3 dimensional, 2 characters, 1 force – “Gravity”
Going to the movies is not really my weekend routine. I go to the movies only around once or twice per year. Most movies are catered for teenagers or couples in their 20s. When you are in your forties queuing for tickets at the cinemas is not really a happy experience. The thought of whether it was really the right place for me to be must have crossed my mind when I looked around and tried to find balding men of my age among the mingling crowd. Shouldn’t I be among the folks going to mosque? Am I really aware of what I am doing?
Despite all the negative thoughts, I reached the front of the line and got myself a ticket. They gave me a pair of special glasses and it was going to be shown in 3D. I didn’t get myself popcorns as I was not in the mood of being a kid. And I didn’t bring my kids along as I would have too many of them to fill the theatre. Besides, I was not sure if they would enjoy a movie without their favourite Upin & Ipin in it. The title of the movie itself could not be more scientific. As somebody who loves space and everything scientific, I thought the next 90 minutes would likely be worth the wait.
Of the four fundamental forces of nature, gravity is the one we feel the most and can easily relate to. Whoever happens to come in the wrong path of a dropping object would know how damaging gravitational force can be. It was discovered by Isaac Newton in the 17th century England and its unit is named after him. It is the force that keeps the Moon, space stations and satellites in orbit around the Earth and the Earth around the Sun.
With this one universal force in mind, I was firmly fixed to my seat at the edge of the sixth row from the back of the newly built theatre. And there I was for the next 90 minutes watching the breathtaking view of the Earth from a few hundred kilometers above. The 3 dimensional view of the Earth from space alone was worth it. The storyline and its drama did not really matter to me. After all, the story was very simple. Two American astronauts sent to fix the Hubble Space Telescope orbiting above the Earth had to find their way to another space station in order to return to Earth after debris from a Russian satellite, broken in a chain reaction of satellite debris hitting other satellites, hit the Hubble.
This is a movie where for the entire 90 minutes there are only 2 characters – the female astronaut played by Sandra Bullock and the male astronaut played by George Clooney. Except for the last 5 minutes when the female character swims to safety after dropping into a lake upon re-entry to Earth, almost the entire movie has a backdrop of space with the blue planet gently rotating in the background. The stunning 3D images of the Earth from space are so realistic that it felt as if it happened right in front of my eyes. I felt entirely immersed in the scenes and at one point spontaneously jerked my body on the seat to duck a piece of debris hurtling out of the screen directly towards me.
The longest I have seen a 3D movie before was around 10 minutes for a short documentary on space that was shown when I visited the planetarium in Melaka. Here I was treated to 90 minutes of outer space adventure. This is probably the closest I will ever be to being a real astronaut. This 15 ringgit that I spent on the ticket must be among the most value-for-money and entertaining investment that I made. Had the movie come 6 years earlier, the Malaysian government would do better to spend 15 ringgit on the movie than paying 100 million ringgit to send our first and only Malaysian to space on board the Russian spacecraft Soyuz. This is the kind of movie that can inspire school kids to be an astronaut to study the mystery of outer space. Considering that the movie only featured 2 characters and a very simple storyline, its strength is probably in the cinematography. Its success in bringing 3D outer space images in front of our eyes and let us be immersed in it is to me what makes this movie so memorable. With that, unless another exceptionally good blockbuster comes along, I guess I have finished my movie quota for this year.
