Movie Review Gravity

Gravity is a 3-D science fiction movie directed by Alfonso Cuarón was released on October 4^th, 2013 in the U.S. Before it was aired, the trailer and propaganda were everywhere. It was impossible to surf the internet without seeing clicks of the film. Like usual, the trailer was silently playing on YouTube’s home page and was on the trending page. It also played several times before the actual YouTube videos were played. Normally I would hit the skip button. However, the intensity drove me right into it.

The trailer begins with words in black and white that appeared on screen slowly and silently: “ At 372 MILES ABOVE THE EARTH. THERE IS NOTHING TO CARRY SOUND. NO AIR PRESSURE. NO OXYGEN. LIFE IN SPACE IS IMPOSSIBLE.” The words are just as peaceful as the space. Then the sudden explosion breaks the peace and the disaster begins.

The entire movie is 91 minutes long and casting Sandra Bullock and George Clooney. Bullock and Clooney played as the astronauts who survived from the orbit destruction.

Sandra Bullock played Dr. Ryan Stone, the female mission specialism exploring her first space shuttle mission. George Clooney was the male astronaut Lieutenant Matt Kowalski. Two of them are on a space mission of repairing the HST, Hubble Space Telescope. When Dr. Stone was trying to set the last screw on during a spacewalk, a cloud of debris of the Russian satellite started flying toward them with very high speed. The missile strike of the Russian satellite has caused a chain reaction of a debris disaster.

Since it’s a space drama, let’s throw in some physics here. The visualization is amazing in this movie featuring Newton’s first law of motion: “ Every object persists in its state of rest or uniform motion in a straight line unless it is compelled to change that state by forces impressed on it.” This means the object that is at rest will stay at rest and the object that is in motion will not change its velocity and direction unless an external force acts upon it. When Dr. Stone unattached herself from the space shuttle debris, she was tuning up and down constantly in circles into the space. This scene created the sensation among the audience. Despite the fact my friend sitting next to me was holding on my arm for the entire movie, the audience that night in the theater were nice enough to not start a screaming competition. However, although fans enjoyed every shocking scientific aspect of the movie, many scientist were offended by the inaccurate physics information. Lisa Respers France published a article on CNN webpage titled “5 things that couldn’t happen in ‘Gravity’ ” Several scientist compared real life science with the movie’s in this article They even mentioned that Kowalaski’s equipment is outdated. One thing I had trouble with when I was watching the movie was when the two astronauts hiked a journey the other two space stations. Not only they could measure the exact location and direction, it almost seemed easy for them to just flow to the Russian Space station. Apparently, some scientists are with on this. “As we recall from bitter memory, the Hubble and the space station are in vastly different orbits,” Dennis Overbye wrote. “Getting from one to the other requires so much energy that not even space shuttles had enough fuel to do it. The telescope is 353 miles high, in an orbit that keeps it near the Equator; the space station is about 100 miles lower, in an orbit that takes it far north, over Russia. To have the movie astronauts Matt Kowalski and Ryan Stone zip over to the space station would be like having a pirate tossed overboard in the Caribbean swim to London.” However, some sci-fi fans out there might be annoyed of arguing real science behind a science fiction movie.

While we are blown away by the amazing displays, it’s important to noting the messages sent out from the film. Through the movie, the director Alfonso Cuarón connected cadences tightly. The intense scenes of severe scenarios were followed one after another. Before Dr. Stone actually came out from the water and started walking, it was hard to tell whether she would survive in the end. After all the adversities, the film ensured the positive message of not giving up and overcoming. It kind of reminds me of the movie Life of Pi, the story that will make you believe in God again. To survive from a space disaster is almost incomparable. I cannot think of anything else that can be discussed on the same level. Also, I appreciate the fact that the female scientist was the survivor in the end.

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bharath-gopalaswamy/space-debris_b_4136154.html
http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/07/showbiz/movies/gravity-scientists/ (source)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/azum-z-ali/orbital-debris_b_4149847.html