Spoiler
Alert: If you have not seen Gravity then do not continue.
Seriously, stop now; put on something nice, get out of your
house and watch the film. Bring a friend. Oh and watch it in 3D.
Unless
NASA reduces it's recruitment requirements drastically (who knows,
maybe one day they'll want to put a fat blogger on the moon), then
watching Gravity will be the closest I get into space. For the time
being I have to be content with looking up at the stars with my
telescope. When it's not being pointed at someone's window..(just
kidding)..
I
guess I could always put my spare $250,000 to good use and book a
seat on a Virgin Galactic flight but it might be a touch
disappointing compared to what Sandra Bullock goes through in
Gravity. Technically we're all already in “space” since Earth is
technically a “spaceship” travelling at roughly 900,000
Kilometres :O I know....mind blown.
Gravity
is now part of my top 5 favourite space films. The list is as
follows:
- Gravity
- Sunshine
- Apollo 13
- Armageddon
- RocketMan
Don't
judge me on those last two! I like what I like. I know most people
didn't like Armageddon but it was the 90's and the World was going to
be destroyed in 2000 so I couldn't afford to be picky. Also, I may
have gotten a touch emotional at the scene where Bruce Willis had to
say goodbye to Liv Tyler. As for Rocketman? Well...I liked the
special effects in that film.
But
let's get back to Gravity; I get distracted easily and if I find
myself not enjoying a film then I have to resist the urge to take my
phone out or try to keep from falling asleep. Gravity was not one of
those films, it held my attention the entire time. And with a running
time of 91 minutes the film is the perfect length; not everything has
to be over 2 hours long.
The
film did take a while a while to “start” since there was a fair
bit of dialogue in the beginning. I must admit I was a little worried
for awhile. But the moment the shuttle crew gets the first warning
that a satellite had disintegrated I was hooked. I will say that if
you're someone who suffers from agoraphobia/claustrophobia you
probably wouldn't enjoy the expanse of space or the point of view
from inside the space suit.
And
the best part of the film was the silence of space because we all
know that in space no one can hear you scream. Even though there
weren't loud explosions in Gravity it didn't reduce the tension one
bit. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. I like the use of
imagery in the film; the moment when Sandra Bullock makes it to the
ISS and she takes off her space suit. She goes into a foetal position
and as she hangs there with the cables floating around her, she looks
like a foetus in the womb.
I
know there was some “controversy” when Neil DeGrasse Tyson made
some observations about the film. He suddenly found himself trolled
on Twitter; I guess everyone's a critic (including me apparently.)
I'm neither an astronaut or a astrophysicist so the facts of Gravity
don't really matter to me. Unless it's about Man of Steel.
For
91 minutes I was in a state of suspended disbelief; which speaks
highly of the merit of Gravity. Which was a lot better compared to
the experience of watching White house down where by brain basically
went “Wtf, wtf, wtf,wtf” for most of the film.
One
tiny criticism (which of the film that I may have is that astronauts
don't really wear tights/spanx. In reality, most astronauts wear what
is called a Maximum Absorbency Garment; or diapers to us civilians. I
will say that Sandra Bullock looks just as nice in an American space
suit as she does in a cosmonaut space suit.
Some
links to check out:
