All brawn and no brains

Rating: 6/10 (10 January 2014)

Alfonso Cuarón has an impressive body of work including (arguably) the best Harry Potter film ("Prisoner of Azkaban") and the dystopian "Children of Men", but unfortunately "Gravity" doesn't match the same level of cinema as these films.
"Gravity" is visually spectacular, make no mistake about it but it fails as a human story. The characters are so poorly developed, especially Sandra Bullock's Ryan Stone, that you find it hard to connect or even believe the clichéd dialogue about loss and homesickness.
But, perhaps the worst culprit is the premise which involves Russians taking out their own spy satellite, whose debris annihilates not just the American shuttle, but also the international and Chinese space stations. I mean, come on! This is ineptitude of incredible proportions. Also, in my limited knowledge of space exploration, the ease with which the astronauts jump from shuttles/pods to hurtling space stations and the reentry - all seem highly improbable given the mind-boggling levels of precision required.
If you overlook these glaring flaws, you end up with a reasonably entertaining film which gives the viewers a spectacular look into space exploration, albeit one constructed on shaky scientific grounds. If you're the nitpicking sort, you're better off renting "Apollo 13" 6.5/10