Spaced out on a regular screen

Rating: 3/10 (11 October 2013)

Years ago I used to work in tourism and visited Houston and Cape Canaveral quite often and never missed the see the IMAX space movie there. This was the main reason why I went to see Gravity because I was hoping to see beautiful images from space again. Unfortunately I made the wrong decision to see the movie not in 3D. Though the images were still quite beautiful but not so spectacular as I remembered them from the NASA films. Every movie I had seen so far in 3D left me always dissatisfied, but after reading the comments it might have been a better idea to see Gravity in 3D and I considered to go and see it again in 3D. On the other hand I could live without seeing the story again and listening to the dialog. Clooney played himself in a space suit and Bullock was hyperventilating most of the time.
Space debris is certainly a very important subject to tackle and the more satellites we are sending into space, the bigger the problem gets. So in this aspect the movie was realistic. I cannot judge how many mistakes were made scientifically, but some of the stuff just did not seem probable. I could not understand why Clooney was drifting off into space....
Obviously the character of Bullock was not sufficiently trained to go on a mission like that and I wondered if that could happen in reality. I was also frustrated that she was not only ill-prepared and panicky, but also howling like a dog and most of the time half-naked. Come on Hollywood,can a female scientist not be competent and dressed? I understand that S. Bullock is considered to be America's sweetheart for some reason, but I have never seen a performance from her which impressed me. I also have to admit that I have seen her only in reruns on TV, I never bought a ticket before to see her in a movie theater. Correction, I just remembered that I saw her in "Time to kill" the movie adaption of John Grisham's best novel and I thought that she was completely miscast in that movie. Nothing in her performance brought the Grisham character to life for me. After just seeing Cate Blanchett with an incredible performance in Blue Jasmine, directed by Woody Allen, and carrying the movie with ease, I can only say that S. Bullock was completely and totally miscast in this movie. This movie asked for a real strong actress and that she is certainly not.
So I would recommend the movie for the visuals (obviously in 3D would be better)and not for the story or the acting (Clooney being himself is not really acting). I am a little bit disappointed with the director,Alfonso Cuarón, whose movies I usually love, but nobody delivers every time. And now I am determined to see one the NASA IMAX movies again. images from space are so intoxicating, you certainly do not need a whining, half-naked, hyperventilating Sandra Bullock in the forefront.