GRAVITY - Review

Gravity

Thriller, 2013
1 hour, 30 minutes
Written by Jonas Cuarón & Alfonso Cuarón
Directed by Alfonso Cuarón
Rated PG-13 for "intense perilous sequences, some disturbing images and brief strong language."

Starring
Sandra Bullock
George Clooney
Ed Harris


"Houston, I have a bad feeling about this mission."


I will never watch Gravity ever again for as long as I live. Once was enough. I was having a fucking anxiety attack for about 75% of the movie, and it's only like 90 minutes long.
I'm not saying I disliked Gravity. In fact, I think it's one of the best films of 2013. 
Gravity's premise is simple: space debris destroys a space station, which sends Sandra Bullock and George Clooney on a desperate run to safety. And in it's simplicity, we get a solid 90 minutes of heart-pounding and anxiety inducing tension. This is definitely more of a thriller than anything else, even though the only real villain is, well, gravity. Or lack thereof.
Gravity is an impressive technical feat. Remember how everyone was really impressed with Avatar? Yeah, fuck that. I've never in my life seen better use of 3D, which is undoubtedly worth the price-tag for this film. The visual effects are beautiful. The soundtrack is terrifying. Even the sound is designed to feel like you're hearing everything happen from inside the space-suits. Cuarón's usual long-take shenanigans really add a lot to the visuals, there ain't no shaky-cam here. If I'm not mistaken, the first shot in the film runs somewhere over the 12 minute mark before the first cut. That's fucking unheard of. And really, really impressive. I'm not joking when I say this is film is basically guaranteed to win a fuck-ton of technical awards for pretty much every kind of technical award that such a film can win.
It's lighter on dialogue than most films, but that's fine. Not a word is wasted. The writing isn't groundbreaking, but it doesn't need to be. It's concise and does exactly what it needs to do. Even when the characters are just chatting in between the tension, it doesn't feel wasted. We get a reasonable sense of who these people are, which is amazing, considering all of the special effects constantly happening.
Gravity comes with my highest recommendation. I'm not quite sure if it's better than Children of Men, but right now, it's one of the best films of the year, easily in my top 10 for right now. It will leave you breathless, and by the end of the film, you'll feel your heart beating through your fucking chest.
No movie has ever made me feel quite like this. No movie has ever caused me to have a near-full blown panic attack. And I've seen a lot of movies. Like, a LOT of movies. Gravity did something that none of those movies could do, and getting me to that point of anxiety is impressive.

On a side-note, I DO recommend seeing it in 3D. If you can't handle the headaches or don't want to pay the price-tag, I won't judge. But you don't want to ignore the 3D for Gravity. At least consider it.

9.7/10