Gravity

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Graham Kennedy
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Gravity

Post by Graham Kennedy »

Anybody hearing about this? George Clooney and Sandra Bullock play astronauts struggling to return to Earth after a disaster in space.

Seems to be a purely hard sci fi movie - no aliens, rayguns, FTL... done right, it could be really, really good!

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Re: Gravity

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I will pass. I may watch it when it comes out on DVD.
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Re: Gravity

Post by Graham Kennedy »

Dunno, this has the potential to be worthy of big screen in my mind.
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Re: Gravity

Post by Lt. Staplic »

My physics classmates and I were talking about this the other day and we're very much looking forward to it.

We first saw the trailer before Pacific Rim and we had to chuckle because everyone else watched the trailer and shrugged it off, all of us were petrified. :lol:
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Re: Gravity

Post by McAvoy »

Well I don't know. Would you rather die by running out of oxygen while you floated away from Earth? Or would you rather burn up falling back to Earth?

It is scary because space there isn't a safe ground like it is here on Earth.
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Re: Gravity

Post by IanKennedy »

Certainly looks suspenseful. I don't know how long that would last, or how they avoid it suddenly being inevitably that they will die. I suppose they don't but they it becomes a much different film. Intrigued to see how it works now.
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Re: Gravity

Post by Graham Kennedy »

One thing I notice about it is that it's only 88 minutes long, so hopefully it will be able to play out the story without trying to drag it over a huge running time.
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Re: Gravity

Post by IanKennedy »

Sounds promising, cast is good. Now all it needs is a good writer and director. OK, perhaps more than one writer, but, that's often not a good sign. :)
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Re: Gravity

Post by shran »

Now that this is out, is it any good, or should I wait for the rental version, or even take a music player with Strauss in a loop to look at the pretty pictures?
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Re: Gravity

Post by Lt. Staplic »

I thought it was a descent film overall, probably not quite worth the trip to the theater, but definitely a good rental option when it gets there.
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Re: Gravity

Post by Tyyr »

It's a good movie. Not the best I've ever seen but it gets you a much better idea of what it's like to be in space than anything else I've seen. This is definitely a big screen worthy movie. I don't think the visuals would have anywhere near the impact on anything else.
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Re: Gravity

Post by Graham Kennedy »

So, saw it today. Kind of an odd movie... it actually almost doesn't feel like a movie, it almost feels like a special effects demo reel. And that sounds bad I know, but I actually enjoyed it on that basis.

What I mean by that is this - that stuff you see in the trailer, with Bullock spinning around in space, or ducking out of the way of collisions, trying to grab on to handholds, etc? Well those aren't "the action scenes". Those are pretty much the entire movie. Seriously, a good 80% of this film consists of scenes along those lines - and the rest is brief interludes where people are inside ships trying to fly them around or whatever.

There are almost no "character" scenes as such. There is characterisation, and people do talk to one another... but most of it happens "on the fly" whilst they're working or trying not to die in space, so it makes up part of the "action" scenes.

Like I say, these aren't criticisms as such, because the movie is an enjoyable ride and it certainly delivers a lot of spectacle. Just be prepared to have a LOT of spectacle and action, and not a whole lot else. Incidentally, for this reason I'd strongly suggest you see it in the theatre, and in 3D. And if you can on a large screen, or IMAX screen. It really makes good use of 3D.

The science is kind of half and half. The depiction of zero gee is EXTREMELY good, within a hair of being as good as Apollo 13 which was actually filmed in real zero gee. There are some things that are within the realm of artistic license, some less so. For instance the main premise of the film is a realistic one... but in reality it would play out over days, weeks, or months rather than a few hours. But we couldn't have a movie set over that length of time so they just sped it up.

More absurd is the depiction of where things are in relation to one another in space, and how easy it would be to get from one to another. Not going to say a lot more so as not to spoil, suffice to say that there are a few times you will find yourself going "but you couldn't do that" if you know much about orbits and what is where in space.

But the flaws didn't bother me too much. All in all it's an enjoyable movie, and Bullock especially is extremely good in it. So's Clooney for that matter.
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Re: Gravity

Post by Tyyr »

Even in Kerbal Space Program the distances depicted would be ridiculously tiny.

I enjoyed it, as disaster porn. That's what it is. It's straight up disaster porn in space. That and Sandra Bullock in her skivvies in two points and she's still a very good looking woman. I like Clooney, not even Batman & Robin could ruin him for me. He's up there with Morgan Freeman for voices I could listen to reading a phone book and enjoy.

I honestly don't think it's one I'll pick up though for the reasons Grant said. After all, you can only watch the space station be blown apart so many times, and on a small screen I'm not thinking it's going to be as awesome. Maybe a rental if I ever get a monster 4K TV.
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Re: Gravity

Post by McAvoy »

Sandra Bullock in skivvies? I'm liking this movie already.
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