MOVIE REVIEW - Gravity

George Clooney and Sandra Bullock star in the new space thriller, Gravity.  Two big stars, a ton of special effects, regular D, 3-D, and even IMAX, all for this 87 minute movie. 

First off, this movie is absolutely made for today's 3-D.   It really works well here.  Also, all of this is filmed in zero-gravity, or simulated zero-gravity and is certainly challenging movie making.   That is very impressive.   But for me, this is a movie that is far more concerned about what it can do, as opposed to what it should do.   Huge on effects, but this is loaded with redundancy.

The story in short is this.   A group of astronauts is orbiting the earth doing a repair to the Hubble telescope. As they are outside the shuttle, they are bombarded with a shower of space debris from a Russian space experiment goes wrong.  The debris which is traveling at 20,000  mph is now destroying all other satelights and that debris is crashing into them as well. All of the crew is killed except for them and the shuttle is destroyed.  So they must fight all odds to try to survive. 

The goal is to get to the International Space Station, and get on the emergency pod and come back to Earth. But you can probably guess that doesn't pan out well, and now what?  Can they possibly live through this storm 200 miles above the Earth?

I have seen a ton of great reviews on this movie, and I have to respectfully disagree.  I think many are star struck by our cast.  True, there are some remarkable effects as this is exceptionally complex movie making and that isn't lost here.  But this movie really had a tough time holding my attention as it is scene after scene of people tumbling through space.  This would be a sensational scene in a movie that had something else to say.  But, this has little to say.  But it certainly looks great on the big screen and in 3-D.  This movie was absolutely made for the theater.  This is not a movie that will transfer well to DVD.

Sets are great, effects are great, but the story is average.  Also there are a few large holes in this that really stall it out.  Do you think that NASA, the agency that does all of these remarkable things all over the universe would get the info of the accident that causes all the problems to these guys with no notice?  Yeah, me either.  It all seems to come out of left field, and nothing ever comes out of left field to NASA.  That bothered me.  Huge hole.

This movie will also shock many as to how short it really is.  To be honest, you may be ready for it to end, with all the zero-gravity filming and you can become fatigued by it.  But you are paying a huge premium movie ticket price for 3-D, or IMAX 3-D and for Clooney and Bullock for a movie less than 90 minutes.  Should be noted too, this has a ton of Bullock, and a sliver of Clooney.

Gravity.  Complicated movie making.  But in the end a star studded, dressed up special effects fest for adults.