Genre Grandeur September Finale – Gravity (2013)

For the final review for this month’s Genre Grandeur – Space, here’s a review from Tom of Digital Shortbread of last years big Oscar winner – Gravity. (seems to be a recurring movie for this Genre) 🙂  If you don’t already follow his site, I strongly urge you to do so.  He has great movie reviews and a great rating system.

For anyone who is interested in joining next months Genre which is Biopics all you have to do is send me an email with a review of your favorite biopic movie to biopic@movierob.net before the 25th of the month.

This month, we had a record number of submissions for this series, a whopping 17 entries. (yes, I helped a bit) 🙂

Thanks to everyone who participated and big thanks to Tom for choosing a Genre so close to my heart (Thanks Man!!!)

If you missed any of them, here’s a recap:

 

The Right Stuff (1983) – Niall

The Phantom Menace (1999) – Luke

Gravity (2013) – Troy

Jason X (2001) – Eric

Prometheus (2012) – Drew

Star Trek: Into Darkness (2013) – Cara

Moon (2009) – Justine

Avatar (2009) – Natasha

For All Mankind (1989) – Rob

Solaris (1972) – Anna

In The Shadow of the Moon (2007) – Rob

Aliens (1986) – Kieron

Gravity (2013) (yes, again) – Rob

The Right Stuff (1983) – Rob

Apollo 13 (1995) – Rob

From The Earth to the Moon (1998) – Rob

and now Tom‘s review of Gravity (2013)

 

Let’s see what Tom thought of Gravity

 

GRAVITY

 

 

Number of times seen – 1 (October 3, 2013)

 

 

Brief Synopsis – “A medical engineer and an astronaut work together to survive after a catastrophe destroys their shuttle and leaves them adrift in orbit.”

 

 

My take on it – Yay! I get to have the final say on Genre Grandeur for the month of September! (Thanks Rob!) While what I’m choosing for today may be a very contemporary choice (coming out only last October), there can be no denying the immediate impact this bad boy has already had on the industry.

 

We could sit and argue all day whether the underlining plot truly matched the visual spectacle that lay claim to many an Oscar trophy and even more nom’s last year. Personally I felt the relatively slack narrative fit the circumstances perfectly. In fact, the lack of detours and plot complications — Dr. Ryan Stone (Bullock) simply needed to get back to Earth, else she faces death in the vacuum of space — helped amp up the inauspiciousness of the ordeal: just to survive these events is going to be one hell of a struggle.

 

Casting aside extraneous relationship developments, intricate vignettes, excesses of prosaic asides and exposition mumbo-jumbo, now Oscar-winning director Alfonso Cuarón cut the fat down on this juicy steak and primed it with the essentials. Clocking in at 91 minutes Gravity opens to deafening silence and sustains nail-biting tension while involving the actions of only two characters — that of Dr. Stone, whose inexperience in space has also rendered her shaky, and of fellow astronaut Matt Kowalski (George!), who charms everyone out of their space suits. Then it smacks the viewer in the chest with a pulse-pounding conclusion not to be believed until. . . well, experienced on the big screen, ideally.

 

Which brings us to one of my only grievances against a movie of Gravity‘s nature. This film does not pack the punch it ought to on a laptop screen. The visual grandeur of this baby is somewhat diminished by lack of screen size, so as a product worthy of purchase I am not sure how to really recommend Cuarón’s stunning achievement. Sure, you may be able to pull yourself close to your computer; or of course if you are in possession of a cushy home theater set-up, the movie might very well still work. Transferability is, however, the film’s Achille’s heel if it ever had one.

 

 

Bottom line – I find Cuarón capturing the delicacy of human life (and simultaneously the entire population in a single shot) breathtaking; his championing of the human spirit and will to live noble and compelling. A unique adventure that I wouldn’t mind enjoying again and again. Just wish I had a bigger TV screen to watch it on. . . .

 

 

Rating – Oscar worthy

 

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Thanks again to Tom for this review and for choosing this month’s genre!