Grossly overrated

Rating: 4/10 (3 March 2014)

Bullock plays herself in space as some computer tech repairing some satellite on a space shuttle. Mission commander is Clooney playing himself as well. They get a notice from mission command on earth that a satellite has blown up sending debris their way and that all satellites are being hit and eventually they'll lose communication. Clooney orders Bullock to finish up, but she thinks she knows better and keeps tinkering with a computer board. And indeed they end up hit with debris. Bullock ends up tumbling out of control detached from the arm that was holding her to the shuttle. As she goes flying out of control she loses communication with everyone.
When all hope seems lost. Clooney appears and grabs her. With his jet pack they go back to the shuttle and discover it's destroyed and some other guy part of the mission is dead. They make their way to the nearby international space station that has a released parachute with hundreds of belts entangled. Clooney realizes that for them to make it, he will have to let go.
Bullock arrives at the station, but there's a fire in one of the sections which quickly expands everywhere else. She escapes in a pod to the nearby Chinese space station. There she has one more chance to escape in a pod to earth. But as earlier as well, oxygen becomes an issue, plus she isn't exactly at flying these craft.
Gravity is a pretty looking movie. And how could it be otherwise. These days the least you can do with a space movie is show cool sights. A bit of annoyance is the constantly rotating and floating camera.
The story itself is surprisingly simple and empty. Our main character finds herself in an emergency and everything that could go wrong does go wrong and then some. The writers aren't a bit shy about exaggerating things and/or forgetting about realism when it suits them. Twice in the movie, oxygen becomes a problem, but it's also quickly forgotten when it's not convenient to the filmmakers.
Performances are very weak. You can accept Bullock in a many roles--an astronaut computer expert isn't one of them. Same with Clooney. At the same time, Bullock (and Clooney for that matter) is likable enough that you can watch her scream and groan through this movie.
Gravity looks good and Bullock makes a rather slim story watchable. But Gravity is a neither a great nor good movie and certainly not an worthy award winner.