Gravity has been out in the US for weeks. Everyone on
the other side of the Atlantic loves it, pretty much without exception. It
isn't out in the UK until November 8th. I got to see it because I'm
a jammy sod who responds to emails quicker than others.
(Warning: minor spoilers. If you want to go in cold, but you
still clicked an article titled 'Gravity - Film Review' then you're beyond help
anyway and you might as well keep reading.)
The film contains the handsome face of George Clooney
(mostly seen peering out of a space-suit) and Sandra Bullock, who winds up
getting a fair bit more screen time. The story starts with three happy
astronauts performing outside maintenance on a satellite. They're repairing a
circuit board which does something-or-other. Doesn't matter.
Everything goes as
expected until someone on Earth decides to blow up a satellite positioned
hundreds of miles away from them. Just a routine space explosion, you know how
it is. Unfortunately for everyone currently trapped in a suit and tied to a
broken satellite, debris from that one explosion causes a chain reaction and bashes
up OTHER satellites until there's a million sharp pieces of destroyed metal
orbiting the earth at insane speeds.
Eventually the debris pays messrs Clooney and Bullock a
visit and beats the free-floating piss out of their craft. Clooney does his
best to keep everyone calm despite experiencing their own mini version of the apocalypse
(replace 'space debris' with 'meteors', and 'Clooney' with 'a dinosaur', and
this analogy makes a bit more sense) but Bullock freaks her shit and winds up
separated from everything, spinning away from Earth in a never-ending
trajectory of doom.
Did I mention that pretty much all of that, which I just
described, happens in one continuous shot? Because it does and it's awesome.
And that's all you need to know about the film, going in.
You can see pretty much all of that in the trailer...
To say any more would ruin it. Honestly, even knowing that
much kinda ruins it. This is the kind of film you would rather not know a thing
about until one day you're kidnapped and dragged into a mysterious cinema, and you
sit there terrified for your life until the title appears on screen and the
kidnapper removes the ball-gag so you can eat some popcorn. Ignorance is your
friend here, is what I'm trying to say.
Despite not being named on the posters, 'Space' is as much
of a character in this movie as either headliner. Space is the big bad guy; the
unrelenting, murderously uncaring entity that can (and will) kill if given half
the chance. It doesn't even have to do anything except exist. Also, it's bloody
huge. When Bullock starts to float off into it, you feel how she must feel. The
camera lets her go until she becomes a speck of nothing. The tension created is
unbearable.
There are hints of the horror genre in the way tension is
built and released, there's even a jump scare, and the feeling of foreboding
terror never really goes away. The concept is horrifying enough - being lost
alone in space with no one around to help you - but the film really hammers it
home. Scenes of heart-wrenching emotion and shots of brain-melting beauty sit
aside those filled with frantic, desperate action (and even the occasional,
surprising splash of gore).
To sum up: See this film. See it on the biggest screen you
can put in front of your eyes. See it in 3D if your stomach can stand it. It's
original, breath-taking and stunningly well put together. And it isn't a sequel
- which is nice.
Words by Chris Welsh
