The Worst Case Scenario

Rating: 8/10 (22 June 2014)

In many ways this reminded me of the film Wall-E, and not really because of the space link. For most of the film there is hardly any speech and we are stuck with just two characters trying to survive a disaster. This makes it a challenging watch to get into but clearly most people do manage to get through this challenge.
Let's face it, this film is about two things. 1) The visuals. The whole film looks gorgeous, with incredibly real shots of the Earth from space and various space-craft. Perhaps the most clever thing is the fact they managed to nail the views, making it really feel like the astronauts were being flung around helplessly.
2) is the thriller aspect of it. It takes only a few minutes before disaster strikes and the rest of the film is a desperate race for survival. You spend the whole film suffering along with the characters as you will them to survive and it takes until the last 30 seconds before you actually discover if they do or not.
The danger of having it all set in space, the whole film focusing on one event, is that of limited character. There is just about enough time to develop the two leads, especially Sandra Bullock's character. It's just enough to make you care if they survive but actually you realise you still know virtually nothing about them at the end. It is a credit to Sandra Bullock and George Clooney that they make the thinly stretched characters come to life.
The other problem with this is that though it goes for realism, the events that happen are very unlikely. Yes, everything in the film could happen but the likelihood of it all happening at the same time is incredibly slim. It is literally the very worst scenario that could possibly happen in space.
Fortunately though the sheer spectacle and thrill of the film mean you can pretty much see past the few issues. A tense but enjoyable watch.