Alfonso Cuarón may not be a household name, but he has a solid career of well received films in his roles as director and writer, most notably on 2006’s Children of Men, one of the best science fiction films of the past decade, even though the its inclusion in that genre is underplayed, and as a producer he has also worked on The Assasination of Richard Nixon and Pan’s Labyrinth. For his first film in seven years, he boldly returns to science fiction though with an intimate tale of two astronauts caught in an outer space disaster.
Michael Flett – It doesn’t look glamorous, it doesn’t look Hollywood, it looks pensive and elegiac, and so when the danger comes, it looks real, out of control, desperate. The scene with the spinning spacesuit makes me feel ill just looking at it on my monitor – it’s going to be far worse seeing it on a cinema screen.
After all we’ve had to endure these last few years, this looks to be a return to intelligent science fiction with a very simple concept that will be visually stunning and certainly the effects team have created an absolutely convincing simulation of low Earth orbit – there is no way you could discern that this wasn’t genuine footage from the ISS. Well, the fact that they still have a scheduled space shuttle service might give it away…
Hopefully the reliable George Clooney, back in outer space for the first time since Solaris, will be at his best. I’m not so thrilled by Sandra Bullock, but I believe with Cuarón coaching and Clooney to bounce off, she may be able to pull off a career revival with this, because it looks to be a lot better than most of the projects she chooses.
Having made Children of Men, not to mention The Prisoner of Azkaban, easily the best of the Potter films, I have utter faith in Alfonso Cuarón to make this something special, and we’ve waited long enough – this was supposed to be out November 2012, not October 2013, and it’s yet another post-production 3D. Thank you for that, Universal Pictures.
Les Anderson – Wow! Now this looks more like it. A proper trailer with no footage from the second half of the film. It looks very promising indeed. Am just hoping he keeps up the tension and the initial premise doesn’t fizzle out with a crappy Big Friendly Button ending. It’s not very clear in the trailer what exactly caused all the damage but perhaps that’s part of the mystery?
Adam Dworak – Oh my! A real trailer! Something that gets you interested in the film but doesn’t tell you the whole story. This is the way it should be done! I just hope that there is more to it than is being hinted, because if it is just about two people stranded in space, it will get boring very quickly.
I really like it. It reminds me of 2001 A Space Odyssey, probably the soft classical music, the space shuttle floating there, the realism of it rather than the fantasy that so many films science fiction films have as their default setting.
I do like Sandra Bullock, and it will be good to see her – it’s been a while. I can’t help it, I’ve loved her since Speed. I’m not such a fan of George Clooney – he’ll always be the handsome, arrogant doctor in the emergency room, and I just can’t forgive him that.
Gordon Robertson – Aye, I’ve been waiting for this for a while too.
The trailer does little more than tease the good stuff. It’s a scene setter for the meat of the film, two astronauts stranded in space. It works well for me, with the image of one of them (Clooney?) spinning of into the darkness providing the real hook.
Two films come to mind over the past few years with a similar stranded theme, although both of them were single handers – Rodrigo Cortes’ excellent Buried, which didn’t cop out at the end, and Danny Boyle’s merely okay 127 Hours. Both films explored the loneliness of being trapped on your own, although both teased with the possibilities of being saved, in Buried, contact through a mobile phone and in 127 Hours, well, all you had to do was chop your arm off!
Cuarón (I hope) removes the chance of salvation, but gives the added poignancy of someone to share your last moments with. Will it be a conversation between two people who know they only have a few hours to live, or will it go existential on us?
Either way this promises to be a very, very good film indeed.
Wes May – The trailer is really short, so there’s not too much to comment on, but it looks absolutely breathtaking in its shots of our planet from space, and really seems to do a great job of putting the viewer right there in our orbit. The terrifying prospect of an accident in space stranding someone out there is the definition of horror.
My view is that Cuarón has proven himself to be a master of the craft, which makes his output impossible to ignore. The cast is intriguing, and Clooney has rarely steered me wrong the last decade or so. I’m actually excited to see the final product.
Gravity is scheduled for release on October 4th 2013
Gravity trailer – reaction
After all we’ve had to endure these last few years, this looks to be a return to intelligent science fiction with a very simple concept that will be visually stunning and certainly the effects team have created an absolutely convincing simulation of low Earth orbit – there is no way you could discern that this wasn’t genuine footage from the ISS. Well, the fact that they still have a scheduled space shuttle service might give it away…
Having made Children of Men, not to mention The Prisoner of Azkaban, easily the best of the Potter films, I have utter faith in Alfonso Cuarón to make this something special, and we’ve waited long enough – this was supposed to be out November 2012, not October 2013, and it’s yet another post-production 3D. Thank you for that, Universal Pictures.
Adam Dworak – Oh my! A real trailer! Something that gets you interested in the film but doesn’t tell you the whole story. This is the way it should be done! I just hope that there is more to it than is being hinted, because if it is just about two people stranded in space, it will get boring very quickly.
I do like Sandra Bullock, and it will be good to see her – it’s been a while. I can’t help it, I’ve loved her since Speed. I’m not such a fan of George Clooney – he’ll always be the handsome, arrogant doctor in the emergency room, and I just can’t forgive him that.
Gordon Robertson – Aye, I’ve been waiting for this for a while too.
Two films come to mind over the past few years with a similar stranded theme, although both of them were single handers – Rodrigo Cortes’ excellent Buried, which didn’t cop out at the end, and Danny Boyle’s merely okay 127 Hours. Both films explored the loneliness of being trapped on your own, although both teased with the possibilities of being saved, in Buried, contact through a mobile phone and in 127 Hours, well, all you had to do was chop your arm off!
Either way this promises to be a very, very good film indeed.
Wes May – The trailer is really short, so there’s not too much to comment on, but it looks absolutely breathtaking in its shots of our planet from space, and really seems to do a great job of putting the viewer right there in our orbit. The terrifying prospect of an accident in space stranding someone out there is the definition of horror.
My view is that Cuarón has proven himself to be a master of the craft, which makes his output impossible to ignore. The cast is intriguing, and Clooney has rarely steered me wrong the last decade or so. I’m actually excited to see the final product.
Gravity is scheduled for release on October 4th 2013
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