Gravity OR How Alfonso Cuaron Saved 3D Movies at the Theater

"My God, it's full of stars." - Dave Bowman 2001: A Space Odyssey

"This is a movie for movie theaters. This is a film that cannot be appreciated to its full extent off of the big screen. Gravity is why movie theaters exist." - Matthew Razak, Flixist

As most of you might already know, I'm always going to the movies. Seeing a movie at the movie theater is an experience I wouldn't equate to much else outside of live music or theater. While I've familiarized myself quite a bit more with catching films that fly too far under the radar on DVD or even better Netflix, I always prefer to catch a film's first run. Even so, I understand that the trip to the theater can be the expensive way of seeing movies, and there's always too much to see to make it often enough. What's worse is the sweep of 3D films that advertise themselves as the technologically superior more fun way to see each film. It's exhausting. But I'll defend the theater to the end and today I saw a movie that made a better argument than I'm going to ever make for the theater experience.

Alfonso Cuaron's Gravity is hands down the best film I've seen all year. It's a visual masterpiece and beautiful story with the gravitas of an Oscar attender (pun intended). Sandra Bullock has never been better. I might go out and say this is her best performance ever. It's full of gasp-worthy moments and incredible tension, only later to be countered with deeply profound moments of beauty. There's a handful of shots that pull of beautifully symbolic messages about life and death that I've ever seen on the big screen. I'm also intentionally being vague on my favorite aspects because about everything that can be said already has been said about the movie. What I want to break down is why I think Gravity is transcending the movie-going experience altogether.

Be ready for lots of spinning.

Gravity deserves to be a 3-D movie. It's earned basically ever frame of film it exhibits and when it come to the option whether or not to dish out the extra bucks for the 3-D glasses, there's really no reason not to. And it's been a bad year for 3D. The expensive option for movie-going is being passed up for the cheaper 2D alternative. Animated films and superhero flicks can be fun when seen in 3D, but at least for this viewer, sometimes it's a little disorienting to wear 3D glasses for zippy, full-length films that don't even take full advantage of the 3D technology (or rely on it for exhausted gimmicks). I've been to too many 3D movies where I got more of a kick out of the cartoon intro that tests whether your glasses are properly synced or not.

So Gravity invokes the use of 3D for it's entire 90 minute running time in the least gimmicky most elegant way possible. People float gracefully in and out of the theater screen in the brilliantly structured intro. Debris flies right in front of your face even before the characters on screen are aware of the threat. And in one of the most emotional moments of the film, tears float around in Zero-G. Alfonso Cuaron seems to be playing with the audience's suspension of disbelief, constantly wowing their expectations for what will happen next.

Our protagonist floats fetal inside the safe womb of a station. If you don't think that's the tightest shit get out of my face.

Not only does Gravity manage to pull of the rare feat of making 3D relevant, it also manages to pull off a different kind of movie theater experience altogether. Throughout the course of the film I managed to forget I was even sitting in a theater during multiple sequences. The movie practically puts you in space. Some of these are POV (Point of View) shots of Sandra Bullock's character as she is spinning, drifting or being pulled into danger. I felt giddily stupid during a couple of scenes where objects in space almost collided with the protagonist and I raised my arms up to avoided being hit in the face. And those moments of cerebral beauty I mentioned in between the tight action sequences? Well I wouldn't be the first to make this comparison, but try imagining how Dave felt in one of the final sequences of 2001. 

Pictured: Me

I certainly wasn't around during the hey-day of movie theater popularity, but I can definitely vouch for the kind of nostalgia this movie made me feel from the time I was a much younger kid and in awe of how big the screen could get and how much bigger the movie felt being on it. I definitely grew up closer to film than some of you may have, and I'm not trying to argue that everyone should go to the movies every week. But I will say that every movie deserves its theater showing, and while the computer or TV back home may be the easier way to access some of these films, Gravity makes a pretty damn convincing 90 minute argument to see it on the big-screen. Matthew Razak of Flixist's review makes the argument best, "Gravity is why movie theaters exist." Maybe Gravity won't make as much money as I predict, and maybe it's 3D doesn't end up buying everyone over, but I'll equate it to the following. Gravity is a roller coaster ride in the theater, and seeing it in 2D instead of 3D is like choosing to sit in the back of the ride instead of front and center.

Don't be chicken. And buckle up.



Referenced: "Review: Gravity" by Matt Razak, Flixist
http://www.flixist.com/review-gravity-216590.phtml