Movie Review : Gravity (Updated)

MOVIE FACTS

Initial release: October 3, 2013 

Director: Alfonso Cuarón

Initial DVD release: February 25, 2014 (USA)

Awards: Academy Award for Best Director

Nominations: Academy Award for Best Picture

Score given by Film Critics Circles -

8.1/10-IMDb

97%-Rotten Tomatoes

Gravity Movie Cover

Gravity Movie Cover

Sandra Bullock and George Clooney in Gravity

Sandra Bullock (as Dr.Ryan Stone) in Gravity

George Clooney(as Matthew Kowalski) in Gravity

Debris from the satellite (A scene from Gravity)

Sandra Bullock and George Clooney gathered together in Venice for Gravity

Lake Powell,Arizona,where the landing scene was shot 

Cast and Crew of Gravity

Director Alfonso Cuarón

MOVIE PLOT

(Credit : Wikipedia)

The film is set during fictitious space shuttle mission STS-157. Dr. Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) is a medical engineer on her first space shuttle mission aboard the space shuttle Explorer. She is accompanied by veteran astronaut Matt Kowalski (George Clooney), who is commanding his final expedition. During a spacewalk to service the Hubble Space Telescope, Mission Control in Houston warns the team about a Russian missile strike on a defunct satellite, which has caused a chain reaction forming a cloud of debris in space. Mission Control orders that the mission be aborted and the shuttle begin re-entry immediately. Communication with Mission Control is lost shortly after.High-speed debris from the Russian satellite strikes the Explorer and Hubble, and detaches Stone from the shuttle, leaving her tumbling through space. Kowalski, using a Manned Maneuvering Unit, soon recovers Stone and they make their way back to the Space Shuttle. They discover that it has suffered catastrophic damage and the crew is dead. They use the thruster pack to make their way to the International Space Station (ISS), which is in orbit only about 1,450 km (900 mi) away. Kowalski estimates they have 90 minutes before the debris field completes an orbit and threatens them again.En route to the ISS, the two discuss Stone's home life and the death of her young daughter. As they approach the substantially damaged but still operational ISS, they see its crew has evacuated in one of its two Soyuz modules. The parachute of the remaining Soyuz has deployed, rendering the capsule useless for returning to Earth. Kowalski suggests using it to travel to the nearby Chinese space station Tiangong, 100 km (60 mi) away and board one of its modules to return safely to Earth. Out of air and maneuvering power, the two try to grab onto the ISS as they fly by. Stone's leg gets entangled in Soyuz's parachute cords and she grabs a strap on Kowalski's suit. Despite Stone's protests, Kowalski detaches himself from the tether to save her from drifting away with him, and she is pulled back towards the ISS while Kowalski floats away.Stone enters the ISS via an airlock. She cannot re-establish communication with Kowalski and concludes that she is the sole survivor. A fire breaks out, forcing her to hastily make her way to the Soyuz. As she maneuvers the capsule away from the ISS, the tangled parachute tethers prevent the Soyuz from separating from the station. She spacewalks to release the cables, succeeding just as the debris field completes its orbit and destroys the station. Stone aligns the Soyuz with Tiangong but discovers that its engine has no fuel. After a brief radio communication with a fisherman on Earth, Stone resigns herself to being stranded and shuts down the cabin's oxygen supply to commit suicide. As she begins to lose consciousness, Kowalski enters the capsule. Scolding her for giving up, he tells her to rig the Soyuz's landing rockets to propel the capsule toward Tiangong. Stone then realizes that Kowalski's reappearance is not real, but has nonetheless given her the strength of will to carry on. She restores the flow of oxygen and uses the landing rockets to navigate toward Tiangong, which is rapidly deorbiting.Unable to dock the Soyuz with the station, Stone ejects herself via explosive decompression and uses a fire extinguisher as a makeshift thruster to travel to Tiangong. Stone enters the Shenzhou capsule just as Tiangong starts to break up on the upper edge of the atmosphere. Stone declares that she is ready to head back to Earth, dead or alive. After re-entering the atmosphere, Stone hears Mission Control, which is tracking the capsule, over the radio. The capsule lands in a lake, but dense smoke from an electrical fire inside the capsule forces Stone to evacuate immediately. She opens the capsule hatch, allowing water to enter and sink it, forcing Stone to shed her spacesuit and swim ashore. She watches the remains of the Tiangong re-enter the atmosphere and takes her first shaky steps on land. (Credit : Wikipedia)

CAST

(Credit : Wikipedia)

• Sandra Bullock as Dr. Ryan Stone, a medical engineer and mission specialist who is on her first space mission.
• George Clooney as Lieutenant Matt Kowalski; the commander of the team. Kowalski is a veteran astronaut planning to retire after the Explorer expedition. He enjoys telling stories about himself and joking with his team, and is determined to protect the lives of his fellow astronauts.
• Ed Harris (voice) as Mission Control in Houston, Texas.
• Orto Ignatiussen (voice) as Aningaaq, a Greenlandic Inuit fisherman who intercepts one of Stone's transmissions. Aningaaq also appears in a self-titled short written and directed by Gravity co-writer Jonás Cuarón, which depicts the conversation between him and Stone from his perspective.
• Phaldut Sharma (voice) as Shariff Dasari, the flight engineer on board the Explorer.
• Amy Warren (voice) as the captain of Explorer.
• Basher Savage (voice) as the captain of the International Space Station. (Credit : Wikipedia)

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR

(Credit : Wikipedia)

Alfonso Cuarón Orozco (Spanish pronunciation: [alˈfonso kwaˈɾon]; born November 28, 1961) is a Mexican film director, screenwriter, producer and editor best known for his films A Little Princess (1995), Y Tu Mamá También (2001), Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), Children of Men (2006), and Gravity (2013). His fantasy adventure series Believe is currently being broadcast on NBC.Most of his work has been praised by both audience and critics, and he has been nominated for six Academy Awards including Best Original Screenplay for Y Tu Mamá También, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Film Editing for Children of Men, and Best Picture for Gravity, winning Best Director and Best Film Editing for Gravity. For the same film, he also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Director and the BAFTA Awards for Best British Film and Best Direction. He also won a BAFTA Award for Best Film not in the English Language as one of the producers of Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth.Cuarón's brother Carlos, as well as his son Jonás, are writers and directors as well and both acted as co-writers in some of his works. He is also friends with fellow Mexican directors Guillermo del Toro and Alejandro González Iñárritu, collectively known as "The Three Amigos of Cinema. 

MOVIE REVIEW

I am trying my best not to explain how much emotionally I am connected to the movie and a little unexpectedly,I loved it despite the glaring emphasis on individualism.I loved whatever it was because it was amazingly thrilling,delighting and heartbreaking at the same time.The first time I had watched the full movie,I was very much impressed.I was awestruck and breatheless about how amazing an experience it was!I loved how the story unfolded suspense in each of its chapters,I loved how the dialouges had been written,I loved how the characters,most
 mention worthily that of Matthew Kowalski (George Clooney) and of course the main character Dr.Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock). I have seen Bullock in a few more performances before and later and it is a delight to watch the magic that lies in how beautifully she covers whatever role she is playing. George Clooney is a very matured actor and it was fantastic in how simply he made it look so touching.The approach of his character (that of Crew Commander Kowalski) was very simple and casual but is very manly and bold at the same time.He eventually gives up his life for saving that of Dr.Stone's and that brings a totally new angle and delivers a taste that the audience otherwise would have missed.It as shocking,it was heartbreaking and it was even more strengthening than anything else.
The cinematography is mention worthy,too.The audience is bound to gasp when Dr.Stone's suit gets devoid of Oxygen little by little,they are bound to smile as the movie ends and at somewhat point,I think there is enough motivation in this to make anyone shed tears.The photography is amazing and brings to your screen the spectacular view of how the earth from the space would almost seem and the Sunshine on the Ganges,the country music on the background,Dr.Stone copying the barking of dogs as a sign of earthiness,a sign of life and then talking to an unknown Chinese man,who is perhaps singing a lullaby.
I personally loved the entire movie but a few scenes like Dr.Stone desperately voicing the word 'Mayday' to communicate a Chinese Radio Station,her tears and happiness and smile of victory as she touches the soil (the view in Arizona is no doubt amazing) and how the beautiful music unfurls as she slowly stands up and the movie ends is truly inspiring.


SCREENPLAY AND PHOTOGRAPHY- 5/5
MUSIC - 5/5
SCIENTIFIC ACCURACY - 4/5 
STORYLINE - 5/5
ACTORS' PERFORMANCE - 5/5

AS A MOVIE - {(24/25) * 100 %} = 96%

Disclaimer - The photographs used above do not belong to me.Credits have been mentioned at places where information has been gathered from external sources.