So - who wants to lay odds that this will go Titanic? I.e., go big and long, with some folks seeing it many times in a sort of super-movie cult. It will definitely clear $1 Billion worldwide.
How did I not comment on this? I’ve only seen 2 3D movies in the theater, this and The Hobbit. The Hobbit cinematography was so bad it put me off 3D, but I thought I’d try it anyway for Gravity, and holy cow! I never noticed it, if you know what I mean, but it really made space feel like it had texture. So cool.
I’m going to appeal to authority here! Of course I had to google sandra bullock gravity fetal, and on the first page I found this interview Q&A from Cuaron:
It’s like pulling Marshall McCluhan from the wings, I tell you. 
But that aside, in the language of cinema it’d be hard to read that as anything other than symbolic, even without Cuaron’s comments.
It’s big, and obviously a lot of people love it, but I don’t think it will resonate emotionally in a comparable way, for reasons demonstrated in this thread.
It will resonate differently, certainly - this is a Female / Human Survivor vs. a Romance. The question is whether that message will get traction with girls, or if not them, another group. When the US Women’s Soccer team won the World Cup it was huge for a good length and still resonates.
Maeserschmidt - thanks; seemed pretty obvious, in a good way.
Fascinating review by Stuart Klawans in the Oct. 28 The Nation, although alas it seems to be subscribers-only. Worth picking up a copy on your local newsstand or in your therapist’s waiting room and turning to page 33:
So - that’s it?
To respond to my own post - no, apparently not. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Gravity will earn $45 million this 2nd weekend - a not-quite 18% decrease from it’s opening weekend. Apparently that is by far the lowest decrease for a movie that earned more than $50 million opening on a non-holiday weekend (the Incredibles decreased 29% and was the previous best).
This thing has legs, I tell ya.
I liked it a lot but can anyone tell me why Marvin the Martian killed all those astronauts?
They made him very, very angry.
I actually liked the “thin” plot. It told the bare minimum story we needed without padding it with fluff. I thought it was great how it started right away in zero-g, and the entire film took place in it (no scenes back on the surface), all the way until the ending. Then we as an audience could share the relief of Bullock’s character as she returns to the normal Earth environment. It does a good job showing that most of the universe is that weird, unforgiving environment where things move in unexpected ways, and when Bullock finally makes it to the ground, it almost seems exotic and new.
Here’s a review of the movie by Mark Kelly, former astronaut and husband of former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. (In short, some inaccuracies but he liked it.)
Yep. Or as we say in the hood, “There’s levels to this shit.”
Anyone who can look at her floating in that fetal position with that serene ass fetus look on her face, umbilical cords abound, and not see more than just a ‘cigar’ is just INCAPABLE of ever seeing symbolism in anything EVER. They lingered on that shot forever…it really was like a hammer to the head. Could the shot have been a tribute to Space Odyssey’s star child ?
I peeped the ‘earth legs = evolutionary triumph’ angle too. Again, they really beat you over the head with it, what with the musical score building to a grand crescendo and the camera angle making her look like a Amazon god.
ETA: or to quote WordMan, making her look like a Marble Statue
I’ll be surprised if this reaches $700M worldwide, but I’ve been wrong before.
Does anyone know if it was realistic that she wore a bra? I would think female astronauts would not want that hassle/annoyance when wearing a space suit.
Overall, a great movie (if you ignore some plot/realism issues), and a great departure from all the super-hero movies which seem to have dominated cinema in the past couple of years.
They do.
Update: heard interview of Cuaron on NPR’s Studio 360. He said the limitlessness of space is meant to be a metaphor for our internal Existential feelings. When faced with the never-ending challenges of Life, we all have moments where we’re profoundly alone.
Deep shit, eh, Nzinga?
And as for a bra - meh. Sandra Bullock is beautiful and fit and easy on the eyes in her skivvies, but there’s little/no sexual vibe to it. Heck, she coulda been naked for the Fetus scene and the Emergence/Statue scene and they might’ve been more effective, from a Rebirth POV without being prurient.
Absolutely. That she was not nude was a commercial concession.
For those who have seen CoM: both movies have lead characters plodding through life after the death of a child and find purpose in a journeyed fight to survive. However, CoM is told from the POV of the rescuer, and Gravity, from the POV of the rescued(leading to her becoming the self-rescuing). Another notable difference: we never saw Clive Owen in his underthings. :mad:
That fetus scene, though- three thoughts while watching it:[ol]
[ul]
[li]Well, that ain’t subtle, is it?[/li][li]but then again if I’d gone through all that, I’d have myself a nice relaxing float too[/li]
[/ul][/ol]
You didn’t notice how her hair wasn’t affected by zero-g at all? Same thing with the book she was casually flipping through?
:mad:
Commerce be damned!
I didn’t - those things didn’t register/take me out of the movie. I expect to see it again - haveta see if my awareness of the issues will make me notice them more. I also want to absorb the first shot, which felt expansive, but I hadn’t fully processed was a single shot lasting ~15 minutes, according to that interview I heard…