"Gravity" (currently 98% positive ratings on RT)

[Paratus]

Other nitpicks:

Spoiler

Besides the orbits of the Hubble, ISS, and Chinese station nt being anywhere near the same plane, the other issue was the Soyuz and Shenzou. Both stations were empty when she arrived therefore no Soyuz or Shenzou would be available to Sandra when she got there. Whenever a crew comes or goes they take one of the vehicles. Unless there were dead crew on both stations that weren't shown there wouldn't have been an escape vehicle.

The other minor nitpick is the space to ground com Arthur beginning. The capcom was answering and relaying messages much to fast. There's a slight delay in comm due to lag. Plus the capcom wouldn't immediately have the answers on hand. He would have to check with the Hubble folks to know whether the fix she was doing had worked or not.

The other comm issue was capcom kept asking her medical questions. If the flight surgeons had seen something off in her telemetry they would talk to her in pricey not go through capcom.

 

[Ichinisan]

Other nitpicks:

Spoiler

Besides the orbits of the Hubble, ISS, and Chinese station nt being anywhere near the same plane, the other issue was the Soyuz and Shenzou. Both stations were empty when she arrived therefore no Soyuz or Shenzou would be available to Sandra when she got there. Whenever a crew comes or goes they take one of the vehicles. Unless there were dead crew on both stations that weren't shown there wouldn't have been an escape vehicle.

Spoiler

At least in the case of the Soyuz, they said there were 2 of them and the crew took the undamaged one. They didn't use the other because debris impacts had somehow deployed the parachute.

 

[Paratus]

Spoiler

At least in the case of the Soyuz, they said there were 2 of them and the crew left in the undamaged one. They didn't use one of them because they knew the debris impacts had somehow deployed the parachute.

Spoiler

I know. That's the nit I'm picking. There would never be two Soyuz unless there was six ISS crew members. Plus all six of them could never have fit into one Soyuz. It works for the movie but it's another circumstance that would never happen in real-life.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the move quite a bit. In terms of realism I rank it way above crap like Armageddon and just below Apollo 13.

 

[bearxor]

Spoiler

I know. That's the nit I'm picking. There would never be two Soyuz unless there was six ISS crew members. Plus all six of them could never have fit into one Soyuz. It works for the movie but it's another circumstance that would never happen in real-life.

Spoiler

Yeah, but if the chute on the one Soyuz deployed because it was damaged and there six crew members on board the ISS, do you think they'd find a way to get all six of them in the one capsule?

 

[Merad]

You sure about that? They're already at-or-close to perfect / stable orbit speed. Any slower and your orbit decays until you fall to Earth. Any faster, and your orbit grows and grows and grows until you escape Earth's gravitational pull.

Orbits don't work like that. Lets say that you have a perfectly circular orbit at (and I'm just pulling out some random numbers) an altitude of 200 km.

If you increase your speed by some amount, then your orbit now has a high point (apogee) and a low point (perigee). The altitude of your perigee should be the same as the altitude where you originally gained speed (so 200 km), while the altitude of the apogee depends on how much speed you gained.

If you decrease your speed, then the inverse applies. Your apogee is now your original altitude, and the perigee depends on how much you slowed down. This in itself will not cause you to drop out of orbit - however if your perigee drops low enough that you are flying through the atmosphere, then friction with the atmosphere will cause you to slow down even more, meaning that your perigee drops even lower. All of our human-carrying spacecraft come home this way, intentionally dropping into the atmosphere and using friction to slow down.

IRL, something like a fire extinguisher wouldn't change your velocity by that much, probably no more than a few dozen m/s. So realistically, it wouldn't cause your altitude to change by more than a few km.

 

[Paratus]

Spoiler

Yeah, but if the chute on the one Soyuz deployed because it was damaged and there six crew members on board the ISS, do you think they'd find a way to get all six of them in the one capsule?

Spoiler

You can't fit six folks in one capsule, there's just not enough room. Also like I said earlier the landings are hard enough that you have to have a special seat liner or risk back damage.

 

[bearxor]

Spoiler

I guess I was thinking people could just lay down on laps or something. I'd know if I was up there and there were extraordinary circumstances I'd risk some bodily injury.

 

[Connoisseur]

Just wanted to drop in here and say that it was an awesome movie despite some of the clear technical flaws. Acting was great but the cinematography and music blew my mind

 

[glenn1]

Thanks to the OP for posting this and encouraging me to go see it. With a toddler at home I don't get many chances to get out to see movies much and I'm glad I was able to use the time for one worth seeing. Quite frankly one of the best movies I've ever seen, despite an above-average requirement for suspension of belief even by Hollywood standards.

 

[ABC10]

Spoiler

I know. That's the nit I'm picking. There would never be two Soyuz unless there was six ISS crew members. Plus all six of them could never have fit into one Soyuz. It works for the movie but it's another circumstance that would never happen in real-life.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the move quite a bit. In terms of realism I rank it way above crap like Armageddon and just below Apollo 13.

Nothing beats 'Space Cowboys".

 

[zinfamous]

Fantastic film--saw it over the weekend at an Atmos/3D theater.

I felt the 3D added nothing particularly special, but at least it didn't detract anything for me.



The preview for the Hobbit, however...in 3D...that looked dreadful. Like a cartoon or video game or something. I thought we weren't supposed to be going backwards in technology?

 

[OCGuy]

I rank it way above crap like Armageddon and just below Apollo 13.

Don't wanna close my eyes
Don't wanna fall asleep
'Cause I'd miss you, baby
And I don't wanna miss a thing
'Cause even when I dream of you
The sweetest dream would never do
I'd still miss you, baby
And I don't wanna miss a thing

 

[jaedaliu]

Fantastic film--saw it over the weekend at an Atmos/3D theater.

I felt the 3D added nothing particularly special, but at least it didn't detract anything for me.



The preview for the Hobbit, however...in 3D...that looked dreadful. Like a cartoon or video game or something. I thought we weren't supposed to be going backwards in technology?

I love the film, too. Felt like the characters and story really drew me in. It was all so neatly done.

Spoiler

I realized that Ryan was hallucinating about the same time she did. A masterful job of direction for me to realize it at the same time as the character.

As for the Hobbit, the entire story is happy go lucky, I'm not surprised it was made cartoony.

 

[rockyct]

I saw Gravity again today and I enjoyed it just as much as the first time. It was interesting paying attention to the audience reaction this time. The person I was with was almost gasping for air at the end of the first shot.

Spoiler

You could hear the wtf reaction when Clooney knocked on the door and the disheartened groans when the camera panned to her left and he was no longer there. The frog should have been less prominent though. People chuckled when they saw it.

 

[M0oG0oGaiPan]

This is kind of neat. It's a short film from th perspective of the guy bullock talks to on the radio.

http://screencrush.com/gravity-short-film-aningaaq/

 

[darkewaffle]

Don't wanna close my eyes
Don't wanna fall asleep
'Cause I'd miss you, baby
And I don't wanna miss a thing
'Cause even when I dream of you
The sweetest dream would never do
I'd still miss you, baby
And I don't wanna miss a thing

hate you

That song used to be on the goddamn radio every morning when my alarm would go off, I think always after Goo Goo Dolls "Iris"

 

[momeNt]

Can somebody give me a fairly detailed explanation, complete with spoilers, of what made this movie good?

 

[zinfamous]

Can somebody give me a fairly detailed explanation, complete with spoilers, of what made this movie good?

Spoiler

Tension

oh, also:

Spoiler

Isolation

 

[AstroManLuca]

Can somebody give me a fairly detailed explanation, complete with spoilers, of what made this movie good?

The level of tension is unreal. I do not usually watch thrillers, and most "thrillers" are bad and not suspenseful or scary. Gravity was extremely tense throughout. The sound design plays a large part in it. In space, there's no air, so you can't hear anything that would normally be propagated through the air. There are long scenes where it's very quiet and you can only hear the character's breathing and heartbeat, and dull thuds when they make contact with a hard surface.

It was not perfectly realistic BUT AT LEAST THEY TRIED! It wasn't horrifically unrealistic either. I am a space travel enthusiast and watching it was extremely fun. I KNOW that not everything that happens is possible, and there were a few plot holes

Spoiler

like the ISS having a different orbit from Hubble, but that didn't bother me, or Clooney somehow being "pulled away," which sort of did bother me

. But overall, the movie was good enough and put enough effort into being realistic that I was able to easily look past the small issues.

I was also extremely happy that there was nothing "supernatural" about it. A few years ago I saw a movie called "Sunshine." The first half was similar to Gravity - a (semi) realistic take on space travel and survival of a catastrophe in space. And then they had to go and add a space zombie and screw everything up. Sunshine became my most hated movie of all time because it had such a promising start, and they turned it into a retarded, mindless slasher movie. Biggest letdown ever. Gravity has no supernatural forces - there's no NEED to have a "villain." The antagonist is the cold, harsh reality of trying to survive in space.

It was also short. I like short movies. I hate it when directors feel like the only way to achieve their "vision" is to make their movie 2 hrs 40 min long. The extra time is mostly padding and by the 2 hour mark of most movies, I'm just waiting for it to end. Gravity gets straight to the point and doesn't delve too deep into unimportant areas. The ending is at a natural point, when many movies would have dragged on for another 15-20 minutes, to their detriment.

Honestly... I'd put Gravity in my top 2-3 movies of all time. Maybe my favorite. Yes, I am a space buff so it's up there with Apollo 13 and that's pretty much it. I just cannot think of a movie I liked more than it. I would totally see it again, and that means a lot coming from me. I almost never rewatch movies, even ones I liked.

 

[zinfamous]

Am I the only one who will 100% avoid this movie this based on personal philosophy?

As in, every single 'critically acclaimed' movie in the past decade that seemed to completely lack dissenting opinions has been terrible. And it always seems like, after a few years go by, people start to admit that it was not that great. It's some kind of critic peer pressure that only seems to happen with with films of the highest 'in love with their own farts' caliber. I just quit watching the shit to save myself time and aggravation.

That and I thought the concept of 'Castaway' with Sandra Bullock [in space] sounded, you know, terrible. George Clooney is cool, but I'll only like his character if he floats through space plotting Sandra Bullock's demise.

If your "personal philosophy" is that you have no taste, then yeah--you will probably not like this.

 

[zinfamous]

I was also extremely happy that there was nothing "supernatural" about it. A few years ago I saw a movie called "Sunshine." The first half was similar to Gravity - a (semi) realistic take on space travel and survival of a catastrophe in space. And then they had to go and add a space zombie and screw everything up. Sunshine became my most hated movie of all time because it had such a promising start, and they turned it into a retarded, mindless slasher movie. Biggest letdown ever. Gravity has no supernatural forces - there's no NEED to have a "villain." The antagonist is the cold, harsh reality of trying to survive in space.

OMG YES! Fuck Sunshine in its gaping wound of suckage!

 

[AstroManLuca]

OMG YES! Fuck Sunshine in its gaping wound of suckage!

I felt like Gravity is what Sunshine should have been. Maybe that's why I liked it so much - I finally got to see a good space movie after having been let down before.

 

[momeNt]

Spoiler

Tension

oh, also:

Spoiler

Isolation

I did like Rear Window. Also Shutter Island made me tense because I kept thinking something would happen but nothing ever did.

I'll maybe rent it.

 

[zinfamous]

I did like Rear Window. Also Shutter Island made me tense because I kept thinking something would happen but nothing ever did.

I'll maybe rent it.

Ya, Rear Window is a classic. I don't remember much about Shutter Island, except that I didn't like it.

If you can, though--you really should see Gravity in a theater. The imagery is simply too grand for a wee HD TV, or even a wee projection home theater.
If you hate the average theater-goer, like me--just go to a first showing on Sunday or Saturday morning, or an odd time in the middle of the week. And never ever ever go on the first 1-2 weeks of an opening. It's also mildly cheaper if you get the matinee.

 

[AstroManLuca]

Ya, Rear Window is a classic. I don't remember much about Shutter Island, except that I didn't like it.

If you can, though--you really should see Gravity in a theater. The imagery is simply too grand for a wee HD TV, or even a wee projection home theater.
If you hate the average theater-goer, like me--just go to a first showing on Sunday or Saturday morning, or an odd time in the middle of the week. And never ever ever go on the first 1-2 weeks of an opening. It's also mildly cheaper if you get the matinee.

Yeah, I love watching movies in the morning. The wife and I took the morning off on Wednesday to go see it. 10am showing, only two other people in the theater, $7.50 each for 3D.

We have a 1 year old so we can't always find time. Weekends are the MOST difficult because our daycare is closed.