Gravity, the 2013 movie hit the screens this week to the utter delight and awe of fans and critics alike. This Sandra Bullock – George Clooney starrer is different from other movies created in this genre (sci-fi, space travel) in the past decade.

The movie is expected to make $45-50 million on the first weekend box office, which will be the biggest for Clooney, new biggie for Sandra Bullock and the second highest for Cuaron, whose Harry Potter and the Prisoners of Azkaban grossed whooping $93 million on the box office.

The star power indeed worked for Gravity as George Clooney and Sandra Bullock applied their pull to attract non-sci-fi audiences to the theatre (and did not disappoint them one bit). Cuaron kept the story simple and awed the audiences with his artisanship.

If Spielberg’s ET – the Alien was about an adorable alien stranded on earth, Alfonso Cuaron’s Gravity is Sandra Bullock’s roller coaster ride along with her team of other astronauts as they struggle to find their way out of the ‘zero’ gravity outer space.

There are no aliens or outer space creatures to help them; they are pretty much on their own. Seeing them finding their way out on 3D Imax is a real treat. The space comes alive, in all its glory, courtesy Emmanuel Lubezki's awe-inspiring cinematography.

A true psychological experience, critics feel that it is one movie audience must watch to fathom the creative dimension of cinema: it transcends the reality and transports the viewer in the world of outer space. The world where loneliness is terrifying and silence is threatening.

Andy Nicholson’s production design remove the element of time or physical location; all you have before you is just the space: vast, intimidating and all-encompassing. As Bullock and Clooney float around in the space outsmarting one trouble after another, Cuaron’s direction and the movie’s camera movements make us realize our inconsequential existence in the universe.

Do we have a probable Oscar nominee in Gravity?