Gravity (2013), directed by Alfonso Cuaron, explores the emotionally grueling experiences of a medical engineer, Dr. Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock), who has been sent up into space to service the Hubble space telescope alongside veteran astronaut Matt Kowalski (George Clooney) and flight engineer Shariff Dasari (Paul Sharma). Things begin to go awry when Houston advises the crew that the Russians have destroyed a satellite with a missile strike, which has resulted in a chain reaction of space debris orbiting the planet at their altitude. This debris eventually hits their location and destroys the shuttle, marooning the remaining crew members at an altitude of 559 kilometers. The film takes on the perspective of Dr. Stone as she uses her wits and limited training to find a way to get back to Earth.

The actual narrative is pretty bare, but this is a non-issue to me given that it is a film about a personal journey. Why did Russia blow up a satellite? What is the political environment at the time of this film (which takes place in the near future)? We don't know; but we don't need to know. This film isn't about the context of the situation, but the situation itself. The film, more-or-less, is paced in real time, and thus, eliminates the need for exposition to fill gaps of time that we do not witness.

The first 10 minutes or so of this film has one of the most technically- advanced sequences that you will ever see on the big screen. For me, it brought back memories of Cuaron's Children of Men (2006), which had a car-sequence involving a flaming tree, machine gunners on dirt bikes, and a ping pong ball that, at the time, was one of the most impressive interpretations of the "long take" that I had ever seen. The opening sequence of Gravity is no less impressive, with zero-gravity acrobatics providing a visceral experience that may very well be the closest many of us ever come to floating in space.

Additionally, Sandra Bullock's acting is as good as we have ever seen from her. She's a natural at playing a neurotic character brought into extraordinary circumstances. Think of Bullock's portrayal of Dr. Stone as a more seasoned and mature interpretation of her role as Annie Porter in Speed (1994). Gravity sees her tread a more pronounced character arc, but both films highlight the emotional highs and lows that Bullock can take the audience. There is one sequence in particular that I feel will resonate for most people. For the sake of avoiding spoilers, I'll be relatively non-descript and just say that this scene involves her character using a radio to communicate with Houston at what appears to be her lowest moment, only to find that she has tapped into the signal of an Inuit fisherman. This man, Dr. Stone's only connection to Earth, then begins to sing a bed-time song for his child. Bullock's character, feeling that there is no hope for survival, begins to use the song to comfort herself in one of the most beautiful and devastating scenes in the film.

There is little doubt that the film is a technical masterpiece with solid performances, but I feel that where the film falls flat is in its incessant need to entertain the viewers with zero gravity explosions and tense sequence after tense sequence. I was certainly swept up in the theatrics of it all for the first half, but towards the end the misadventures of Dr. Stone start to become tiresome and unbelievable. Now, I understand that this film is about overcoming impossible odds, but I feel the filmmakers passed a threshold when it comes to suspended disbelief. By the end, I was holding myself back from shouting "Oh, come on!" in the theater. At one point, a woman beside me let out some exhausted laughter over the lead character's rotten luck. This ultimately took me out of the experience and made me very aware that I was watching a movie.

There are other minor issues that I have with Gravity (including a ham- fisted homage to 2001: A Space Odyssey), but what really resulted in me leaving the cinema disappointed was that I went into this film hoping that this could be added to the canon of great sci-fi. To me, sci-fi is at its best when it deals with very complex or controversial ideas, or when it's used as a societal critique. "Gravity" is more of an action film set in space. Don't misunderstand me, it's a good action film peppered with moments of artistic brilliance, but I don't see it being remembered and revered in the decades to come.

Final verdict: 3.5 out of 5

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