Worth The Effort To Watch It

Rating: 7/10 (9 February 2014)

It seems that the reviewers of this movie either hate it or love it. In my case I neither hated or loved it, merely liked it.
Sandra Bullock is one of my favourite actresses but this in my opinion is not the best movie she has ever made.
SPOILER BEGINS
The movie takes place entirely in orbit around the Earth and begins outside the space shuttle which has been sent to repair the Hubble telescope.
After a missile strikes a satellite belonging to the Russians the debris makes a beeline for the shuttle, taking out other satellites en route.
It is never explained how this satellite was somehow hit by a missile.
Mission control orders the shuttle crew to abort their mission immediately and return to Earth. Unfortunately the crew does not have time to do this before the debris strikes and all but destroys the shuttle.
SPOILER ENDS
There are basically only two in the cast of this movie. Sandra Bullock, who plays Ryan Stone, an electronics expert whose task is to repair Hubble and George Clooney who plays Matt Kowalski and is the Shuttle Commander.
SPOILER BEGINS
There are other crew members but although you see the figures floating around in space you never really see their faces or who they are. When the satellite debris hits the Shuttle these other crew members are killed.
George Clooney (Kowalski) does not survive either as his tether breaks and he ends up floating away from the shuttle and his body presumably spends eternity travelling in the vast expanse of the universe. He does return to the shuttle for a couple of minutes either as a ghost or in Stone's mind.
The rest of the movie is taken up with Stone somehow managing to get firstly to the Russian Space Station and when that too gets destroyed she manages to get to the Chinese station.
Although there are a few 'edge of the seat' moments the movie I am afraid was a little too far fetched as I consider it virtually impossible for Stone to be able to get from one Space Station and then to another, especially being able to get to the second station by using only a fire extinguisher as a propellant
SPOILER ENDS
I watched this movie twice over a couple of days and I admit that the second time around I did enjoy it more, possibly because at the second viewing I watched it in 3D.
Ed Harris played the Mission Controller but he was never seen on screen, only his voice could be heard.
A great redeeming feature of this movie was the camera work, editing, the special effects and CGIs although I do not anticipate the script, acting or costumes will win any awards I do feel that the excellent camera work, special effects experts and editors are deserving.
Sandra Bullock's acting was up to her usual excellent standards and I feel that it was a very difficult and tiring movie to make for her. George Clooney's acting was also excellent even though he only appeared for a short time.
I have rated this movie seven mainly for the acting of Bullock and for the special effects. It is much better in 3D and I would be happy to recommend this movie, provided it is viewed 'tongue in cheek'.