Gravity (2013)
By far, Gravity is the most visually stunning film I have ever seen in a theatre. Coming from a very technical, production driven mind, it’s hard to describe the paralysis this film put me in. What I was seeing on screen captured my mind and made me freeze as I, quite literally, felt as though I was part of this film. That there was indeed no gravity.
I love it when films create things I’ve never seen before. The first sequence of the film begins as one extremely long shot, held for what I was later told is about seventeen minutes. And I didn’t even notice. What a brilliant visual accomplishment, to create an extremely real and raw experience from one eye traveling to create so many angles and emotions.
Likewise, having the viewer slowly travel from outside of Ryan Stone’s helmet into it creates a crippling claustrophobia, sinking the viewer into an even more intense moment. The sound design as you enter the helmet is unreal, genuinely unreal, but creates a moment that no one in the theatre
will ever experience.
My one qualm with this film will never be anything visually driven. I can honestly say Gravity's effects were perfectly executed. I do wish though, ever so dearly, that the dialogue in this film were minimal, or even gone. All of the feelings, the emotions, the questions, the answers, were driven by the effects. I wish I could watch this film three times through without being distracted by campy lines. Without the sappy “I need to stop driving, it's time to go home” drama. The drama was there in what you were showing me, what I was hearing! Then again, I am not a writer. I may just want to continue to bask in the beauty of this film.
Absolutely beautiful simulated visuals, awe inspiring sound design, and perfect execution make this an effects masterpiece. Despite being a very on-edge film, I left with an unruly desire to go to space. This film is geared towards those trying to find purpose in living on earth, but all I could think about was what a place to die, to die in space. That is the place where this film thrived.
