"...we sure could use a rescue mission."

Rating: 7/10 (7 May 2017)

I'm not as upset watching the film today as I would have been three years ago during awards season with this picture coming in on seven Oscar wins. I'll grant the ones for cinematography and special effects, those were well deserved. However the nominations for Best Picture and Best Actress seem misplaced among some of the stronger contenders for those awards that year.
I guess the main problem I have with the story is that I didn't have a sense that this is something that could actually happen in outer space. So with that, the inherent dangers faced by mission commander Kowalski (George Clooney) and specialist Stone (Sandra Bullock) didn't arouse a sense of panic and danger that I would have expected from a sci-fi thriller. The idea that Stone could maneuver her way to distant orbiting Russian and Chinese space stations also seemed like a stretch to this viewer. I don't know anything about the mechanics of outer space travel or what astronauts are capable of doing, but even for a layman I thought the science here was really pushing it. I know one thing for sure, no frogs live in the ocean, so the one that swam by Stone on re-entry was completely out of place.
I guess the thing here is to enjoy the camera work and special effects without thinking too much about the science involved. I'll give the nod to Clooney's character when he said at one point before disappearing - "You gotta admit one thing, you can't beat the view."