Bad Astronomy May Term: Gravity

The fifth movie my students and I watched in my Bad Astronomy May Term course this past May was Gravity.  I also selected Gravity to watch during my 2015 May Term and you can read my report from that year here:

Gravity: Bad Astronomy May Term

I won't re-hash those details here.  Click the link if you wish to read them.  Overall Gravity has quite a bit of good science with some bad science bits thrown in.  Personally, I loved this movie!  I think my students found it boring and not as exciting as some of the other movies we watched.  Part of what makes it appear 'boring' to some is the lack of sound in space, but that's GOOD science!!!

Why do I like this movie?  It's relatively short at 90 minutes, but in that time it packs in everything needed to make a good movie.  There's tension.  There's some character development without over-doing it.  There's space, astronomy, and catastrophic events.  And there's good science.  Granted, there's some bad science that is a bit annoying because it could easily be fixed, but it's nice to see some thought put into making a movie with good science.

I encourage you to watch this movie with your kids.  It's rated PG-13, so use your parental gut instinct.  There's not a lot of blood and gore and language is fine.  You do see a floating dead body in space and another body with a hole through the head, but these scenes are a mere second or two in length.  Use your best judgement.