being tested - that famous picture of Bruce McCandless doing the first untethered EVA looks remarkably like what Clooney is doing (and he says he is testing it) - in the 80s I think it was and following a typical old Hubble repair mission profile, except the film is much more likely to be set in the future with the Tiangong station completed, the ISS completed, and shuttle missions at STS-157 (we ended at 135).

Also, the station tends to have railings and handles all over it, ideally an astronaut can move across most of its surface without ever untethering (in actual fact, astronauts always remain tethered), so I was quite surprised to see Stone take numerous risks leaping from one rail to the next. Considering that she was always missing things, I would have thought that she'd be clinging on for dear life. Granted she was in a bit of a hurry.

And airlock doors wouldn't fly open like that, that would have smashed an astronaut's helmet or sent him/her flying away.

Finally, I'm pretty sure the Soyuz flight suit has to have an external power source etc. and whilst when she's detaching the parachute she has the umbilical, she doesn't later have it when she's transfering to the Tiangong. In fact, technically, she'd be wearing the Sokol suit, which isn't designed for EVA at all. However, maybe in this near future they are?

Yep, I wish I hadn't spend the last 2-3 years or so researching about this stuff for my own story, I wouldn't have noticed stuff like this.

Edit - conversely, I buy that Kowalski decides to detach himself, since Stone doesn't have an adequate anchor to pull him in. The act of pulling on the tether would have exerted force on the ropes around her leg and at the other end, which would likely have come loose as a result. You know, for every force there is an equal and opposite reaction?

Last edited by redxavier (2013-11-16 12:30:33)