What keeps us on this earth?

Scientists will tell you it’s Gravity, but I think there’s more to it than that.

Dr Ryan Stone is adrift in this world, so it’s no real surprise that she’s ended up in a job that doesn’t involve being on this planet.

And yes, this Ryan just so happens to be a girl.

Having pioneered some kind of fancy, new computer technology, Dr Stone volunteers to go into space to install her plug in baby to some satellite that orbits our earth.

So far, so good.

Until some random Russian act of aggression triggers a violent space storm of satellite debris that’s heading straight into our heroine’s path.

As she and her fellow astronauts scramble to avoid disaster, Ryan stone has to decide whether she should fight to carry on living or just let go and finally drift away.

I first saw Gravity at last year’s film festival, and while I enjoyed it, it never really gripped me the way Alfonso Cuaron’s now multi Oscar winning film did most other folk.

Sure, it’s brilliantly made and both gravity’s special effects and Cuaron’s execution are pretty much out of this world.

But when you peel back this big screen magic, gravity is essentially just a modern reboot of the not missed disaster genre that I thought John Cusack had safely ushered off this mortal coil in the apocalyptically awful 2012.

So I was intrigued to see how Gravity would work outside of the cinema.

And the answer is not too bad.

Sure, you’ll need a high spec home entertainment system to be able to do the 3D version of Gravity justice in your own homestead, but the Sandra Bullock shaped story of Dr Ryan Stone stands up pretty well to repeat viewings.

Her journey through space disaster seems trivial compared to her character’s own earth bound tribulations, and it’s an interesting take on a theme most people simply can’t relate to.

And how I wish I was most people.

But Alfonso and his younger scriptwriting brother Jonas plot this quite beautifully, with George Clooney taking his effortlessly charming personality to new heights as Matt Kowalski, Stone’s more experienced astronautical partner in space who helps navigate her through the rougher moments she encounters.

As with any disaster film, Gravity’s story is a little too convenient at times, and I think there are a handful of better films out there from last year.

But it’s hard to argue with any of the Oscars Gravity won, and there are some nice special features here with one in particular offering up a pleasing flip side to one of Stone’s long distance distress call to earth.

As for what keeps us on this earth, well there’s more to that than simple gravity.

What we do when we have that something more taken away from us though, those are the real disaster stories in life.

Jonathan Campbell