Gravity Review - Spoiler Free

Gravity (2013)
Starring: George Clooney (Ocean's Eleven, Syriana), Sandra Bullock (Crash, The Blindside).
Director: Alfonso Cuarón (Children of Men, Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban).
Rated PG-13, running time 1hr 31min.

Story
Kowalski (Clooney) and Stone (Bullock) are members of a shuttle crew that are in space in order to repair a space telescope. Then things go wrong. How wrong? If you've seen the commercials, you already know. This wrong:

Alphas
 - Being a sci-fi columnist, its fair to say I've seen hundreds, if not thousands, of hours of special effects/CGI. With that in mind, I put forth that this film has some of the best visuals I've ever seen.
 - High levels of intensity throughout the film. There were several scenes where I could physically feel my blood pressure rising. If Cuarón was intent on generating suspense, he succeeded. (Well...at least for the first 2/3 of the film.)
- The musical score serves the film well, from the hammering orchestra to simple quiet pieces. Again, Cuarón was skillful.
- What lent to the high levels of intensity was the use of first person perspective. Die hard gamers will no doubt appreciate this technique.
- Am no fan of 3D, since from my experience, it's generally a gimmick that movie production companies and theater chains use to charge more for tickets. However, with this film, going with the funny glasses would be optimal. Much visual bliss permeates the film.

Bullock gives a solid performance, but in a film where one shouldn't have been needed.

- Bullock took a chance with this role and she handled it well. Earlier this week, in prep for the release of Gravity, I posted a piece entitled Every Female US Astronaut That's Been To Space. While researching and working on that article, it became apparent that there was a certain look of confidence in the eyes of every single one of those women. Bullock was able to capture that spark for her performance.

Deltas
- A big draw for many would be that George Clooney is in the film. He's solid in his performance, but ultimately, I wouldn't call it "acting." Clooney, from all I've gathered in other articles, is a kind, funny, confident man. Take a guess as to what his character in the film is like?
 - After being thoroughly impressed during the first hour of the film, it takes a turn for the worse, starting with a scene where one could almost hear the director off camera whispering,"Ok Sandra...this is where you get your Oscar." From thereon out, I kept thinking,"Oh. Really. Ok. Can we go back to the awesomeness of the first hour please?"

Clooney is Clooney. The film would've been better off with no famous names.

Action A Go Go or Action A No No? 
Gravity starts out strong and intense, but in the last half hour of the film, succumbs to overly melodramatic and formulaic Hollywood devices. If you're intent on simply being blown away by amazing CGI, it might be worth a view in the theater. But, life is short, and with so many other amazing films in existence, it would difficult for me to recommend rushing to the theater to see it. Waiting for the Blu-ray on Redbox would make more sense. In the meantime, if you have a hankering for an amazing sci-fi flick, with stunning visuals, brilliant acting and excellent writing, I'd recommend watching Sunshine (2007) this weekend instead.

One of the most difficult things to do in film is combining action with substance, and in this, Cuarón did not succeed.

The film gets only....

Two Arnolds!

Stephen Sumner is the science fiction columnist for Action A Go Go. His favorite sci-fi series include Firefly, Battlestar Galactica and Star Trek. He can be followed on Twitter at https://twitter.com/VierLights or on the Tumblr machine at http://vierlights.tumblr.com/.