Gravity - 2013

I have been waiting for this movie for years, yet I did not know that GRAVITY would be the film that re birthed my passion and love for the art and craft of film-making. I never knew that the simple premise of two stranded astronauts in space would bring about such exuberant and elated exclamations of absolute astonishment. Yet, from the moment I saw the most perfect image of the earth in the opening sequence of this film, I knew I was witnessing something special, something unique and something that would be seen as a pinnacle of the future of cinema – a film that historians would look back too as the genesis of the new age of film.

Yes, it is that good. But let me tell you why.

Alfonso Cuaron does something not seen in film, that I can recall, ever. With the use of the 3D format, remarkable cinematography and the films unyielding soundtrack, he delicately and sneakily submerges us into the film with each slow tracking shot and close-up. It’s not until the first 10 minutes has passed that you realise that this has occurred all in one sweeping, continuous shot. Yet so much has happened in it, so much detail and movement that you need to blink away the awe. It makes you feel weightless; like you are floating in the scene with Sandra and George. The 3D is often the winner throughout this film and adds the “experience” that its supposed to offer you. This is 3D at its best, miles ahead of Avatar and appreciatingly used to advance the films narrative like Hugo.

Films with minimal or singular characters have been done before, some successfully, some not so. To take on a film of this kind takes courage and a belief in the director’s vision and faith in the writers story. Most recently – and successfully – the films Moon and Buried have centred on a plot of single characters to create a tense and meaningful story. Gravity relies on the fact that being lost in space, is second only to being lost at sea and both are equally frightening. Being adrift in the vastness of space is a hauntingly terrifying prospect considering the chances of being rescued are nil. And it is this image that replays over and over again; a solitary figure clad in white, detached from the umbilical of safety, adrift against a blanket of black. It’s frightening.

I do not want to give away too much of the story. I would encourage you to remain impartial, don’t go in with expectations and try not to read anything about how the plot of the story is revealed, slow take by slow take, but I will say that this is a well-crafted and executed idea. This is a story of triumph at its heart, a woman, and a strong (often flawed one) woman at that, overcomes the impossible when the easier option was to simply give up.

The imagery is stark and brutally honest with cinematography that is fluid and beautiful. The majesty of the earth as the films backdrop provides awe and wonder, never getting in the way of the details or the characters. There are moments in this film where I found myself mesmerised by the action, often in the slow-motion of weightlessness, debris from a disintegrating space-station flies around the screen and into the audience at what feels like rapid motion, but is actually much slower. So much is said in the stillness and silence of the images presented on the screen. One moment I will mention is when Ryan (Sandra Bullock) enters the space station after breathing carbon monoxide for at least 5 minutes. The instant she is within the air lock and able to breathe oxygen she passes out in zero-gravity, spinning gently as if she was a foetus in the womb.  It is stunning imagery like this that makes Gravity a beautiful film to watch.

The other masterstroke of this film is the soundtrack and sound effects. Finally a film that does not shy away from the reality that in space no one can hear anything. To see exploding space stations, and space shuttles, without the sound of the explosion, all shown in the silence of space is truly a remarkable experience in itself. To think, we have been saturated with this unreal concept that anything that blows up in space does so as it would earth – loud and at normal speed, then when we see it how it really is, it is simply frightening. To see someone escape wayward debris that is travelling with no sound and in the weightlessness of zero-gravity, combined with the loud, thrilling operatic music that saturates the audience, you are not on the edge of your seat, but on the floor peeping through your fingers trying to swallow your heart.

Gravity succeeds where so many films fail. It is simple. The script is easy. The story is basic, but the way it is presented is astonishing.

You must see this film. In 3D and in Imax.

This is now officially my second-favourite film of all time. 

the best film of 2013...and a surefire winner at the Oscars.

5 popcorns.

Man of Steel- 2013

Man of Steel – 2013

Dir: Zack Snyder

A modest 3 popcorns (because it looked good)

Man of Steel almost proves that among the cavalcade of heroes, superheroes and mutants that are flooding cinema at the moment, there is no longer a place for the original Superman.

I would not have thought that Superman could be muscled out of existence by other characters with less substance in their story, yet Man of Steels lacking script does just that – by trying too hard to be just “like the others”.

As the script focuses so much of its story on the fact that Superman is an alien sent to earth to save it, the organic “real-world-ness” feel that worked so well for Batman, seems to fall flat here. The script clearly wants to tell the story of how Kal-El is an alien and as such, must come stop an alien force from destroying the planet, yet the narrative seems to get confused in trying to drive a story about how Clark (and Kal-El) is really a man, trapped in an alien’s body.

What works for the film is its heart, captured in the sensibilities of Kal’s adoptive father Jonathan (Kevin Costner). As a kind of origin story that this film attempts to be, I found myself actually longing for more of the back story where Kal/Clark are learning about who he is and how he must harness not only his abilities, but the struggle between right and wrong and his longing for acceptance. Unfortunately, Zack needs to learn a thing or two about how to use flashbacks in a way that does not disrupt a films flow as many of the flashbacks felt thrown in for “good measure”.

Whilst the film is admirable in parts, its weak script and often corny dialogue rob it of the small steps it makes in forging a strong and rewarding plot. It jumps around uneasily and much of what happens is there for the spectacle and even the interactions between characters feel forced and over the top. And when you’re left wondering why all of a sudden Lois and Superman kiss, you know deep in your heart there is more missing here than meets the eye.

The script is a labor, literally from its opening scenes, and needed the elements of what makes humanity great to contrast against the dreary, broken world which Clark inhabits. There was no humor and where one-liners and quips from Alfred made Batman more digestible, there was very little to break the often relentless barrage of drama, yelling, anger and fighting. We needed to see that humanity was worth saving. In the end, when the choice has to be made, it feels like Superman/Clark/Kal-El is only saving us because he was told too.

The reality is that there is nothing new here and in a burgeoning world of super-hero cinema, the hope it has of moving as far from the Lycra-clad world of Richard Donner’s originals and even Bryan Singers “remake/re imagining” does not give it enough punch to actually stand alone and apart from all the rest.  At some points this film mistakes itself for Transformers and even Avengers and it’s because “we've seen it all before”, the third act becomes a long, building-smashing, ground-destroying, punching, exploding cacophony of very little substance.

And then when you least expect it, the last 5 minutes reveal what you wanted all along and didn't get causing you to throw your box of popcorn at the screen (this may have just been me).