Apr 30 2014
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Reviews

“THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN” Review (✫✫✫1/2)

♪Does whatever a spider can♪

If I were to have a reboot of one of my favorite superhero films made just ten years ago, The Amazing Spider-man would be that reboot. What can I say about the film that will accurately do it justice? That it is exciting, suspenseful and displays visual effects that leaves the old one in the dust? That the writing is just as acute and skilled as the direction is? That Andrew Garfield has perfect chemistry with Emma Stone? No. Instead, I will describe the film by simply using just one word: amazing.

When Peter Parker was a young, bright-minded child, he lived in the content and warmth of his parents home. When his house was broken into, his father’s office searched through in every crook and cranny, his father Richard (Campbell Scott) quickly packs a suitcase, drives Peter to his Uncle Ben (Martin Sheen) and Aunt May’s (Sally Field) house, and tells Peter him and his mother will be gone for a while. A few days later, the plane that Peter’s parents were on was reported to have crashed. They didn’t make it out.

Twelve years later, Peter (Now played by Andrew Garfield), now in his teen years, is in high school, gets picked on by the local bullies every now and then, and has a crush on this pretty blonde-haired genius named Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone). While in the basement one day helping his Uncle unclog the water pipe, Peter makes an interesting discovery: his father’s briefcase, filled with notes, theories, and algorithms Peter has never seen before. While looking and studying the notes his father left behind, Peter realizes everything points to one scientific company in particular: Oscorp.

From there, Peter snoops around, goes into a lab he wasn’t supposed to go into, a radioactive spider bites him, and well… you probably already know where it goes from there.

If we look at the story, it is on repeat from the first Spider-man. But the repeat isn’t what we care about. The Amazing Spider-man is done with a new style, energy, and enthusiasm to it than the original one was. Funny, I didn’t expect this movie to be as energetic as it is. This film is directed by Mark Webb, who to date, his only directing experience being music videos and the 2009 romantic-comedy 500 Days of Summer. Quite a difference in genres, I know, but Webb handles the transition well. He makes Spider-man as he sees it, as a young man coming out of puberty using his powers for playful, mischievous reasons rather than the heroic acts of courage and responsibility that most heroes are known for. This Spider-man is more jokey and sarcastic than the original one, spitting witty one-liners while arresting a criminal or web swinging past bystanders.

He fuels the action scenes, inspires laughs, and is the source for original entertainment. If Tobey Maguire is the more emotional Spider-man, this Spider-man is the more sporadic and amusing one.

Andrew Garfield does a great job in portraying this Spider-man in a totally different dynamic. His character is definitely different, retorting to puns, jokes, and one-liners that would only result with awkward silences if Tobey Maguire tried to pull off the same thing. Garfield, however, is more talented than a one-dimensional joker. Like any great actor, his character portrays a flurry of emotions, and he portrays all of these emotions well. We can tell exactly when he is troubled or concerned, when he is angered and enraged, when he is happy and content, or when he is saddened and alone. Peter experiences many tragedies in this movie, and Garfield does a good job expressing the emotions for all of them. Emma Stone, equally, is incredible in this movie, providing the film’s beautiful, smart heroine. Together, their chemistry is irreplaceable, and forms a romance that rivals that of the chemistry Maguire and Dunst made in the original Spider-man movies.

Here is, regardless of pre-conceived opinions, a great movie. It is a blockbuster that does a great job balancing in between spectacular action, heartfelt emotion, and genuine humor, all combining into a reboot that makes it not only fun, but unique in its own right.

From a technical perspective, this film has no flaws. It, however, is not about what it did wrong; its a matter of who did it better.

The biggest weakness with The Amazing Spider-man is its release date. This is ten years after the first movie came out, and five years after its most recent one. Why did it need a reboot? It cannot help but bring up the comparison game when you watch this movie. And what happens when you compare things? You recognize which one did things better, and which one did things weaker. In comparison to the old one, The Amazing Spider-man cannot help but look inferior.

But how, exactly? The flaw exists in the writing, dear reader. There are just simply not enough moments in the film that are as emotionally real or relevant as there was in the first two Spider-man movies. Take, for example, the scene in the original Spider-man where Peter’s Uncle Ben dies because Peter did nothing to stop a criminal that ran past him. In the original film, this was a tragic, painful, and heartbroken realization for Peter that it was not the burglar who killed Uncle Ben, but Peter’s inaction and lack of doing the right thing. Here, it’s just on repeat as something that Peter needs to go through in order to become Spider-man. Peter, however, never acknowledges his responsibility in the matter, and neither does he ever even confront the criminal. How, then, does the issue ever become resolved? Answer: it does not. At the end of the film, everything is resolved except for that one specific conflict.

That’s the film’s only real weakness. I don’t want to go on about this weakness, though, because I’d be beating the bush. The main point: The Amazing Spider-man is still utterly fantastic. It is action-packed, suspenseful, energetic, relentless, exciting, humorous, and highly, highly entertaining. The production is all-around strong, the cast is even stronger, and the story is as driven and purposeful as it has ever been, despite a few moments of misplaced emotion. This is a reboot to one of my favorite superhero films of all time, and the surprise is I wouldn’t mind seeing a sequel to it in the slightest.

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Apr 29 2014
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Trending

‘Star Wars Episode VII’ Finally Has It’s Cast

And it just seemed like a long, long time ago since the project was first announced.

Details emerged earlier today regarding the cast for the upcoming Star Wars: Episode VII, to be written and directed by filmmaker J.J. Abrams (Super 8, Star Trek Into Darkness). Announced through the Star Wars main webpage, the official announcement of the cast members for the film is below:

“Actors John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac, Andy Serkis, Domhnall Gleeson, and Max Von Sydow will join the original stars of the saga, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, and Kenny Baker in the new film.” 

“We are so excited to finally share the cast of Star Wars: Episode VII,” Abrams said. “It is both thrilling and surreal to watch the beloved original cast and these brilliant new performers come together to bring this world to life once again. We start shooting in a couple of weeks, and everyone is doing their best to make the fans proud.”

“Surreal” is definitely the word.  I am beyond excited that the original cast is returning, although I don’t know how Carrie Fisher will fare considering how drastically she’s changed through her years. Equally excited, however, am I that C-3PO, R2-D2 and Chewbacca are coming back as well, and all roles reprised by the characters who originally portrayed them.

I am just excited, however, to hear about the new talent coming on board. Look at all these guys and what projects they were associated with: Boyega was the lead in Joe Cornish’s Attack The Block, Driver and Issac were both in Inside Llewlyn Davis, and do I really even need to go over Andy Serkis? (I’ll give you a hint: he’s in The Lord of The Rings franchise, King Kong, The Adventures of Tintin, Rise of the Planet of the Apes and The Prestige. Figured it out yet, my preciousssssss?)

Star Wars: Episode VII is one of the most highly-anticipated science-fiction sequels to come out in recent years, and the casting announcements from today shows that the filmmakers aren’t playing around. They’re pushing to bring in the best of the best for this project, and if these names don’t show that these guys know what they’re doing, I don’t know what will.

What do you guys think? Did Abrams bring on the right people for a project of this magnitude? Or is there someone else you might want to see in this sci-fi sequel?

Comment below, let me know.

-David Dunn

SOURCE: StarWars.com, CNN
Apr 17 2014
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Trending

Fox Misfires With “Mrs. Doubtfire 2”

Well, I know a lot of families who are not going to be happy about this nanny returning.

Details emerged yesterday regarding a superficial sequel to which no one thought would be happening. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Fox 2000 is producing a sequel to the highly-revered family-comedy Mrs. Doubtfire, a story about an irresponsible parent who disguises himself as a female nanny to spend more with the time with his children while at the same time avoiding suspicions by his ex-wife. Director Chris Columbus is set to return along with Robin Williams, and Elf scribe David Berenbaum is set to penn the screenplay. 

Where the heck did this come from? Years ago, there were talks of a sequel, but nothing was ever fully set into motion. According to a quote director Chris Columbus said earlier regarding the project:

“‘Mrs. Doubtfire’ is an interesting idea for a sequel because its the one time in film history where you can revisit the character and they’ll be the same 15 years later. Because of the make-up, people can see Mrs. Doubtfire again and nothing has changed about her, which I think is kind of interesting.” 

Yeah, but is it really necessary? The original was released in 1993, the year I was born. I’m 21. This movie probably isn’t coming out for a few more years due to production and post-production issues. So by the time this movie comes out, it will most likely be two decades old. Is that really the sequel we really want? One that’s coming out 24 years after the original? Do we really need that?

Who am I kidding, no sequel is inherently necessary. They’re just made so some money-mongering Hollywood pioneer can get a second jab at his annual paycheck. I’m not necessarily peeved that the sequel is coming out (lord knows Robin Williams was hilarious pretending to be an old lady), but why is this coming out so late? Are they really going to try and milk this cow, even though it expired years ago?

Ehh. I’ll keep following up for updates, including release dates and other cast members on the project (we don’t know if Sally Fields is returning or not), but for the moment, all you need to know is that this movie is happening, and an unnecessary one at that.

What do you guys think? Are you excited for Robin Williams’ return as lady Doubtfire? Or do you want him to leave her makeup and costume in the closet?

Comment below, let me know.

-David Dunn

Source: Screenrant, The Hollywood Reporter
Apr 12 2014
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The Scope

Just A TIPA

Photo by David DunnToday was a day that I will remember fondly throughout the entirety of my writing career. On this week, from Wednesday through Saturday, I was asked by my publications director to represent The Shorthorn at the 2014 Texas Intercollegiate Press Association Convention, an annual ceremony where not only the best work is rewarded in journalism and broadcast for the year of 2013, but competitions were held for reporters and writers to compete for the top spots in these competitions. I competed in three separate competitions, and at the end of today I walked away with two plain manilla paper awards that looked as exquisite as gold.

I attended the previous TIPA convention back in April 2013, a novice who barely knew how to reference a source in the first draft of his story. This year’s TIPA was significantly different for me in more ways than one. First of all, this year’s TIPA was held at San Antonio, whereas the last convention was hosted close to home in Dallas. Second, I came to TIPA this year as an experienced entertainment editor, not as the idle and clueless reporter that I used to be. I had much more experience since the last time I came, and I was ready to combat any uncertainties that would come my way. Third, the only competition I was in during the 2013 ceremony was the critical review competition, where I attended a performance of some sort and critiqued it at the conclusion of the event. This year, I competed in three categories, including critical review, radio news writing and television anchoring.

You have no idea how grueling the competitions were, how frustrating and nerve-wracking they were when you were on deadline and had only three minutes left on the clock. The day started off traveling to an off-site location for my news writing event, where myself and two of my fellow reporters and photographers came with for their own competitions. Our assignment was to cover an arson fire, only, it wasn’t a real fire: members of the San Antonio Fire Department put on a demonstration for us, showing what they would do for a real-life emergency situation, even at one point pulling out a humanoid dummy pretending it to be a real victim of a real-life arson fire.

We witnessed the event, asked questions, left the event, and arrived back on-site to complete our respective assignments. My script had to be a 30 to 45 second copy, and knowing that three words equals approximately one second in narration, I knew that my script had to be somewhere in between 90 and 135 words.

I was ten minutes away from script deadline, quick to finish my script so I could turn it in and conclude my event. I was very excited when my final copy was at 44 seconds, only to realize that my five-second sound cue at the beginning of the script made it 49 seconds. I panicked, looking frantically at my script, knowing full well that I would have to cut at least 12 words to make it fit the time frame. I scanned my document for seven nerve-wracking minutes, looking for any unnecessary words I could cut out. I ended up omitting five words, equating only to one second less of a copy that I had before.

“Screw it,” I thought to myself. “I’ll cut the sound cue.” So I turned in a script with a one-second natural sound lead and 44 seconds worth of narrating material. I turned it in with the runtime exactly at 45 seconds.

Later on that day, I went to the critical review competition, which was in a word, a wreck. Not the event itself, mind you, but the performance that they chose for us to review. It was a performance of Bruce Norris’ Pulitzer prize-winning play Clyboune Park, a story that looked at two different generations of racism and compared them side-by-side showing how nothing has changed.

The problem was we only viewed the first half. The production ended Sunday April 6 of last week, with most of the cast returning exclusively just for our viewing. While I appreciated their involvement and the opportunity to review their production, with the second half missing I had no context to refer to. I left the theatre with an empty taste in my mouth, but with plenty of opinion to put into my review.

Friday came along, and was a day where I was supposed to attend a majority of the workshops, where we were stressed the importance of internships, social media, adapting to industry standards and finding your voice. I learned a lot from the workshops I attended, and kept the information enclosed in my notes I took throughout the day. My day got interrupted, however, when I learned that a replacement was not found for one of my friend’s television anchoring competition. Not wanting The Shorthorn to be misrepresented at a competition that it signed up for, I gathered my things, a change of clothes, and quickly made my way to the competition, as it was one that I was previously interested in anyway. It was haphazard, chaotic, quickly assembled, and my clothes were so tight that I looked like a pound of sausage squeezed into a tube of toothpaste. But the point was I made it, I gave my best effort and I gained relevant experience that I can use the next time I compete.

Then came along the awards ceremony on Saturday. Sitting down calmly with my vanilla coffee in my left hand, I sat back in a relaxed poise fully expecting to lose in every category. Quite the contrary: my name was called twice in a row, one for second place critical review, and third for radio news writing.

My mind is still trying to grasp the fact that I won these awards. Firstly, I want to say thank you to everyone involved who inspire me to do the best that I can everyday in everything that I do. That includes Beth Francesco, our publications director, Lance Liguez, my broadcast professor, my fellow colleagues, and my mom and dad, who both remind me that the best possible job you can do is never enough.

Secondly, I want to pay respects to my friends in newsroom publications who also walked away with widely-recognized awards. My editor-in-chief Lindsey Juarez walked away with first place feature writing, an award she rightfully deserved by crowd sourcing and finding a compelling story through a homeless man that moved from shelter to shelter from New York down to here in San Antonio. The Shorthorn’s sports editor Grant McKinley walked away with third place print sports writing, while his reporter Cassie Logan walked away with second place television sports writing. Our copydesk chief Chloe Gonzales won first place copy editing while many other staffers won a multitude of other awards, including photographer Adrian Gandara, our photo editor Richard Hoang, our current digital managing editor Jonathan Silver and many others, eventually contributing to The Shorthorn’s number one placement for best in show. Even my music reviewer Brian Peterson placed first in critical review overall for the year, although it was during his time at another publication, at Stephen F. Austin’s The Pine Log. 

Realize none of these awards were easy to come by. There were over 20 student publications represented at the convention. To even place in the honorable mentions is a stroke of sheer luck.

Lastly, I want to thank you, the reader, for inspiring me to do what I do day in and day out. All I’m trying to say is that I’m grateful. I’m grateful for the people that I work with. I’m grateful for the publication I work for. I’m grateful for the job I have and the goals that I aspire to meet. I’m grateful for my friends, my family and my brotherhood for being so understanding with my long hours and work schedule and who are happy to see me when I come around. Yes, there’s a lot of unprecedented challenges I face on a daily basis, and yes, we as editors will sometimes get frustrated by each other by our antics and our work ethics. That doesn’t change the fact that we’re continually progressing as a student newspaper, and that you, the readers, are the reason why we continue to be in operation.

That same reason is why this blog is still in operation, although on a much lesser scale. I can’t say this enough: thank you, thank you, and thank you for your continued interest in my writing career. Movies is my passion, and film criticism is definitely the career I want to pursue when I graduate college. Until then, I will continue to improve both as an editor and as a writer, and hopefully TIPA will be ready for me when I return in 2015.

Post-script: Below are the award-winning samples that got me my two TIPA awards at this year’s conference. Feel free to read them, as they are probably more interesting than this four-page blog post.

Critical Review – 395

Radio News writing – 395

-David Dunn

Mar 24 2014
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The Scope, Trending

Now I Have A Radio Show. Ho-Ho-Ho.

Perhaps I am a little untimely by posting this in late March, when in reality this has been going on since February. Nevertheless, a starkly different turn has been taken for me involving my recent broadcasting career. So here goes.

I am officially now a radio talk show host for the University of Texas at Arlington’s official internet radio station. I run my own one-hour show live every Tuesday at 10 a.m. where I discuss everything about movies, from news headlines, to upcoming releases, and a review of a new release coming out that week.

It’s called “The Talkie Tuesdays with David Dunn”, and it is everything that I have ever dreamed of it being.

My foray into radio started a long time ago, back when I was a new broadcasting student in Fall of 2013. After experiencing the penultimate failure and disarray of the film department here at the university, I explored other possible venues into the communications department, ones that would help improve my skills technically and help market myself professionally.

That opportunity started in UTA Radio. Having introduced myself as the film critic of the UTA Shorthorn, I pitched a segment idea to the station’s executive producer and manager, Lance Liguez. It was called “The Movie Minute With David Dunn” and it was literally a 60-second review of a movie that came out that week, either in theaters or on DVD.

I know, I know, 60 seconds sounds like a very short time. In radio, however, I can’t tell you how much time that is, and how inconvenient it is for the entire program if you run even a second over. Regardless, Lance was very helpful to me in introducing me to the profession of radio. He gave me pointers on how to have a better announcing voice, introduced me to the station and granted me access to the recording studios as well. He introduced me with my production team (my bosses), and the people I’d be working for as long as I would be contributing to the station. He paired me up with broadcaster Tracie Hill, who ran the news program at the time, and also introduced me to the station manager Charlie Vann, of whom I would send my recordings to so he can edit them into Tracie’s segments.

Fast forward to present day. As a part of Lance’s radio production class, I am getting even more experience than I did before. As I already stated, I was scheduled for a 10 a.m. Tuesday shift for UTA Radio. Originally, my shifted consisted of little more than playing music and coming on saying “You’re listening to UTA Radio.com”. When we were reformatting our shows, however, I couldn’t have been more excited to reformat mine into a talk show and do what I love most: talk about movies.

This new format started two weeks ago. I didn’t post anything on this yet because I was both nervous and I was afraid I would be ready for live announcing. After getting a better feel of it, however, I must say that I think this is working out for me and I’m ready to advertise it in the best way I know how: shamelessly plug it on my personal blog. Horray for bloated egos!!!

Long and short of this post, I would like to invite you to check out my show. If you didn’t read the previous seven paragraphs, my show is on 10 a.m. every Tuesdays on UTA Radio. It won’t be on any regular F.M. or A.M. band. It’s an online radio broadcast channeled through iHeart radio and can be accessed through http://www.utaradio.com

Thank you to everyone for your support and for your interest not only in my reviews, but in my constantly progressing career. The communication department here has been more than helpful with all of my skills that I’ve been developing, and I cannot wait to continue to develop it here at the University of Texas at Arlington.

I’ll see you, fellow moviegoers, at the movies.

-David Dunn

Post-script: I’ll give you one more chance: 10 a.m. Tuesdays at http://www.utaradio.com

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Mar 19 2014
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Trending

New “Pan” To Fly Into Theaters

Do dreams really come true? Or is it more of a nightmare?

Casting details emerged earlier today on who the new Peter Pan is going to be. For those of you who don’t know, Warner Bros. is producing a reboot of the classic fairy tale Peter Pan to be released sometime in 2015, and is going to be directed by filmmaker Joe Wright (Atonement, Hanna). And who did Warner Bros. find to bring Peter Pan back to the big screen?

Well, Levi Miller of course.

Who? You never would have heard of him. Miller is a little-known child actor who starred in independent films including Akiva, a short about a secluded holocaust survivor who believes in humanity again after meeting a young boy, and Great Adventures, a story about an older man reliving his favorite memories as a child. He also starred in one episode of the short-lived 2011 sci-fi series “Terra Nova”, playing as the younger incarnation of one of the supporting characters.

Why did Wright decide to go with this kid? Doesn’t matter. The supporting cast he’s paired up with is exemplary to say the least, and will no doubt be very helpful with him in adapting to his character of Peter Pan. The Social Network and The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo’s Rooney Mara is tagged to play Tiger Lily, the Wolverine himself Hugh Jackman is set to play Blackbeard; even Tron: Legacy’s Garret Hedlund is going to portray the villainous Captain Hook, so there’s no shortage of wide-versed actors who won’t be willing to help him with his part.

What do you guys think? Do you think Miller will do the role justice? Or do you think someone else should have been considered for the role?

Comment below, let me know.

-David Dunn

Source: Cinemablend, Variety

 

Mar 19 2014
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Trending

Marvelous Concept Art Released For “The Avengers: Age Of Ultron”

Okay, my inner nerd is kind of exploding with joy right now.

Earlier today, Marvel comics released vie their website new concept images of characters from upcoming Marvel picture, from Guardians Of The Galaxy to Ant-Man to Avengers: The Age of Ultron.

Concept art of Star Lord, a.k.a. Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) fully suited up next to Rocket (Bradley Cooper). 

For those who didn’t see the teaser clip of Edgar Wright’s Ant-Man at Comic Con 2011, below is a rendition of select frames from the sequence.

Concept art of Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) shrinking into his tiny form.

Concept art of Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) dishing out his own brand of justice to regular-size crooks.
Size doesn’t matter, after all.

And lastly, concept art was released not only of scenes from The Avengers: Age Of Ultron; first glimpses of new characters Quicksilver (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Scarlett Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) were released as well.

Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) looks around as New York crumbles 
all around them. 

Pietro Maximoff, a.k.a. Quicksilver (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) speeds through his robotic enemies.

Wanda Maximoff, a.k.a. Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) dressed in her rags and jacket,
looking very frightening. 

Oh, and this little gem right here, courtesy of the ABC Channel.

Concept art of Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) fighting Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) in his bulky 
Hulkbuster armor.

You can check out the full gallery concept art here at http://www.marvel.com. In the meantime, stay excited true believers.

Excelsior!!!!!

-David Dunn

Source: Marvel.com, Cinemablend, ABC, Entertainment Weekly
Mar 18 2014
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Trending

“The Incredibles” To Return With A Super Sequel

Big, big headline here today folks, and if you haven’t heard about it yet, you’re either here in the newsroom working with me on production night, or you hate movies. Either way, you’re about to hear about it now.

During a shareholders conference call Tuesday morning in Portland, Oregon, Disney CEO Bob Iger publicly revealed that the exciting animated superhero flick The Incredibles is finally getting a sequel, ten years after the original one was released. With writing and directing the Oscar-winning film in 2004, animator Brad Bird is currently in the process of writing the sequel, having previously being hesitant to continue the story of Mr. Incredible and his super-family.

“Pixar does not look at sequels as a financial plan,” Bird said at the 2007 Wondercon Convention, according to Slashfilm.com. “We feel we have a relationship with the audience and that they believe in each movie we put out. If I can come up with a story that is as good or better than that first film, then I’d love to return to that world, but it would have to be story first.”

Iger also confirmed that there will be a sequel to the slapstick and sporadic Cars 2, despite widespread negative reviews. Considering that Pixar is still currently working on other projects including Inside Out, The Good Dinosaur, and another sequel in Finding Dory, we most likely will not see these projects until after 2016, so we still have a long wait until we see these pictures.

Despite that, I couldn’t have been happier. The Incredibles is one of the most original and unique action-packed romps that Pixar has come up with, and is one of the staples that precedes animated cliches and shows that those movies could be a lot more than what they lead on. With Bird currently working on the story for the project, and noting that he also worked on the 2011 live-action sequel Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, I believe its an understatement to say that this movie is in solid hands.

What do you guys think? Are you looking forward to the sequel, or do you want Pixar to just leave the classics alone? Comment below, let me know.

But do me a favor, willya? Post the comment while listening to that jazzy Michael Giacinno soundtrack. Man, that stuff is snazzy.

Bu da da, dadummmmmmmmmm……..

-David Dunn

Source: TIME, Variety

 

 

Mar 14 2014
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Reviews

“GRAVITY” Review (✫✫✫✫)

“In space, no one can hear you scream”

We fade in on a list of statistics about space as the edgy synthesizer music builds in the background.  The earth rotates at a speed of about 1000 miles per hour.  The temperature is about -273 degrees celsius.  There’s no gravity.  No oxygen.  No air pressure to carry sound. No one to hear you scream or cry for help. Nothing to save you if your suit fails to sustain you. Nothing to stop your momentum if you’re flying in the wrong direction. If you get into trouble out in space, you are all alone. Life in space is impossible.

This sort of tension and desperation is felt on an emotional level so intense in Alfonso Cuaron’s Gravity that I feel like I’m in space experiencing the same things that these characters are experiencing, not watching the chaos unfold from mission control.  The plot follows three astronauts who are working on repairing a satellite in orbit. Dr. Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) is a mission specialist who is working hard at repairing the satellite on her very first space mission. Lieutenant Matt Kowalski (George Clooney) is an experienced space veteran who is retiring after this final expedition.  Shariff Dasari (Paul Sharma) is a flight engineer who carries a photo of him, his wife, and child inside his suit.  Early into their mission, the team gets a warning from mission control, saying that there is debris from a missile strike on a Russian satellite orbiting the earth, but that it shouldn’t collide with their trajectory.

Now if that isn’t a case of foreshadowing, I don’t know what is.  Eventually, the debris sets off a chain reaction of destruction, and it eradicates the shuttle that they came on.  Shariff is killed, Kowalski loses communication with mission control, and Stone is left desperately hanging on to her life as she floats aimlessly away from their space module. When Stone and Kowalski eventually meet up again, they have to race against time and fate as their oxygen levels continue to deplete, and need to find a way home before they are truly lost in space forever.

Man oh man, where to start.  Gravity is a film for a generation, a picture that is so convincing and so believable in its approach that its nearly impossible to think that it wasn’t even filmed in space.  It is visually stunning, emotionally gratifying, immensely captivating, and surprisingly involving, a picture that latches you on in its first shot and doesn’t let you go until hours after you’ve left the theater.

Who is responsible for this feeling of attachment and interest?  Why that is director Alfonso Cuaron, of course, who co-wrote the script with his son Jonas. Cuaron, who is most known for his mainstream films including Children Of Men and the third Harry Potter movie outdoes himself here. Not only has he made a compelling and visually breathtaking science-fiction film that visually challenges that of Avatar and Inception: he’s also made a emotionally captivating story with the human interest equivalent of Argo or Captain Phillips.

Oh, I’m not saying he isn’t already a great director: lord knows he’s delivered as much visual and emotional appeal as he did with Children Of Men and Prisoner of Azkaban.  But Gravity is head and shoulders above anything else he’s done in his entire career. Why? Everything in the movie is immaculate and intentional, from the physics and dangers of space to characters emotions and complexions. Look at the delicacy and the concentration on Cuaron’s shots. Look at how well he orchestrates a scene, whether a large, imposing space station is crumbling all around Earth’s orbit, or a astronaut is just awkwardly fitting herself in tight corridors around a space station. In each shot, there is interest, there is intricacy, and there is involvement. Whether its a big, intimidating destruction scene or a small conversation between characters doesn’t matter. The interest remains, and its boy does it keep your attention.

Visually, the film is unparalleled, hooking you on with all of its space-station grandeur and elegant scenery of earth from outer space. Part of this no doubt goes to the visual effects team led by supervisor Tim Webber, but a large accreditation needs to be made to cinematographer Emmanuel Lubeski, who collaborated on Cuaron’s other films including Children of Men and Y Tu Mama Tambien. Lubeski, who was nominated for an Oscar a few years ago for Terrence Malick’s Tree Of Life returns with the same artistry and craftsmanship that made him an artist in his own right. The camerawork in the film evokes a feeling of both reprehension and serenity, the same eerie feeling you get when you watch the slow, steady moments building up in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. It works in conjunction with the film’s plot and with Cuaron’s handling of it, a marriage of collaboration so essential that its doubtful anyone could be as fluid or as controlling as Lubeski is, not even Wally Phister’s steady, reliable camerawork from Christopher Nolan’s Inception or Dark Knight trilogy.

High praise, I know, but it’s well deserved. The visual effects alone have not made this movie. It’s Lubeski’s intricate framing and filming that not only captured these great shots, but intensified them, evoking the anxiety and unease of space just as much as the visual effects and sequencing does.

Bullock and Clooney are affectionate and grounded in their performances, pun intended.  Going in to the movie, I was really worried that the both of them were going to phone in their roles and just let the visuals take over, much like the Michael Bay/Roland Emmerich action movies you see nowadays. Boy, was I wrong. Their characters are real, charismatic and likable people in their own right, people who you’d probably like to sit with and share a conversation with over at Starbucks. Their chemistry is infectious with each other, as memorable and dynamic as the relationship Tom Hanks and Kevin Bacon shared with their crew mates during Ron Howard’s Apollo 13. You don’t only care for these characters because of their situation: you care for them because they are human beings, because they have hopes, dreams, and letdowns of their own and you want to see them make it through all of it.

This is what I love most about the movie: not just that it handles itself well as a science-fiction movie, but it handles itself well as human drama, period.

This is seriously one of the best films of the year. I’m not saying that because it is science-fiction. I’m saying that because it is seriously one of the best films of the year.  Under a different director, a different writer, cinematographer, composer, or even under a different cast, this film could have failed.  It’s hard to take a movie that takes place in an enclosed, blocked off environment separated from society with only one or two characters and make it interesting, and the filmmakers here have accomplished that in spades.

But Gravity is much more than a survival film.  It’s more than a science-fiction film.  It’s an epic and emotional story about an astronaut trying to survive, a woman trying to cope with living, reality, and tragedy, and the unhindered spirit that pushes her to keep living, even when all of the forces of nature tells her that she can’t. It blurs the line between science fiction and science reality and is quite possibly the best space movie I’ve ever seen.

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