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Gravity (2013)
Gravity will absorb you!
Gravity glitters on the screen with pureness
Lack of futile effects, non existence of stupid-illogical action and void of American Hero based story (Maybe George Clooney could count on it) brings a solid sci-fi movie in front of us. Gravity is not just a cool example of this genre but also a brave and visionary visual feast in terms of cinematography. The storyline and the script are not revolutionary but the way they are presented is flawless. In short, Gravity is one of the best movies in sci-fi genre which surrounds you with its stirring visual atmosphere.
The story is not something new, especially, after the movies such as Apollo 13, From the Earth to the Moon, In the Shadow of the Moon and so on. Our lovely and bold astronauts encounter a devastating problem in outer space and they have to deal with it. However, this ordinary story is held under from a little bit different perspective. Sandra Bullock is the main engineer who is responsible to render her abilities for a broken satellite. George Clooney is the pilot of the mission and in my opinion, he is the "American Hero" kind a guy to smoothen the tension of the movie. While our fellas are working outside of the satellite, fragments of an useless and old Russian satellite which has been bombed by Russian government start moving towards American satellite waiting for repair. Wrong calculations of Houston and Russian Government somehow cause the disaster so that all the fragments of bombed satellite hit our guys with a bullet speed. American satellite falls into pieces and our astronauts become homeless in deep space. From that point they have to follow the human nature and survival instincts to be alive but wait! Imagine yourself in emptiness. It is the feeling that movie give you how ridiculous trying to stay alive in space after a situation like that. The incident raises the question: "What would you do to go back home?".
As I've emphasized a minute ago, the movie gives more than an improved cliché sci-fi story. The environment (space itself) is incredibly suitable to grab audience and force them to emphasize with the astronauts. The big applause should go for the director Alfonso Cuaron. He did a brilliant job to create such a stressful atmosphere with a minimalist approach which I couldn't experience in the other astronaut- space movies. I say "minimalist approach" and it may seem quite trivial if you consider the movie is a big budget shot, also going in space. However, our main characters are generally troubling in little space shuttles or strolling in the space. In other words, attributes of the environment are so minimal. Alfonso Cuaron manipulates this emptiness that pops out from the environment surprisingly well. You do not get tired because of flashy environment changes or cripple camera movements since the environment is so stable (obviously space) that every action, explosion and disaster during the movie hypnotize you. There are no suffocating visual effects. The visual effects are as smooth as water and your brain drains every entertaining scene. If you already watched one of the Transformers movies, you will get the difference. In the movies like transformers, visual effects are trivially massive and inaccurate. You feel that something visually brilliant is going on the screen but you cannot feel the flow of it. Gravity is revolutionary because of its artful and flawless visual effects. You do not need to squint to comprehend the details of the explosions as they are in Michael Bay's movies. Every action scene resembles an art exhibition in Gravity and 3D technology makes it more tempting inevitably.
When it comes to the stars of the movie, I must confess the true success of Sandra Bullock. Among all the acting skills of her, she is so convenient to this role thanks to her physical appearance. Let's imagine Nicole Kidman or Jennifer Lawrence in this movie! I wouldn't imagine such a sexy and dainty astronaut trying to get back to world after losing her satellite. Bullock is like a full pack with her appearance. She has that feminine strength the movie needed, she is not a baby doll which is not stereotypically supposed to be convenient to a female astronaut and she has the action movie charisma coming from her discography. She is tremendously brilliant to give audience the loneliness feeling in the space. She forces you with a convincing desperation to emphasize her fear and struggle. George Clooney is the passageway of this movie. He represents the cool, brave and oddly arrogant American Hero stereotype. The funny part is that his role did not bother me. On the contrary, I believe that his character is determiner of the movie's tension. His arrogant serenity eases the tension after a massive action scene and then suddenly, surpasses that flow with sudden up-side downs. Fortunately, Cuaron keeps his role limited and as adequate as the movie needs. That's why, it would be delusional to come up with a concrete judgment about Clooney's acting success in the movie with his limited role.
As a matter of fact, I would generously say that Gravity is one of the best visually successful movies in the cinema history. Even though story is not that original, storytelling and its presentation with incredibly beautiful visual effects (I would claim them not effects but true arts) grab audience and make them feel how astronauts could feel if they are stuck in space and not able to go back to mother earth. 3D technology makes the movie even better and I have to confess that I hated 3D technology till this brilliant movie. Director Cuaron should be dignified because of the success to come through such a movie and turn it into screenplay.
Eve Dönüs: Sarikamis 1915 (2013)
Micro perspective of a war disaster
First of all, the movie does not concern about how Sarikamis had started or how and why the operation fell apart. It just spots on 8 people whose faiths cross on the way of Sarikamis while this shameful war disaster is happening. It can be seen as a survival movie which is fed by historical events in the last years of Ottoman Empire.
Instead of telling the entire historical story of Sarikamis, movie spots on a micro story and narrates how people suffered from the war. The story mainly focuses on the struggle of these 8 people to survive against the nature. War and its inhuman effects lie all over the background of the big picture. Two Turkish (Ottoman) soldiers who somehow survived from the war disaster reflects human nature and bleakness when the mother nature and the things happen in the war force human mind and physicality. Other characters are more likely the symbols of mankind against nature. They seem away from the war and seem to deal with just the problems coming from the mother nature. However, they have to fight against the invisible punches coming from the reality of war at the same time. In other words, the message is clear: war affects everybody around itself whether you are physically involved or not.
The movie is also successful, if it is considered as a "survival against nature" type movie. hopelessness, death, hunger and struggle for life can be felt to the bone during the movie. The best feature of it is to force audience to ask the question "what would we do, if we were them?" to themselves. The story line grips you to empathize with the characters, especially the soldiers who survived from the war incident.
It should be declared that it is not a pure war movie. It does not have any purpose to emphasize nationalism which can generally be seen in war movies. The story line is so simple and clear to tell what it wants to tell to the audience. There are mainly two main ideas to be reflected: First one is how a mankind can be pathetic and defenseless against mother nature and the second one is that the war forces us to bring the inhuman part of us out.
If you take the fact into account that this is the first movie of the director, I would like to say that we must watch him more closely for his further works.