By Rudie Obias | 7 years ago

While the new sci-fi film from visionary director Alfonso Cuarón was delayed for a few months, Gravity looks like it was worth the wait. The follow-up to Cuarón’s 2006 Children of Men, promises to be one of the best movies of the year. Today, Warner Bros. has released the first trailer for Gravity, and there’s only one word to describe it: terrifying.

In one brief moment, the trailer seems to go from majestically beautiful to sheer panic and terror. Gravity follows Dr. Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock), a medical engineer on her first Space Shuttle mission, and Matt Kowalsky (George Clooney), a veteran astronaut who is in command of the shuttle flight. While on a routine spacewalk, their ship is destroyed and Dr. Stone and Kowalsky are left to drift through the vacuum of outer space.

With seemingly no hope for rescue, Gravity will follow Dr. Stone and Kowalsky’s thoughts and memories as they both come to terms with their impending demise. Just thinking about being trapped alone in space is a very unsettling thought. It’s very, very chilling!

Early test screenings were mainly positive, but I can easily see why general audiences might be turned off by a movie like Gravity. This looks like it will be a very challenging film. The movies that Gravity is being compared to — 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Tree of Life — were also box office disappointments. That said, high art isn’t always made for general audiences.

Alfonso Cuarón co-wrote the science fiction film with his son Jonás and screenwriter Rodrigo García (HBO’s In Treatment, Six Feet Under).

Gravity will hit theaters everywhere on October 4th, in 3D and IMAX.