Artificial space disaster film saddled with an awful lead

Rating: 4/10 (25 June 2016)

Another overrated Hollywood movie. From all the press and awards it received, you'd think GRAVITY was some kind of masterpiece, but in fact it turns out to be a lightly-plotted space adventure which loses steam about halfway through and becomes tiresome. Yes, the film features some exceptionally fluid camera-work which looks fantastic at times, and it has some of the most realistic space scenes in it yet. The CGI effects work is often flawless and only looks fake in the occasional explosion scene in which it threatens to overwhelm the camera. I didn't mind the storyline too much either, even though it was overly simplistic.
Where GRAVITY falls flat is in the choice of lead actress. Sandra Bullock is in no way, shape, or form, a dramatic actress, and yet the viewer is stuck with her character for 100% of the running time. She screams, swears, mouth breathes, and hyperventilates throughout, while her character is responsible for some of the dumbest things in the movie. Why must American films have such horrible lead characters, ones that it's impossible to like, let alone identify with? Bullock's terrible acting drags this film's enjoyment factor right down, despite all the stuff the film-makers get right elsewhere.
George Clooney is much better in support but gets little screen time. And after a while you start to spot the artificiality of the script, with Bullock narrowly avoiding destruction time and time again thanks to the machinations of the writers. It seems that she possesses some kind of protective force field, but when she escapes disaster for the umpteenth time the sense of realism is lost. I like Alfonso Cuaron as a director, but perhaps he should forget about trying to write his films as well and start casting better actors.