Thursday, October 24, 2013

Gravity (2013) Front runner for the most over hyped film of the year. (spoilers)


I saw Gravity Tuesday Night in 3D, but not Imax 3D. My reaction is it's a very good B movie over inflated by A level special effects. Its the sort of film you need to see big because it's going to look rather poor small where the weak script will be revealed for what it is, warmed over leftovers several years out of date.

For those who don't know the  plot of the film has a group of astronauts repairing the Hubble. They get word that the Russians have destroyed one of their flooky satellites with a missile, this then creates a cloud of debris which is now orbiting the earth destroying everything it comes in contact with and causing the cloud to increase in size. The cloud destroys the shuttle and strands George Clooney and Sandra Bullock in space with no obvious way home.

A technical tour de force  the film looks good, not great, in 3D. The film has images that will make you ooo and ahh. The images are really cool and I'm glad that I saw them big. The chance to see them big is the reason to see this in the theater. The Size of the image is important since you'll get a sense of scale and because there are times when Clooney and Bullock are just specks in the vastness of space- on a small screen they will be completely lost.

On the other hand I'm completely amazed that anyone is rambling on about how the film was shot. The simple answer is it was all done with computers, even the showoffy  opening single take was 90%  done with computers. This is yet another one of those movies where so much is animated that if they wanted to they could have it up as an animated film. Yes it's photo realistic but none of it is real- and it feels fake even if it is way cool.

I could accept the over kill effects if there was something other than the weak script that is here.  Frankly the script is close to terrible.  Constructed like a video game with levels and power up at each point. We have the set up and the shuttle wrecked, then it's a matter of Clooney and Bullock getting together to survive through a series goals (space stations/ships). The twists can be seen a mile away (need I tell you not everyone goes home?) and the religious and mystical are laughable- how Bullock finds out how to get to a certain place had me screaming in the empty theater and throwing my popcorn box- so much for scientific reality.One up for the hand of god And don't get me started on the pretensions of the final images. I was expecting dinosaurs or apes to show up.

Honestly the logic and reason in this film is so laughable (I don't care if NASA was involved)  that I regret even suggesting there was anything wrong with ALL IS LOST. Seriously everything in that film is grounded, this isn't. That film has can do Robert Redford, this has whiney Sandra Bullock. I'm amazed that  Bullock talks so much when she she keeps saying that she likes the silences- Give me Redford and his silences.

As the only other people in the theater said to me, its good but if the effects weren't as good as they are this would be a shitty movie.(I like Hubert's idea of a SYFY remake called Space Tornado)

(And what ever you do don't get me started on Flixist giving the film 100 out of 100 and calling the film a game changer- the film is NOT a game changer. Avatar, which I hate, was a game changer. That film brought back 3D and altered how films are made, this is an over-hyped over rated cheese ball about pretty effects.)

My advice if if can't see this on the big screen and in 3D is see ALL IS LOST or better yet rent the heartbreaking EUROPA REPORT instead.

1 comment:

  1. Fully agree with you. THE most overrated movie in 2013. Great effects, awesome cinematography, but the story / screenplay is lame, and the characters are horribly annoying, especially Bullock's.

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