Highly anticipated blockbuster film, Gravity was released in theaters worldwide earlier this month. With stunning special effects and a small cast of Sandra Bullock and George Clooney, the hype of the film was quite extensive.

The movie opens in space, following three astronauts orbiting Earth. As the astronauts work on a routine procedure on the outside of the ship, disaster strikes. Pieces of debris, flying at extremely high speeds, destroy their ship and leaves one of the spacemen deceased. The rest of the film is a struggle by the remaining astronauts, Dr. Ryan Stone (Bullock) and Matt Kowalski (Clooney), to stay alive and make their way back to Earth.

This film was one of heard-pounding action and superb special effects, but certain aspects left the viewer disappointed. The effects are realistic to the point where the moviegoer almost forgets the film was not actually filmed in space.

However, besides the thrills and special effects, the movie had definite flaws. The character lines were established further into the film than usual, so an emotional connection to the characters was also not as developed as it could have been. Therefore, while you were rooting for the character to survive, there wasn’t as intense of a connection to the character as the audience could have had.

The acting overall was sub-par. Many will say that Sandra Bullock has had yet another award-winning performance, but in actuality it was a performance that was simply trying too hard.

Bullock’s monologues and isolated acting are either delivered awkwardlly way, or with obviously fake conviction. The star of the film should have been Clooney, who ends up having a quite limited role.

The thrills and special effects are redeeming qualities of the film, but the negative aspects trump these qualities. Through the good, the bad, and the awkward, Gravity deserves 5 stars out of 10. The film was impressive in scale, but the acting did not carry the film in a way that it need to.