[Tuesday-morning update]
Christopher Nolan’s epic new sci-fi film Interstellar has received measured acclaim from critics, who have praised its ambitious scale and effects but were less convinced about the story.
That was the problem with Gravity, too.
[Bumped]
So how does this movie differ, in concept, than 2001? Earth short on food, wormhole at Saturn, frozen hibernation, world going to heck apart from the Space Program, I think we have “been there, done that” in sci-fi “space.”
Sounds more like Silent Running to me.
Lowell Freeman, the last remaining Earth’s forests in space domes on American Airlines Space Freighters, the Space Freighters recalled back to “commercial service” (how mercenary!), the “authorities” deciding they have to destroy the domes with atomic bombs, Freeman having to kill his buds for wanting to “blow the domes”, Freeman having enough delta V to scoot out to Saturn but not having enough common sense to figure the Sun is that much dimmer that far out in the Solar System, the last remaining dome having enough power to support (incandescent!) light bulbs to keep the forest going, so why didn’t they just ditch the domes to go it on their own in the first place, Freeman blowing himself up with the last atom bomb to atone for his crimes and to save the last dome. In the words of Martin Short’s SCTV and SNL character Ed Grimley, “Give me a break!”
Why did I like that film so much? Did it have anything to do with Dad’s Versatran robot being featured?
If somebody had just told Bruce Dern that there was a Gun and Ammunition, just inside the doorway…….for him to use only in an emergency………..
I also liked that movie. I suspect the budget wasn’t particularly high but the story was touching enough at least for me. The way he dressed up the robots and gave them names as he felt increasingly isolated was kinda sad and cute you could seem him slipping further into the hole. Plus it isn’t apocalyptic as much as pointless considering the reason they decided to destroy the habitats was that they discovered an artificial way to restore Earth’s atmosphere and they didn’t need trees for anything anymore so they were just discarded like you would discard, uh, Apollo machine tooling. Seems like a kind of excessively bean counterish move to me but doesn’t seem totally unlikely to happen. I think it the whole story was mostly plausible.
For me, the problem with Gravity was it was less sci-fi and more of a fable. It told us the dangers of mankind cluttering space with debris, a real activity that could have devastating consequences we are asked to believe, and then it pretty much ignores basic laws of physic because the writer couldn’t figure out how to make things dramatic without “action”.
I suppose Interstellar could run into the same trap.
Gravity could have been just fine by having the initial satellite collision, that collision creates an event happening too fast for MCC to end the EVA in time. Then drop the rest of the movie for something a bit more believable, even if unlikely to really occur. Maybe hull damage to the shuttle preventing entry and dwindling resources as every 90 minutes they have to avoid new debris. Eventually they get in a safe orbit and now have a marathon to survive until another rescue vessel is launched. The second half of the story is essentially written in the CAIB report. The alternative is to have Bullock drift away and record her final hours before she died, which is what I expected from the movie.
Gravity was kind of “dogpile on Sandra”. I was expecting the movie to close with her making it to the beach, then over the credits we hear a challenge shouted out in Korean and then a rifle volley.
So, did Corbin Bernsen survive his Shuttle Mission?
There was a straight-to-syndication TV series called The Cape, where actor Corbin Bernsen’s character, in contrast with Arnie Becker on LA Law, was the no-nonsense straight-shooting Chief Astronaut. He was on the Shuttle to resupply Mir when the Russian guy, Bernsen’s character’s friend, went bonkers from Space Isolation, activated the attitude thrusters of Mir, and dinged the tiles on the Shuttle.
This was a season finale, maybe a series finale, and I never found out if Bernsen survived his Shuttle reentry because the show was preempted with a real-life tragedy of Diana Spencer’s car crash in Paris.
I cannot find any “spoilers” on Wikipedia. Do I purchase the boxed set to The Cape from Amazon? I hate it when the cliffhanger is never resolved.
Sometimes I don’t get British understatement. Does “measured acclaim” mean its bad, great or they just won’t bother to state an opinion?
In the photo in the article Ann Hathaway and Jessica Chastain look like an ad for Stepford Wives 2.
If the critics hate it, it might be worth seeing?