Don't take it for realistic. Enjoy it as the fiction it is.

Rating: 8/10 (6 April 2014)

Realism flies out of the airlock the moment you see Clooney flying circles around the space-shuttle with his jet-pack. The MMU is such a freakishly expensive piece of hardware it hardly ever got used. And as such these kinds of joyrides just wouldn't be in the mission budget.
So yes, this movie stretches reality to enhance drama. Because let's face it, while interesting, watching astronauts doing maintenance missions isn't what i would call "breathtaking". But whenever possible physics were portrait in a realistic manner.
And in style! Technically this movie is a masterpiece. The atmosphere is so breathtaking, you'd be tempted to blame the vacuum from the silver screen sucking the oxygen out of the cinema. Never was space felt so intensely!
The only thing that annoyed me was the script. Clooney acts too airy and Bullock seems too emotional for astronauts. After all these are supposed to be handpicked professionals and yet they react a little too human to those life-threatening situations. In reality they wouldn't have the slightest chance to make it. But well, it's fiction for us "common" people and i guess we need something more "human" to relate to. So yea, i can overlook these shortcomings for this fantastic space-spectacle.