Sunday, October 27, 2013

NEW REVIEW: Gravity



In order to explain my review of Gravity, I have to talk a little bit about Avatar. 

Long, long ago, in 2009, James Cameron's Avatar was touted to be 1) the pinnacle of 3D films and  2) an amazing film experience not to be missed. Somehow, I didn't exactly get the point that statement #2 was inextricably linked to statement #1. Inextricably. Well, I saw the non-3D version of Avatar.  I really don't have any particular interest in 3D, so my clearly poor decision made sense to me at the time.

 As it turns out, Avatar suffered from a plot and script which I am pretty sure came from an 8th grader that James Cameron secretly had on staff.  So, for those of us who made the dumb-dumb-dumb decision to see it without the 3D, the experience was less than amazing. A lot less. And that brings me to Gravity.

I was not going to make the same mistake again, particularly when I read a few reviews that also indicated that Gravity lacked a decent script. Some people took issue with Sandra Bullock and George Clooney as actors, others more pointedly disliked the characterizations. I got the point this time: see it for the 3D. So, I did.

From that perspective, Gravity is really enjoyable. I can't say it suffers from a bad plot. It's a very simple plot, and that's really all that it needs to be. The film is quite beautiful. I don't know (or care) about 3D technology, but I am going to take a stab here and say that a possible measure of success is when a viewer becomes completely unaware of the 3D, and is, rather, just immersed in the experience. Gravity was very successful for me in this respect. I was, for the most part, blissfully unaware of the 3D. I was, instead, very much 'inside' the space experience. And being in space is both nerve-wracking and cool, so that makes for a fun movie-going adventure.

As for the script, it could have been much better. George Clooney's character was tired and cliche, but possibly befitting a super-cool-astronaut-guy. I was fine with Sandra Bullock. Again, the script didn't do her any favors, but her acting was reasonably good. Her body, on the other hand, was quite impressive.

Overall, it was a good time at the show. The immediate response is pretty "WOW", but it doesn't last. I'll forget about it by next month, but I'm glad I saw it.