Gravity (2013)

It was a tremendous theatrical experience. I'm a big NASA fan and am really into the science. While the science and story weren't all the way there, the visual experience was awesome. They captured the scope of modern space travel and really got that "whoa, I'm a long way from home" element that great space-set thrillers have had before it.

Sandra Bullock was a strange choice for this character I thought. She wasn't bad, but she didn't ever have the cool-headedness I'd expect from someone who'd end up in a rocket ship. She was alright, but I think someone more soft spoken (Tilda Swinton maybe?) could have lent more to the overall atmosphere of the movie. Something like "2001" really nails the slow actions/movements of the people, the silence, and the coldness of space.

I really liked this movie overall. I saw it in IMAX and was blown away. Probably one of the coolest movies I've seen on a big screen.

mslo79

"Gattaca" (criminally underrated) and "Contact" sound about right to me for the top two. One I'm surprised didn't make the list was "Apollo 13" (though the story was romanticized a bit). That'd be for nothing much else than the technical challenge of the cast and crew spending so much time in the vommit comet.

"Life" was a pretty good effort (though sort of derivative of "The Thing") at portraying constant weightlessness and the isolation of living on a space station.

Thanks for the article, hadn't read it. I grew up surfing in Cocoa Beach, Florida (setting of "I Dream of Jeannie" and her astronaut husband) watching the rockets go up every time I got the chance. The astronauts and pilots were the rock stars of the town. Been fascinated with them since seeing my first launch.

I thought the script was the best thing about the finished product. Having everything go wrong, one thing after another was not lazy, it was the whole point or theme underlying the storytelling. Would the story of Job in the Bible be less lazy if things alternately go well for him?

I'm no Sandra Bullock fan, and Gravity did nothing to make me one.

I think I’d agree Gravity was better than The Martian. I liked Martian but Gravity was seriously edge of my seat the entire time. I thought Bullock did great.

Gravity came out around the same time as Edge of Tomorrow too and I thought that was another fantastic sci-fi flick.

You bring a very important point here. It seems that any movie that wishes to be considered "Oscar worthy" these days is two hours or more in length. One if the great strengths about "Gravity" is its running time. There is no padding or wasted moments.

I know a lot of people were upset about stuff like where satellites were and such, including DeGrasse Tyson, but I didn't know where anything was in the first place, so that didn't matter to me. plus the story was still science fiction, meaning they could place stuff any way they wish in the alternate universes of sci-fi.