This is another movie that people get pissy about and insist that it's not a horror movie. People sure get their panties in a bunch about what other people watch. I went back and forth about whether I was going to count this as a horror movie, but ultimately, I decided that floating freely in space with no hope of rescue is just about the most horrifying thing I can imagine happening, so since that's what this movie is about, it qualifies as a horror movie to me. Maybe it's not a horror movie for everyone, but it is for me. it combines the terror I feel with movies like "Open Water," where people are stranded in the middle of the ocean, drifting with little hope of rescue, with the terror I feel in a movie like "Fall," which preys on my fear of heights. This movie is a perfect storm, then, and I'm excited to check it out.
In this movie, Sandra Bullock plays Ryan Stone, a medical engineer who is taking her first journey out into space on a shuttle. Her supervisor is Matt Kowalsky, played by George Clooney, who is a veteran officer taking his last mission out into space before he retires (uh oh). The two are doing a routine space walk when something goes terribly wrong and their shuttle is suddenly destroyed, leaving them the only survivors. This means that they are floating freely in outer space with no contact with earth and no hope of anyone coming to save them. As they start to panick, they realize that there is really only one way for them to be rescued, and that is to travel even further out into space, which is a terrifying prospect. Will they find some link to earth and survive, or will they die alone in space, where no one can hear you scream?
i love Sandra Bullock, i always have, ever since i first saw her in the movie "Speed," so seeing her in danger of dying was harrowing for me. I like George Clooney too, and I've already seen him close to death in "A Perfect Storm," so this is nothing new with him. As a veteran guy doing one more mission before he retires, he is in grave danger of being killed, according to the rules of most war and horror movies. When Sandra Bullock's Ryan Stone says early on in the movie that the thing she likes most about space is the silence, that's some foreshadowing right there. I suspect the silence isn't so comforting when you're trapped in it with no hope of rescue. It's a very helpless situation to find yourself in, and it endears me to the characters for sure.
There’s a lot of dialog in this movie, which is delivered through radio as that's the only way to talk to others when you're wearing a space suit, and it's kinda hard to hear, so I was straining to read the subtitles for most of the first 20 or 30 minutes of the movie. That's annoying. And this is one of those movies where the dialogue is quiet but the explosions and stuff are really loud, so you turn up the sound to hear the dialogue and suddenly the movie is blasting you with loud noises so you're rushing to grab the remote and turn the sound down before your neighbors call the cops. Funtimes.
There's not a lot going on in this movie, and Sandra Bullock really carries the whole thing with her performance. If you can't stand Sandra Bullock, you're not going to like this movie. Fortunately for me, I didn't have to worry about that. The movie manages not to be tedious even though it does move slowly due to the nature of the plot. The last 20 minutes of the movie move more quickly, again just due to the natural progression of the plot. I really wasn't sure if I would like this movie, bUT I did enjoy it and again, I recommend it to anyone who has a fear of heights. it's a good time.
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