Gravity Imax 3D — Page 3

Oh, this movie was a MUCH better theme park ride than the Avatar theme park ride.

I really disliked Avatar, outside of the 3D spectacle. It was a big, dumb movie. It was dumb and even stupid. That's how dumb it was. Dances With Smurfs. I was never moved or overwhelmed. Just fascinated by the technical aspects.

As simple a story as it is, Gravity is much better. Cuaron's direction and Bullock's performance put it far ahead.

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I personally think it should only be eligible in the animated features category.

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I saw it last night, the full 3D Imax blowout, and enjoyed it a great deal. The brilliance of the production and of Ms. Bullock's performance (her journey from death to life was very beautifully done, I thought) really came across. I do think there's more here than just big blowout effects, there seemed to be some religious/spiritual metaphoring going on that will take repeat viewings to get to the bottom of, after the astonishment of the spectacle is no longer quite as, well, astonishing.

My one serious complaint -- that goddamn George Clooney.

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SPOILERS -- SERIOUSLY BEWARE -- I'D TURN BACK IF I WERE YOU!!!!!





We disagree, Namo. It seems clear to me that the only part that doesn't actually happen is Clooney's re-appearance, just a CO2-inspired dream. Then the rest does in fact happen, when she's inspired to turn the oxygen back on and take life by the horns again. The whole thing of Bullock's emotional and spiritual regeneration, the movie's real subject after all, is a serious cheat if she's just dead. Cuaron doesn't play bullsh*t Shyamalan/Scott games (the whole end of the movie is a death dream, and look, she's a replicant after all!!) like that, at least not for long.

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Updated On: 10/11/13 at 10:40 AM

SPOILER CONTINUATION

Well, I mean. Not only did she HAVE to have dreamed the visitation, because he was gone with no propulsion mechanism to control where he ended up, she would not been able to survive his opening the hatch. There isn't even a way to give the movie creative license with it, especially with the title card going to such great length to explain that nothing can live in space. Everything she experienced after turning down the oxygen was the product of her dying brain.

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SPOILERVILLE

Everything after the visitation IS the spiritual regeneration. Everything that happens once the final action begins is the spiritual rebirth. Perhaps it symbolizes a reincarnation, but it can't be meant to be taken literally.

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SPOILERLAND

I was never suggesting it was like Shamalayan at all. If it were, she would have discovered she was dead in some way that was supposed to blow our minds but actually just made us laugh at the obviousness of it.

I think, however, it's a ridiculous Hollywood ending that's a parody of ridiculous Hollywood endings that comes with its own critique embedded in it. It's giving the audience what it wants, a belief that somebody escaped certain death, but it was a certain death. Most humans with some sort of religion want to believe they survive death and so they subscribe to afterlife narratives. Big Hollywood productions are all illusions and dreams, also a sort of religion with a narrative of immortality. I think in that way the movie's actually smarter than most people realize.

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When I read that Robert Downey Jr. was offered the Clooney role, the character made much more sense to me in imagining who that character was and why that character made that choice. I could understand why Downey would not be down with the roll since it is incredibly on the nose with his whole career arc but I never got anything from Clooney to suggest he was even representing that kind of good time, even-keeled if resigned kind of fatalism. He was definitely the weak link but aside from one scene (that Clooney supposedly got non-writing credit on), he is avoidable in memory since the rest of it is the Bullock/Lubezki/Cuaron show.

Updated On: 10/11/13 at 11:58 AM

SPOILEROCRACY

Right, she survived the impossible to survive, point taken, and that's the point of the movie, it seems to me -- no parody intended, as far as I can see. I'm not seeing it as the kind of post-modern narrative joke you're getting out of it, there's just no indication (aside from her one line about "I hate space") to indicate that anything like parody or irony is at work here.

If she doesn't survive and the film's finale is an ongoing death dream/parody of Hollywood Gigantism, Cuaron would have indicated it far more clearly and explicitly than he does.

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SPOILERAVAGANZA

OK, thanks for clarifying abou the tone of the film. But you'll have to show exactly how in the film this message/commentary is gotten across -- I see nothing in the film to indicate that she's dead after that specific point and the rest of the film is her death dream, neurons firing and all that, and Cuaron isn't exactly subtle.

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...suspension of disbelief anyone?

Spoiler conversation...

Actually now that it was brought up - yes - I can in fact see that she died when she turned down the oxygen and we saw her journey to paradise though it was filled with pitfalls, fire and water.

Then again - maybe she did live through the fall, fire and water to return to paradise alive.

Enjoy the movie for what it is worth and get out of it what works for you.

SPOILERWORLD




I have to say, I like Namo's idea that everything after she turns down the oxygen is a dream/hallucination journey toward death. I just didn't think that was apparent while I was watching that, particularly because of how she jolts awake, realizes he's not there, and starts up the oxygen again. It would be a dream within a dream, then. Not impossible at all, just not clear. But the rest of the movie, as it plays out, would certainly work (and work well) under that premise.

EDIT: Actually, it's more interesting that way. See? Now you've got me thinking about the movie a lot more than I thought I would be.

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Updated On: 10/11/13 at 01:02 PM

SPOILEROPOLIS

"Whenever they make a point of showing an action like a little girl getting hit in the head by a window frame during a tornado, you should suspect that what happens after that is in the character's head."

Right, but when that little girl recovers from having been hit on the head, the film goes out of its way to make it very clear that what happened was, in fact, in that character's head, something that doesn't happen in GRAVITY. Quite the opposite -- she is shown waking up, turning the oxygen back up full blast and going back on from there, there's nothing, as far as I can remember, to back up the "she's DEAD!" gimmick. Looks like we're going to have to agree to disagree, unless of course Cuaron issues some kind of statement about it.

On the other hand, this might be similar to what went down in Affleck's ARGO, the little moment where ARGO became ARGO "THE MOVIE!!!" and we got that admittedly effective but rather overdone chase of the airplane. Not seeing it, though -- ARGO could accommodate a little gimmick like that because it felt like it was part of the idea of the movie in ways that I don't see GRAVITY accommodating a similar bit of smart-assery.

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Updated On: 10/11/13 at 01:33 PM