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“Gravity”: gravitas? — 24 Comments

  1. Sorry, didn’t see it. No plans to subsidize George Clooney’s career.
    And though it pains me as a fanboi, I’m seriously considering a boycott of Captain America: the Winter Soldier due to the presence of Robert Redford.

    …but, I’ll probably see it anyway. I have no self-control.

  2. “Gravity” is a remarkable cinematic achievement. However, Neo’s review omits some of the most impressive technical wizardry involved in making the film.

    Here’s a rundown of what the filmmakers had to do in order to create “Gravity.”

    First, they had to locate a print of “Castaway.”

    Then they needed to excise all the parts of that film that took place off the island.

    Then they had to use CGI to change the tropical island setting of “Castaway” to outer space.

    Then they had to apply the same computer magic to replace Tom Hanks with Sandra Bullock.

    After that, it was a simple matter of inserting George Clooney in place of the volleyball, “Wilson.” (This is in fact what made the movie so expensive to produce.)

    Fortunately, the mournful scene showing “Wilson”/Clooney drifting helplessly away from the main character required very little retouching.

    Seriously, this was a well-crafted, entertaining little film. But, it’s not one you’ll still be thinking about a couple days later.

  3. Fort Lee, NJ is at the Palisades on the Hudson River. The silent movie serials were filmed here at the beginning of the 20th century. Thus the term “cliff hanger.”

  4. Gravity was a wonderful action movie, extraordinarily well done.

    When one goes to this kind of movie one should not expect deep plots and story lines. One goes to get out of the real world and for a short period of time be transported to another world. The movie does that very well.

    Think of it as terrific snack food. Not a lot of nutrition but damn it tastes good.

  5. Gravity is definitely a fun movie to see in 3D – well worth a trip to the theater.

    I agree with you, Neo, that it could have been deeper. Would have been better if she were not a complete novice (that set-up is as tired as the ‘last day on the job and all H*ll breaks loose’ scenario), and her interactions with Clooney’s character could have been much more interesting if there were more than a superficial relationship between them (not romantic; just a longer friendship or mentor relationship).

  6. I haven’t seen it, but as I understand the basic premise (heroics notwithstanding) it’s pretty scary. In space an astronaut doesn’t “float” but falls–very slowly due to the relative absence of gravity. If he is not tethered to a spacecraft not only does he fall but he does so in orbit much faster than it would appear, and that orbit pulls the astronaut into the upper atmosphere at an increasingly faster rate. Ultimately if he doesn’t run out of air and suffocate he’ll burn on reentry–lovely choice, that….

  7. Jenk:

    There was a terrible moment in “2001: A Space Odyssey” when one of the astronauts becomes untethered and drifts off into space. I was very perturbed by it at the time.

    It’s one of the first signals in the movie that Hal the computer has run amok. Here’s a description:

    While Poole is attempting to replace the unit during a spacewalk, his EVA pod, controlled by Hal, severs his oxygen hose and sets him adrift. Bowman, not realizing the computer is responsible for this, takes another pod to attempt a rescue, leaving his helmet behind. While he is gone, Hal turns off the life-support functions of the crewmen in suspended animation. When Bowman returns to the ship with Poole’s body, Hal refuses to let him in, stating that the astronaut’s plan to deactivate him jeopardizes the mission. Having to let go of Poole, Bowman manually opens the ship’s emergency airlock and bodily enters the ship risking death from exposure to a vacuum but survives. After donning a helmet, Bowman proceeds to Hal’s processor core intent on disconnecting most of the functions of the computer. Hal first tries to reassure Dave, then pleads with him to stop, and finally begins to express fear–all in a steady monotone voice. Dave ignores him and disconnects each of the computer’s processor modules. Hal eventually regresses to his earliest programmed memory, the song “Daisy Bell”, which he sings for Bowman.

  8. Heh – Hal sounds so calm and reasonable!
    If you haven’t already seen it, “Moon” has Kevin Spacey voicing a Hal-like computer named GERTY who keeps lone Moon inhabitant Sam Rockwell company. It’s not initially clear whether GERTY is Hal II or a friendly.

  9. WARNING — SPOILER — SPOILER — WARNING
    WARNING — SPOILER — SPOILER — WARNING
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    GO ON TO THE NEXT COMMENT IF YOU DON’T
    WANT A MENTION OF THE ENDING OR IF YOU
    DON’T WANT TO READ AN M J R COMMENT 🙂
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    Went to see it with my wife, who is not bothered by the rampant leftieism of the actors/actresses. I am, but very often, ya gotta do what ya gotta do.

    Anyway . . .

    I kid you not, my first reaction upon seeing that the Sandra Bullock character landed safely and was on dry land was:

    Hey, suppose she lands in a muslim country. She is -1- without a male escort and -2- not at all suitably clothed. My wife thought my remark was pretty silly, but I do get “into” a movie plot, and that was the first thing to cross my mind.

    It might make for a *very* interesting sequel — and there’d no need for the fancy special effects.

  10. I was going to stay away because of Clooney but was drawn by some excellent reviews and Sandra Bullock. I have mixed feelings about it too. The first fifteen or so minutes feature some prattling dialog that drove me nuts but the movie was completely engrossing once the action started.

    See this movie to enjoy some skillful storytelling and film-making. There is something uplifting about seeing characters exert competence and courage to overcome problems. This film delivers–within a not-too-long ninety minutes.

    I would recommend skipping the 3-D showings. The spectacle will shine through on any big screen and there really weren’t many sequences that highlighted 3-D.

    Also, I rarely go to movies and was surprised by how ridiculously loud the movie and previews were. Anyone else feel the need to wear ear protection in the theater? The only upside to the volume was that it drowned out some of the cellophane crinkling of fellow movie goers.

  11. http://ymarsakar.wordpress.com/2013/11/10/taxing-the-rich/

    There’s been some talk on the net about taxing Hollywood.

    Democrats only tax the rich when they are Republicans or competitors to GM/public unions.

    There’s something of a war funding and logistics angle to that kind of thing.

    The Left, like Islamic Jihad, is powerful only because it has resources and wealth to call upon in manipulating human cannonfodder. The war will take a different turn if they should lose those resources.

    As for humanity, Neo, Hollywood isn’t particularly good about those things.

    In the movie format and length, http://www.anime-planet.com/anime/sword-of-the-stranger is one of my favorites.

    It’s hard to translate or even describe Japanese series and media to a Western audience, without using a lot of spoilers.

    What I liked about that title wasn’t so much the fight scenes (thought they were good), but the focus on what motivates warriors and the concept between the strong and the weak. The winner and the lose. Those who have the strength to defend themselves and others, and those who have the strength but use it to destroy the weak.

    In essence, it’s a story about virtues and vices, but not in a religious context or Western context. In the Western context, it is much like getting a glimpse of the ancient warrior-poets and warrior-philosophers of Ancient Greece or Celtic/Viking lore.

    The Japanese take on romantic comedy is also dramatically different. Western reaction to romantic comedies, especially from a male perspective, is one based upon what we have seen in the genre. It will be hard for a person to imagine what it can turn into, in the hands of a different philosophical and cultural perspective. But that’s part of the fun of the journey.

    In some ways the gender roles in Japan are both traditionally strict, like 1940s America or 1840s America, but also reversed often times unexpectedly. Romance exists as The central plot in visual novel games aimed towards the heterosexual male audience. Although there are other audiences and demographics out there that have their own niche products and values.

    One thing that was a bit unexpected for me when I first started down this road years ago, was that many of the characters and protagonists in Japanese modern or historical fictional settings, were people I came to admire and respect on a very deep level. Not because of their nationality or fame or lack of it, but for their individual qualities and motivations which set them apart from the “herd”, society, and preconceptions of the masses.

    I learned a lot of things about life from these fictional portrayals and media productions, now that I look backwards. They didn’t have much to teach me about combat physically, except psychologically, but that was something American civilian contractors and trainers took care of.

  12. I can probably count the movies I’ve seen in a theater in the past ten years on my fingers. I long ago stopped giving my money to leftists in the entertainment industry. I make very rare exceptions.

    But I heard good things about Gravity and saw it the second night after release. I didn’t care about which movie stars inhabited the spacesuits.

    Gravity was the first movie I’ve seen twice in a theater since Titanic in 1997-98. (I also saw that one for the first time the second night it was out.) It’s the first 3D movie I’ve ever seen, unless you want to count some cheesy old 50s flick I saw in college with the red/blue glasses.

    It’s definitely worth seeing in IMAX 3D if at all possible. It has some of the best depictions of spaceflight and weightlessness that have ever been put on screen. Even during the second viewing, some scenes had me hanging onto my seat for dear life.

    That said, there were some howling inaccuracies, chief among them being that the HST, ISS, and Tiangong do not share the same orbital plane, so you can’t just hop from one to the other. Also, Soyuz does not have a side hatch on the descent module. There is one on the orbital module, but not the descent module. The movie makers undoubtedly knew these things, but ignored them for the sake of dramatic license. The Soyuz side hatch was so well-rendered that it looked like it belonged there. I didn’t even notice it myself until it was pointed out to me. And anyway, these inaccuracies are pretty minor compared to most Hollywood space movies.

    Comparisons to 2001 are entirely apt. That earlier movie permanently raised the bar for scientifically accurate depictions of spaceflight in the movies, and Gravity will do likewise. 2001 has also been criticized for such things as flat, two-dimensional characters, and a bizarre, incomprehensible “psychedelic” ending.

    Warning: The link below teems with spoilers.

    At NASASpaceflight.com, the Gravity thread is now at 29 pages of comments. It started in February 2012 when the movie was first announced. For the first 7 pages, commenters initially express skepticism, then, as the trailers begin to appear, they start saying, “Wow, that looks pretty good.” Beginning on page 8, actual viewer reviews begin to appear. The people who hang around that site are hardcore space buffs, and can dissect the movie’s flaws with surgical precision. But the overwhelming consensus is very positive.

    I expect Gravity to win Oscars for special effects, CGI, and set design. If it doesn’t, they should retire those awards. In a just world, Alfonso Cuaré³n should win for Best Director. Sandra Bullock should at least get a nomination for Best Actress, but I don’t think she will win. That probably depends on internal Academy politics, which I don’t pretend to understand.

  13. I think I am one of a handful of people in North America that left the theater underwhelmed.

    I can readily admit it was a spectacle. But the shallowness of the film and the characters just made me not give a crap. I had nothing invested, other than the ticket price, in whether Sandra Bullock lived or died.

    Meh, as they say.

  14. Matthew M Says:
    Also, I rarely go to movies and was surprised by how ridiculously loud the movie and previews were. Anyone else feel the need to wear ear protection in the theater?

    Yes! Yes! And I’m at the age where I already should be mostly deaf!

  15. Matthew M, 7:21 pm — “I rarely go to movies and was surprised by how ridiculously loud the movie and previews were. Anyone else feel the need to wear ear protection in the theater?”

    Loud — yes. I don’t hear so well, so I’m okay with loud. But (I swear) the previews are even louder. In any event, I detest all the previews *anyway*, filled with often nauseating images and miscellaneous garbage I do not want to see.

    — —

    Jim Sullivan, 8:58 pm — “I think I am one of a handful of people in North America that left the theater underwhelmed.”

    I was in that handful.

    “I can readily admit it was a spectacle. But the shallowness of the film and the characters just made me not give a crap.”

    The idea, really, was spectacle, not depth. So shallow, yes. And I gave a crap, but only a single, solitary crap. A crapito, perhaps. Not a ####load, if you get my drift.

    — —

    MootyH, 10:28 pm — “Yes! Yes! And I’m at the age where I already should be mostly deaf!”

    HEAR, HEAR [as it were] . . .

  16. I skipped Gravity and went straight to Ender’s Game. A fine SF movie that stayed true to its sources. I had read the original short story and my friend had read the later SF novel. So, when he said, “they’ll have to cut a lot out to make the movie”, I was thinking “they’ll need to add stuff in”. Turns out we were both right.

  17. 4 more weeks until The Hobbit, part two! The first part was far better than I expected it would be, but I was dissappointed that the two quick glimpses of Smaug showed him as a green dragon, while in the book, he was described as a ‘huge red yellow dragon “. Ah well, who knows more about the subject of Middle Earth, John Ronald Reul Tolkien, or Peter Jackson. The LOTR trilogy seemed to indicate the Jackson thought that he did. Still, I shall go and see it.

  18. Sound is one way to psychologically break down a person’s defenses, so always keep that in mind when studying mind control and visual propaganda projects.

  19. Pingback:Space Telescope Photos Blog

  20. a massage to relax my clenched muscles.

    If you don’t unclench those muscles, don’t drive in New Mexico or Arizona, even if you have good medical insurance.

  21. There are several points between muscle groupings in the back that when pressed will interrupt muscle tightening along the shoulders and upper back.

    Other than that, deep controlled breathing will moderate the adrenaline rush and cool down any neural commands of a heightened nature. Just remember to double the time of the inhale vs the exhale. Things like laughter and sad sighs mimick the ratio and is a sort of uncontrolled breathing, which either heightens the body’s energy or lowers it.

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