Oh my god.
This makes an icy black hole in the pit of my stomach.
Is this gonna be like Open Water, but in space? Cuz that is one of the most horrifying movies I’ve ever seen.
One thing: Please tell me Alfonso Cuarón is going to acknowledge reality and not have the sound of explosions impossibly reverberating through a vacuum.
Please?
I’m left wondering what this movie is actually about. It isn’t going to be 10-20 minutes of exposition followed by 80 – 100 minutes of them bouncing around the debris, is it?
Why not? *Open Water* is mostly two people floating in the middle of the ocean, and it’s highly effective.
Part of the effectiveness of “Open Water” (and that’s debatable) is that almost nothing happens. The tension builds as they wait for either rescue or death.
The “Gravity” trailer shows various spacecraft violently disintegrating, and the characters literally ricocheting off of the fragments. I don’t see a way to sustain that level of action more than maybe 10 minutes without it becoming tedious and numbing. So, what happens for the rest of the film?
Please tell me Alfonso Cuarón is going to acknowledge reality and not have the sound of explosions impossibly reverberating through a vacuum.
At this point, I’m more concerned if he’s going to acknowledge reality and realize that even in weightless conditions objects still have mass and impacts will do bad things to the human body.
I haven’t seen much of Cuarón’s work, but he did a decent job on Children of Men and I think he may have the guts not to make this all about mindless action. But I’ll admit that when I saw the title I had hopes it might be an adaptation of the truly excellent book of the same name by Tess Gerritsen; instead it’s Cuarón’s own script, and IME when a director films his own script it’s usually either pretty good or entirely terrible.
Dr R, I suspect that what we see in the trailer is the beginning of act 2 (after act 1 has set up who the people are); act 2 is working out a way to achieve re-entry, and act 3 is doing it. I’m guessing wildly, but that looks like the way it’s set up. (Bring back the MOOSE!) Right now I’m cautiously optimistic even though I’m not much of a fan of the stars.
Apparently this film is getting a 3D post-conversion. That’ll be one to avoid.
I’m of two minds on this one. On one hand, I love Open Water, and this looks very much in the same vein as that. Hell, with it being in space, that ups the scare factor even more.
On the other hand . . . it’s space. It’s a vacuum. There’s nothing there. If the movie’s just an explosion followed by Sandra Bullock floating through space for 80 minutes, I’m gonna be bored as hell. If the characters are in water, you can have animal attacks, bad weather, the works. If they’re in space, you’ll have to either get really contrived to get something to interact with them, or nothing will happen.
Worst case scenario: Sandra Bullock flies through space before being picked up by Mantis Man, who was conveniently flying by in his spaceship. They fall madly in love. Sample dialogue:
Sandra Bullock: I love you, Mantis Man!
Mantis Man: Don’t say that. You have George Clooney. And he’s so rugged and sexy, and I’m . . . Mantis Man.
SB: I don’t care. I need you. Kiss me with your twelve tongues.
MM: Yes, my love. *They do*
Two words: Space sharks.
That would be better than Mantis Man, at least . . .
Why do I get the feeling that someone is already filming Mantis Man vs Space Shark, starring some washed up 80s pop idol, for SyFy?
Shhh, don’t give them any ideas. I don’t want SyFy sink any lower than it already has.
i love this film so much