Gravity

[TNGTony]

[CONTAINER][MOVIE1]Title: Gravity

Tagline: Don't Let Go

Genre: [GENRE]Drama[/GENRE], [GENRE]Science Fiction[/GENRE], [GENRE]Thriller[/GENRE]

Director: [DIRECTOR]Alfonso Cuarón[/DIRECTOR]

Cast: [ACTOR]Sandra Bullock[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]George Clooney[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Ed Harris[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Orto Ignatiussen[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Paul Sharma[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Amy Warren[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Basher Savage[/ACTOR]

Release Date: [RELEASE]2013-10-04[/RELEASE]

Runtime: [RUNTIME]91[/RUNTIME]

Plot: [PLOT]Dr. Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock), a brilliant medical engineer on her first Shuttle mission, with veteran astronaut Matt Kowalsky (George Clooney) in command of his last flight before retiring. But on a seemingly routine spacewalk, disaster strikes. The Shuttle is destroyed, leaving Stone and Kowalsky completely alone-tethered to nothing but each other and spiraling out into the blackness of space. The deafening silence tells them they have lost any link to Earth and any chance for rescue. As fear turns to panic, every gulp of air eats away at what little oxygen is left. But the only way home may be to go further out into the terrifying expance of space…[/PLOT][/MOVIE1][POSTER1]

[/POSTER1][/CONTAINER]

 

[TNGTony]

Repost from 11/28/13 to add to this great forum:

I finally got to see "Gravity", though I keep calling "Orbit" for whatever reason. It wasn't a great film, but it was enjoyable. I just wish I wasn't such a stickler for detail. I probably would have enjoyed it more had I not known so much about little things like physics. If I would have known this was a "turn your brain off and enjoy" movie, I probably would have liked it much more than I did.

The biggest problem for me is once you present me with a universe for a movie, the entire movie needs to make sense within that universe. This is how I enjoy such fantasy action flicks like Die Hard or whatever action movie. In this kind of action/adventure, you know in advance that the lead character is super-human; able to leap out of the way from explosions and able to grab and hang onto the ledge of a building (or whatever) with a pinky fingertip.

"Gravity" presented itself as a space movie taking place on a space shuttle (which have all been decommissioned an the program scrapped). The way the movie starts, it seems like it takes place in a universe where our laws of physics apply. But no. Not really. It comes really close, but no.

I guess I could have taken my cue of the movie producer's lack of interest in accuracy when the first scene shows astronaut Clooney jetting around the space shuttle like a kid swimming around a lagoon. Never mind that this piece of equipment was twice the size as shown in the movie. Never mind that it never reacted that fast. And never mind that this device was decommissioned because NASA determined that it's more efficient and cost-effective, and safer to move the entire shuttle to an object than to strap a jet pack on a person. But let that one slide. However being quite familiar with how NASA handles EVAs I know that no one would ever be allowed just to hang out on an EVA just to try to set a record-long space walk. But okay, Clooney needs his airtime.

What really bugged me was the dialog. It was nearly ridiculous at the beginning. I know the script of the movie is trying to introduce these characters, but the dialog made it seem as if the two main characters have never met! Sorry, these people have been in training together for YEARS!

Mercifully, the real action starts almost right away. I am not spoiling anything by telling you that for whatever reason the Russians shot one of their own satellites out of the sky with a missile. This destruction caused a chain reaction with shrapnel taking out other satellites and they went on to destroy others, etc. This scenario by itself has been the source of many-a-story in the sci-fi world. Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) and Matt Kowalski (George Clooney) are outside the shuttle when the debris storm comes and causes catastrophic damage flinging Stone out into space.

I will ignore the fact that the debris approaches from the WRONG side. It is so easy to get it right, but the producers didn't care about accuracy, just dramatic effect. But at the speeds that Stone was tumbling in space, that would have been death #1.

I will not spoil the movie, but now with Ryan Stone drifting out in space with no jet pack and nothing to stop her tumbling in space to find a way to survive and get back to Earth.

I know why most people enjoyed this movie. It is a great story. What makes me a little upset and have trouble with this movie is that it would have been so EASY for the producers to hire a science consultant and listen to his corrections in physics and human physiology to make it accurate, and in my opinion, have a much greater impact on this incredible story of an astronaut attempting to survive!

 

[lfp302]

I agree. A consultant knowing a little bit of Orbital Mechanics, and Newton's Laws could have made the film much better for me.