Sandra Bullock and George Clooney’s space-based sci-fi thriller “Gravity” opened this past weekend to a whopping $55.6 Million. The tale of a team of astronauts trying to survive a calamity 230 miles above the Earth has drawn praise by many, but been taken to task for its lack of diversity and scientific inaccuracies.
RELATED:
Why “Gravity” Fails In The Diversity Of Sci-Fi Movies
“Gravity” Is Big Budget Isolation Therapy [MOVIE REVIEW]
TWEET OF THE WEEK: If Rappers Were TV Shows By @Phontigallo
As for the latter, African-American astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson pointed out a few fact checking points in a series of tweets called “Mysteries of #Gravity.” Dr. Tyson is currently the Frederick P. Rose Director of the Hayden Planetarium at the Rose Center for Earth and Space and a research associate in the department of astrophysics at the American Museum of Natural History. But he also has time to watch movies, especially ones dealing with space.
“The film #Gravity should be renamed “Zero Gravity” (or) ”Angular Momentum,” he wrote on his Twitter page. He concedes that “The film #Gravity depicts a scenario of catastrophic satellite destruction that can actually happen,” and that “I enjoyed #Gravity very much” but had to take it to task for inaccuracies in execution.
SPOILER ALERT! DO NOT READ IF YOU INTEND TO SEE THE FILM!
Mysteries of #Gravity: Why Bullock, a medical Doctor, is servicing the Hubble Space Telescope.—
Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) October 06, 2013
“Mysteries of #Gravity: Why Bullock, a medical Doctor, is servicing the Hubble Space Telescope.”
Mysteries of #Gravity: How Hubble (350mi up) ISS (230mi up) & a Chinese Space Station are all in sight lines of one another.—
Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) October 06, 2013
“Mysteries of #Gravity: How Hubble (350mi up) ISS (230mi up) & a Chinese Space Station are all in sight lines of one another.”
Mysteries of #Gravity: When Clooney releases Bullock's tether, he drifts away. In zero-G a single tug brings them together.—
Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) October 06, 2013
“Mysteries of #Gravity: When Clooney releases Bullock’s tether, he drifts away. In zero-G a single tug brings them together.”
Mysteries of #Gravity: Why Bullock's hair, in otherwise convincing zero-G scenes, did not float freely on her head.—
Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) October 06, 2013
Mysteries of #Gravity: Why Bullock’s hair, in otherwise convincing zero-G scenes, did not float freely on her head.
Mysteries of #Gravity: Nearly all satellites orbit Earth west to east yet all satellite debris portrayed orbited east to west—
Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) October 06, 2013
“Mysteries of #Gravity: Nearly all satellites orbit Earth west to east yet all satellite debris portrayed orbited east to west”
Mysteries of #Gravity: Satellite communications were disrupted at 230 mi up, but communications satellites orbit 100x higher.—
Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) October 06, 2013
“Mysteries of #Gravity: Satellite communications were disrupted at 230 mi up, but communications satellites orbit 100x higher.”
While we are big fans of fact checking we think these two were just being a tad bit salty:
Mysteries of #Gravity: Why anyone is impressed with a zero-G film 45 years after being impressed with "2001:A Space Odyssey"—
Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) October 06, 2013
Mysteries of #Gravity: Why anyone is impressed with a zero-G film 45 years after being impressed with “2001:A Space Odyssey”
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 06, 2013
Mysteries of #Gravity: Why we enjoy a SciFi film set in make-believe space more than we enjoy actual people set in real space”
We all know that iMAX in 3D makes EVERYthing more interesting!
Did you see “Gravity”? Tell us what you thought of it in the comments!
Like TheUrbanDaily.com on Facebook to stay updated with the latest entertainment news and original interviews!
TWEET OF THE WEEK: Black Astrophysicist Pokes Holes In “Gravity” Movie was originally published on theurbandaily.com