Gravity was a bit of a downer, (no pun intended)

Rating: 5/10 (27 October 2013)

As most people have not yet invested in a 3D high definition television, I anticipate that the producers are going to lose a bundle on their eventual DVD release even if Gravity does well at the box office and at the Academy Awards. The best thing I liked about Gravity were the 3D visuals. The plot was not very believable. Let's try and understand what happens in Gravity. Sandra Bullock plays a scientific engineer who has received 6 months extensive training by NASA for her role as a high priced repair woman. There are a number of satellites circling the atmosphere but I had no idea they were sitting so close to one another. Hmmmmmm? Their shuttle receives an urgent message from NASA to evacuate their mission immediately and miraculously after being hit by a meteorite shower of space debris Sandra Bullock becomes the sole survivor.
The audience does not have much sympathy for all the human casualties caused by the accident in space. Why you ask? Because there are only two characters in the entire 91 minute movie, Sandra Bullock and George Clooney. George spends the first five minutes of the movie flying freely in space uninhibited whilst sitting in his space rocket chair.
And so the plot thickens....but I thought it just froze and went nowhere. Of course when the meteorite shower of space debris nears their space capsule they dodge and dart every piece of debris but their comrades manning their space ship are not so fortunate.
As Sandra loses her tether and is flipping 360 degrees through space George catches up to her in his space chair rocket and attaches her by a rope so that they can make it back to their space ship. Although George is the one who won't stop talking to Sandra as they travel through space in an attempt to make it back to their space ship, it is Sandra who runs out of oxygen first and needs desperately to make it back IN to their damaged space capsule. What happens to calm, cool and collected George? Well he just gets Sandra back to their space capsule in the nick of time before his rocket chair (that is right, it is not a rocking chair, it is a rocket chair) runs out of gas and his space suit runs out of oxygen so gravity just takes him away. Say goodbye George and say hello to the movie title, GRAVITY!
So far Sandra has survived a meteorite space debris shellacking, a free fall through the universe, an empty tank of oxygen and her adventure is just beginning. She then has to survive her space capsule catching on fire, a second and third rotation of the space debris hurtling at her, until lo and behold she finds a Chinese satellite that she quickly learned to operate, although it appeared to also be out of gas.
Sandra eventually finds a way to propel the Chinese satellite back towards earth and before it evaporates from the intense heat when re- entering the Earth's atmosphere, Sandra lands it in the ocean, and whilst opening the space shuttle door the water pressure submerges her and the craft to the bottom of the ocean and she then calmly swims to the surface.
Two subtle changes I would have made to Gravity is I would have asked Hilary Swank to replace Sandra Bullock in the lead role and when Sandra (or Hilary) popped their head to the surface from the ocean floor I think the ending would have been great if a Sea-Doo went flying by them and smacked them in the head. Gravity was a bit of a downer.