GRAVITY – WOULD THAT ACTUALLY HAPPEN?
From launch, the outstanding cinematography
in ‘Gravity’ was breathtaking,
evoking that overwhelming feeling of realizing how insignificantly
small we are. The constant build-up of
tension; silent space contrasted with panicked breathing, had a startling effect;
translating the emotion of the two characters to the whole audience.
What put a ‘downer’ on the movie was
that it was too ‘Hollywood’, therefore predictable. Although the threat of
‘running low on oxygen’ is a massive spacewalk danger, it rushed the tensest
moments; the main character couldn’t suffocate in the first half hour! It's ratings plummeted after Ryan met the ISS (International Space Station for you
uneducated lot). The unnecessary involvement of three space stations, which all
met similar endings, was laughable; why does Hollywood insist on over-using
these tediously similar scenes?! Stone must have pretty bad karma to be within
the demolition of three space landmarks in one day!
So … is space actually like that? Real images from the ISS capture it much closer
to Earth than ‘Gravity’ suggests. This is only a little quibble, but what really fired up those space-geeks was
that, according to Newton’s Law of Motion, ‘every action has an equal and
opposite reaction’. Basically, with a little push and shove, the two
protagonists could’ve both reached the ISS effortlessly.
In fairness, hats off to those techies
who did a remarkable job of representing zero-gravity whilst on Earth. It was
thoroughly convincing and a massive reminder of our technological advancement,
and the extreme talent of individuals in this industry; their skill certainly
paid off.
