I saw it in 3D, which I usually do not like but I absolutely loved this film. It was so bloody good.

In fact, that's my favorite scene in the movie, and elevates it over just being a genre disaster movie.

Also, just an observation, but between Gravity and Europa Report, I'm really loving the resurgence of secular scientists as movie protagonists.

The scene worked fine for me. It's an awkward beat but it's also a human beat, which is what matters. It's not my favorite scene -- that would be the scene where she's trying to detach the parachute while the world ends around her -- but it didn't strike me as false.

Well, I strongly disagree. It's a beautiful meditative moment, where in this dark void of space when she's at her lowest point, she's able to get comfort and solace from a human being in a completely different culture and language. This idea of humanity as one entity in a universal sense.

It's exactly the kind of scene you would almost never get in this kind of movie, and it gives the movie a greater weight than just being a procedural space movie with no larger ambitions.

Edit: Also, the short-film on the blu-ray will have the story of the character on the other end, which I'm really curious to see.

I just think what you're describing isn't as interesting for a story set in Space. Space is this giant landscape that makes it ripe for metaphor and larger statements about humanity. Particularly with a movie taking place around the orbit of the entire planet. If you're purely going to use the setting for just a minimalist survival thriller with no larger context or statement, there's no real reason to set it in space in the first place, aside from challenging yourself technically. It becomes just another Open Water or Buried, with just the gimmick of Space being the hostile force around the character instead of water or dirt. I think it's a waste of time to spend 4 years making a photo-real space drama like that with no larger human context and nothing to say.

I think I was the reverse of you, where the 1st trailer made me think it was just gonna what you describe, and then I was pleasantly surprised that the movie was much more humanist and layered than it originally looked.

Well, just off-hand, I'd say the whole thing works as a depression metaphor, the idea of being adrift and wanting to retreat away and give-up, and the importance of "planting your feet" back in reality and living your life despite the hardships, because it's worth the ride. As you point out, this whole process is also framed with the rebirth imagery. There's also a theme of cross-cultural connection, we are one humanity. Whether it's the shared moment on the radio, or the different religious relics we prominently see on each country's ship. There's definitely a bit of a religious message running through it actually, with the astronauts transmissions to Houston "in the blind" acting as a form of prayer. "Just because you can't hear them doesn't mean they can't save your life".

I'd need to see it again to dig into it, and you're right, none of this is cutting edge, but I don't think it has to be, and it's definitely there.

It's absolutely one of the greatest movies I've ever seen — but not because of the writing. Certainly not. The dialogue is downright second-rate, if you ask me, but it doesn't ruin the movie for me, obviously, since I've gone back to see it three times.