not bad, not brilliant

Rating: 7/10 (26 February 2014)

Basically it's like Open Water in Space but with amazing visual effects. What I liked about this movie is Sandra Bullock's performance and how she conveyed the state of mind of the character with the limited possibilities to express emotions she had. I always felt to understand what went thru her head and how she felt. So it was rather easy to care for her and keep me invested. What I didn't like was Clooney's character and how he was written (maybe performed) - I'm sure they wanted to make him appear as a strong, experienced commander who knows exactly how to react in every situation and therefore has time to joke around. But instead he came off as someone who doesn't really care what's going on around him and what it means for himself. He even borders to a shallow 1 dimensional comic relief instead of a serious counterpart to Bullock's part. Though this doesn't make the movie worse it could have made it better if they had gotten his part right.
Additionally a plus is that they at least tried to portray space realistically - mainly how they managed to handle the no sound thing. With music and switching between interior (spacesuit) and exterior shots it generated a vibe that increased the dramatic effect. Basically a similar approach Whedon tried in Firefly. However while most of the physics were portrayed close enough to overlook some of the flaws. The scene were Clooney floats away contradicts the law of physics too much. And since it's a rather prominent moment in the plot it casts a light on all the other errors they made. From a dramatic point of view this cliffhanger moment was probably necessary but maybe they would have found a different way that doesn't defy Newton.
My summary: it's a fun movie to watch, with a good plot and an interesting bottom line. If you're a space fan and you get easily riled up by finding errors in movies then you shouldn't expect too much.