In my opinion, the key to making special effects convincing on screen is designing the effect to look somewhere between real and unreal. When the audience can't figure out what's real and what's not, they will believe it. This is what happened to me during Alfonso Cuarón's Gravity.
Since Children of Men, Alfonso Cuarón takes his love of the long take and brings it to new levels. I couldn't figure out how these long shots were accomplished. The camera floats freely around the astronauts in space in long takes, occasionally shifting from third person perspective to first person. The camera loops, twirls, corkscrews around space, completely forgoing the human sense of up and down. It looked like the cameraman was really floating around with the actors. I knew that wasn't possible. But eventually I tapped out and let the movie spectacle just wash over me.
As science fiction thematically explores the extreme potential of mankind, awe is an important component to every science fiction story. I was in sheer awe through the entirety of Gravity. Firstly, outer space and the beauty of Earth from a distance awed me. Then there was the solemn beauty of witnessing the space stations being decimated in space. I began to marvel at the destruction and momentarily thought deep thoughts. It was as if for a second I was watching waves wash ashore on a beach while reading J. Krishnamurti. Finally, I was awed by the fragility of human life. After all, all astronauts are just little fishes trying to survive out of their own habitat. The experience was otherworldly, self-reflective and dangerous all at the same time.
I walked into Gravity mistakenly thinking it was a George Clooney vehicle. To my surprise, it's a Sandra Bullock movie. Sandra Bullock has always had a natural personable quality on screen. Whether it was pining for her crush to awaken from a coma in While You Were Sleeping or driving a bus that's primed to explode in Speed, she's always able to draw the audience into her plight with vulnerability. Bullock's characters never feel above the audience. Often this quality of hers get overlooked from having to play cheerful funny characters in romantic comedies.
In Gravity, that quality is used to its full extent. We watch as she struggles to survive a series of obstacles. Her performance is as immersive as the special effects. She draws you in completely into her plight. I wish more depth were given to her character. By the beginning of the third act, the film starts to run low on its spectacle and it came to the moment where more character was needed for a bigger statement. Gravity elected to stay with its spectacle and jetted for the finish line. It had a good ending, but it was missing that final thematic punch that answers, "What is this story ultimately about?" and "Why am I watching this?"
And for that, Gravity is a great gem and one exhilarating thrill ride. I am even happy that it was a great role for Sandra Bullock. I just do not know if the thrills will be as compelling on subsequent viewings. So in the end, it is not a masterpiece, but a very awesome movie nonetheless.
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