{"id":2038,"date":"2013-11-04T20:42:31","date_gmt":"2013-11-04T20:42:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/?p=2038"},"modified":"2013-11-04T20:43:22","modified_gmt":"2013-11-04T20:43:22","slug":"experiencing-gravity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/2013\/11\/experiencing-gravity\/","title":{"rendered":"Experiencing Gravity"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s rare that a movie gets branded an \u201cexperience.\u201d There have only been a couple of these films in the last few years\u20132009\u2019sAvatar<\/i>, last year\u2019s\u00a0Life of Pi<\/i>. You know the type: the ones that get called \u201cmajestic\u201d and \u201cimmersive.\u201d The ones everyone tells you see in theaters, the ones that are a travesty to watch in anything less than IMAX-3D<\/p>\n

It\u2019s rare that a movie gets branded an \u201cexperience.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Alfonso Cuaron\u2019s\u00a0Gravity<\/i>\u00a0is one of those movies. And sure, while that pair of plastic glasses will run you an extra ten bucks, it will certainly add to the experience. Unless you have vertigo, of course, in which case they\u2019ll only add to your nausea…<\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve seen the trailer, you probably have a general idea of what the plot entails. George Clooney and Sandra Bullock are astronauts aboard the ISS when things go very, very wrong. In this case, wrong means a massive cloud of debris orbiting around the planet, destroying all in its wake. Cuaron manages to turn that simple concept into a compelling ninety-minute drama. Compared to the onslaught of two-hour-plus epics that are released nowadays, Gravity is a refreshing change of pace\u2013streamlined, direct, and no longer than it has to be.<\/p>\n

Cuaron\u2019s direction is as much a star as Bullock and Clooney. The\u00a0Children of Men\u00a0<\/i>director is a fan of long, pensive takes, with an average shot length of nearly a minute. He and his cinematographer, Emmanuel Lubezki, literally had to build new technologies in order to capture the vision they wanted, as the methods necessary did not exist when they began. While Ron Howard had to shoot sequences of Apollo 13 inside an actual plane in order to achieve the zero-g effect, Gravity is almost entirely computer-generated. In spite of\u00a0Gravity\u2019s\u00a0<\/i>special effects, the movie feels organic, and when you toss in the mesmerizing 3D, the film looks so real that it\u2019s tough to resist the urge to reach out into the screen.<\/p>\n

\"Cinematic<\/a>
Cinematic Poster for All Is Lost. Image Acquired from IMDB<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There\u2019s no sound in space, so almost everything we hear in the film is either through an intercom or non-diegetic. The music, contrasted with the bare soundtrack of the rest of the film,\u00a0 underscores and dramatizes what we see on screen, punctuating an explosion or providing a meditative atmosphere during moments of silence.<\/p>\n

Of course, there is the necessary caveat to a film like Gravity\u2013if you take away the extra dimension, the spectacle, what\u2019s left? While Gravity is arguably a visually impressive film regardless of the size of the screen, there are places where the script falters. Bullock does an excellent job carrying the film, but there are times when the words she\u2019s been given feel stiff and somewhat forced. Do not see this movie hoping for a lesson in physics either, as many scientific details had to be changed to suit the narrative. That said,, if you\u2019re the type who watches space movies for the physics, you\u2019re probably not much fun anyway.<\/p>\n

All in all, Gravity is not a perfect movie. But the magic of the ride it takes you on\u2013from that first view of the planet, to the emotional ending\u2013makes up for its faults. And there\u2019s something to be said for feeling like you have left earth watching a film. After all, while the film is called Gravity, the most shining moments are when the film frees you from it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s rare that a movie gets branded an \u201cexperience.\u201d There have only been a couple of these films in the last few years\u20132009\u2019sAvatar, last year\u2019s\u00a0Life of Pi. You know the type: the ones that get called \u201cmajestic\u201d and \u201cimmersive.\u201d The ones everyone tells you see in theaters, the ones that are a travesty to watch in anything less than IMAX-3D Alfonso Cuaron\u2019s\u00a0Gravity\u00a0is one of those movies. And sure, while that pair of plastic glasses will<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":2040,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[],"coauthors":[44],"class_list":["post-2038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-slider"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/MV5BNjE5MzYwMzYxMF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwOTk4MTk0OQ__._V1._SX640_SY947_-2.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2038"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2038\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2041,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2038\/revisions\/2041"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2038"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=2038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}