A sneaky daytime showing this week. My aunt volunteered to look after the little one while the other two were at school. I have Tuesdays off, and I’d heard good things, so we booked a couple of tickets for an IMAX screening of…
“I hate space!”
Plot-in-a-nutshell: A routine shuttle mission goes all to hell…
See it if you like: sitting on the edge of your seat and not blinking for ninety minutes
Let’s just add a review-in-a-nutshell to this: See. This. Film.
Slightly expanded: If possibly, See. This. Film. In. IMAX. 3D.
If Hollywood died tomorrow and left Gravity as its legacy, then the industry would be fondly remembered. It’s so good, that I have – after many years – finally forgiven Sandra Bullock for The Net. A film I have derided for nigh on two decades. Sandra, seriously, you can now hold your head high.
With a cast of – to all intents and purposes – two, Gravity proves that you don’t need an all-star ensemble cast to sell a film. In fact, the last time I remember seeing a film with a cast so small it was The Disappearance of Alice Creed. Coincidentally, or maybe not, that film was also staggeringly good (you can see my review here).
Absolutely honestly, with my hand on my heart, I don’t think I so much as blinked (except to “avoid” on chunk of debris that looked like it would hit me in the face) after the first five minutes of the film. Around fifteen minutes in, my wife held my hand and we didn’t let go of each other until the credits rolled.
As ever, I don’t want to tell you too much about the plot for fear of giving anything away. Suffice to say, it’s a drama set in space against the background of a serious accident which leaves a shuttle crew stranded up there. Only it’s way better than that. Way better. Think how good you reckon that could be and then multiply that tenfold. At least.
George Clooney is excellent opposite Bullock, but the real star is director Alfonso Cuarón. With the aid of digital technology and a lot of new techniques, he’s made the visuals so realistic that it moves the film from “impressive” to “jaw-droppingly stunning” in every aspect. I don’t really buy DVDs any more, but this is very much likely to sway me purely as I’d expect some very interesting “Making of” features. In fact, it’s good enough to possibly convince me to finally get a Blu-Ray player.
In case I’ve not convinced you – see this film. If you see one film a week, month or year… this is the one. And stump up for IMAX 3D if you can. I know I go on about how 3D’s rubbish. This doesn’t hold for good IMAX 3D as it makes use of the size of the screen to fill your field of vision, plus the image quality helps.
I’d still not touch it in 3D at a regular cinema, but the extra we paid for IMAX was worth every penny. Twice over.
Related articles
- Review: Gravity (kubrickontheguillotine.com)
- Gravity (IMAX 3D) Review (niallmalcolmmovies.wordpress.com)
- Review: GRAVITY (whatleydude.com)
- Gravity [reviewed] IN IMAX (drummondbase.com)
- Gravity-doom and loneliness never looked this spectacular (socialistworker.co.uk)
Gravity http://t.co/jzZbtXBEtd