I tried, but I was unable to escape Gravity.  No, wait…this weekend I just couldn’t ignore the pull of Gravity.  No, no, I got this.  I tried to deny Gravity but its force was just too great.

Boom!  Nailed it.

Actually, I bought a ticket to Prisoners because I somehow thought that it was the Shcwarzenegger/Stalone film Escape Plan, which isn’t even out yet.  I freaking saw Prisoners and had somehow completely forgotten about it.  And that, my friends, is how the non-IMAX version of Gravity cost me $17.

As I said, I did not see the 3D version so I cannot give an opinion on the ‘full’ version as it was intended to be seen.  I will say that if you’re interested in seeing it, this is probably the only movie worth seeing in 3D IMAX this year.  Although you might get motion sick, as I’ll detail below.

Moving on, Gravity is a fairly straight-forward film.  Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock), Matt Kowalski (George Clooney) and three other unimportant astronauts are outside of Earth’s gravitational pull, completing a mission to update the Hubble Telescope.

Unfortunately for them, Russia is busy doing its own thing, and when it shoots down an old satellite, the debris cloud causes a chain reaction that puts them all in danger.  Now time is of the essence and they must find a way to get back down to earth before the debris rockets back around and destroys their only chance at survival.

That right there is all you get for plot, because that right there is all the plot.

The characters are relatively staid, with Clooney playing the old veteran and Bullock as the nervous newbie.  Much of the plot relies heavily on the fact that Bullock’s character does not handle adversity so much as tries to avoid it.  They do give her a bit of back-story, but to be honest I think it actually hurts what’s happening on screen.  By fleshing out her character, they make her less than she could have been and give her motivations that do more to hinder the film rather than help it.

Fortunately, what Gravity lacks in story it more than makes up for in beauty.  It is honestly one of the most gorgeous films I have ever seen.  Even in a ‘mere’ two dimensions, every scene was absolutely captivating.

The camera took clear advantage of the weightlessness of space.  Every scene utilizes all 360 degrees of reality, which gives the entire film a very crazed, trippy feeling as if the viewer is floating above Earth with the cast.  While amazing, I do think this is going to cause a little bit of nausea in the 3D version.

I know this review is a bit short but it’s hard to say anything more about Gravity without giving anything away.  It’s a truly amazing film and director Alfonso Cuaron should be proud of this achievement.  It may not be for everyone but it is my hands-down favorite ‘space’ film since Moon.

Gravity: B+