Gravity

The critics are raving about this and after seeing the trailer I can see why ! Won't miss this one !

http://xfinity.comcast.net/articles/entertainment-eonline/20130828/b453212/

I hear this is the best work she has ever done.  

I'm looking forward to seeing this.

I'd like to see it too!

 Sounds great. Looking forward to it.  

I saw this on Sat. Certainly worth all the hype. If Bullock doesn't win an Academy Award then the whole system is irrelevant. And she will win it for dialog and action way outside the norm for AA nominees.  

There was one scene where I really thought they had jumped the shark, I thought "oh no !" , how can they show that to be possible after being so careful to be authentic in other scenes ? But then after a minute or two I saw what had actually happened and the scene was viable. That's all I'll say......... 

Here is Buzz Aldrin's take on it (no spoilers)

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/gravity-review-by-astronaut-buzz-639883

"We're in a very precarious position of losing all the advancements we've made in space that we did 40 years ago, 50 years ago. From my perspective, this movie couldn't have come at a better time to really stimulate the public. I was very, very impressed with it."

He's certainly right about that. It's interesting and saddening to see how a country's 'mood' or 'thrust' can degenerate over time and become bogged down in irrelevancies.

Neil Degrassi Tyson the astrophysicist and director of that planetarium back east, did have some criticisms. He said that Bullocks' hair didn't float up in the zero G when she had  her cap off in the escape  module. That would have been a hard thing to simulate unless they had her do the scene upside down.  Also he said the space debris that hit them was coming from the wrong direction because all satellites orbit from west to east, as was the ISS and Hubble where they were.

But the debris was coming from east to west. That's a valid point but you could postulate that the debris was actually orbiting from west to east but at a much lower velocity than they were. So when they overtook it, it would appear to them as coming from the opposite direction.   In that case the debris orbit would decay pretty quickly  and it would descend below their orbit. Of course to make such a technical explanation in the course of the movie wouldn't have 'fit in' very well plus making the audience go...."Wha..??

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/07/gravity-accuracy_n_4057280.html

Mysteries of #Gravity: Why we enjoy a SciFi film set in make-believe space more than we enjoy actual people set in real space
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) October 6, 2013. That goes back to what Aldrin was saying. We don't have the "achievement and adventure mentality" as we did during the Apollo days for example. And the "actual people in real space" are doing repetitive, routine things these days, only on the ISS and there isn't any "outward thinking" going on with the movers and shakers, even if the Mars missions are being tentatively planned for way down the road. I guess we can't expect to live long enough to see everything, but still......we certainly haven't built on the Apollo legacy.....