GRAVITY (HOLLYWOOD SPACE SCIENCE DRAMA)

Written & Directed by Alfonso Cuaron, Produced by Alfonso Cuaron/ David Heyman, Starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney. Music by Steven Price. Cinematography by Emmanuel Libezki

Storyline: Medical Engineer, Dr.Ryan Stone (Sandra) and Astronaut, Matt Kowelsky (George Clooney) set out to space walking to repair a mal functioning unit of the Hubble Telescope. While doing so, they get info from their space station Explorer, that a catastrophic stream of debris, which is a result of a Russian destroyed space shuttle is right on their way and ordered to abort their job. But before they do so, the debris hits the Explorer and the Telescope destroying both. Both the astronauts have a narrow escape and try to reach the nearest International Space Station (ISS) but find that the crew over there have already abandoned the ship sensing danger from the orbiting debris, which has already partly destroyed the same. Matt instructs Dr Ryan to use the capsule of ISS to reach the next nearest Chinese space station Tiangong and sacrifices his life to save Dr Ryan. She completely loses hope and plans to kill herself by shutting down the oxygen levels of the capsule but recoups herself thinking about the sacrifice of Matt. She somehow reaches Tiangong and propels herself to Earth through its functioning capsule just at the nick of moment before the orbiting debris once again devastates Tiangong. Dr Ryan’s capsule lands in a lake and she walks out on the full gravity of the Earth, a pleasure that she never thought of enjoying again.
Positives: The movie watched in 3D gives a weightless feeling to the viewer throughout. The true experience of being lost in space and the difficult situations that astronauts face betting their lives is well established. The Director’s skill in screening the entire movie with just two people and their struggle to get back to Earth alive, is commendable. Cinematography and the visual effects of living in space is excellent. Great background music.
Negatives: Viewers might get disappointed when they don’t get to see any other character in the movie, and not as a great entertainer. The advanced technology could have maneuvered the shuttles out of the orbit of the 90 minute cycles of the debris and avoid impact. Absence of quantified sentiment might have brought down the expected success.

My rating is 3.5 out of 5