Visually stunning but let down by shoddy science

Rating: 6/10 (17 June 2014)

With stunning 3D visuals, this film shows space in a way never seen before. Looking down on Earth in 3D even gave me some experience of what the 'Overview Effect' might be like for astronauts. There were great moments of action and excitement, and some great portrayals of weightlessness. These successes, however, are outweighed by some elements that have a complete disregard for sensibility and the laws of physics.
There's plenty of other reviews that point out all the physics mistakes, so I won't repeat them all, but Clooney's character detaching himself and floating away for no reason really got me screaming at the screen, and the back-stories made no sense either. Not to mention everything seeming to share the same orbit... These mistakes really spoiled what could have been a great movie.
With a few simple fixes (change the character's back-story, change the original mission target away from Hubble, to something on the ISS itself, and a few minor physics tweaks), this could have been a hard- SciFi masterpiece, but as it is, it's just another passable sci-fi action film; take everything with a pinch of salt.