'Gravity' Movie Review Roundup: Alfonso Cuaron's Beautiful Film Breaks Records But Gets Thumbs Down from Neil deGrasse Tyson
Alfonso Cuarón's new film, Gravity, which stars Sandra Bullock and George Clooney, broke box office records this weekend, but not everyone is giving the film positive reviews.
Gravity was released Oct. 4, and made $55.6 million from 3,575 theaters in its opening weekend. With these numbers, Gravity broke the record for an opening weekend in October, ousting 2011's Paranormal Activity 3 which made $52.6 million during its debut.
The film also set records for its leads, Bullock and Clooney.
The film marks the best debut for both actors. Before Gravity, Bullock's best opening weekend came from The Heat, which was released June 28 of this year. The Heat earned $39.1 million its first weekend.
Meanwhile, Clooney's best opening weekend film was Batman & Robin in 1997. The film earned $42.9 million during its opening weekend.
Gravity earned an A- or "Excellent" review on CinemaScore. The New York Times gave the film four stars.
"Mr. Cuarón succeeds by tethering almost unfathomably complex techniques - both digital and analog - to a simple narrative," A.O. Scott, a New York Times film critic, wrote. "Gravity is less a science-fiction spectacle than a Jack London tale in orbit."
Those who know more about science, on the other hand, don't necessarily feel so positive about the film.
Neil deGrasse Tyson, a noted astrophysicist and director of the Hayden Planetarium at the Rose Center for Earth and Space in New York City, mocked the film's accuracy via Twitter posts on Sunday:
"Mysteries of #Gravity: Why Bullock, a medical Doctor, is servicing the Hubble Space Telescope."
"Mysteries of #Gravity: How Hubble (350mi up) ISS (230 mi up) & a Chinese Space Station are all in sight lines of one another."
"Mysteries of #Gravity: Why Bullock's hair, in otherwise convincing zero-G scenes, did not float freely on her head."
"Mysteries of #Gravity: When Clooney releases Bullock's tether, he drifts away. In zero-G a single tug brings them together."
"Mysteries of #Gravity: Satellite communications were disrupted at 230 mi up, but communications satellites orbit 100x higher."
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