Wow! I can’t believe it’s been over three years since my last movie review! I used to do these all the time! And I can’t even count how many movies I’ve seen in that time span.

So, why now? Why this one? I guess it’s because I get so irritated when Hollywood hypes up a movie, piles it with awards, and then it turns out to be so underwhelming. I felt the same way about Avatar (a.k.a. Dances with Smurfs).

Now, on to the review.

Forget everything you’ve heard. Gravity is a disaster movie. And as disaster movies go, Gravity is pretty good. Just be sure to turn your “suspension of disbelief” up to 11 and your “I took two years a physic in college” down to zero. (As you should with any movie in this genre.)

There is one glaring problem though. Most disaster movies start out with an ensemble cast of five or more big names so there are enough to kill off and still keep the suspense going. Gravity has a total cast of two. After these two survive the first big event, there’s not much left for the “will they make it” suspense.

It is a thrill ride, to be sure. The action keeps on coming. But if you’re looking for anything Oscar worthy, don’t bother. The visual effects were really well executed, but in this CGI drenched world, that’s not enough to make a movie great.

Now, disaster movies never rely on a good script, so it should be no surprise that this one was likely no more than three pages long. Several of the major plot points go beyond “contrived” and end up at “kinda dumb.” The character development is thinner than the atmosphere outside their space suits. And that’s kind of surprising given the cast. Bullock and Clooney have the chops to handle more complex roles. Here they are reduced to her hyperventilating and him … well … smiling. What a waste.

Ultimately, this is a solid 3 grin, popcorn flick. If you’ve got a really good media room, like I do, turn off the lights, crank up the base and enjoy the ride. If not, you will probably be disappointed.