Gravity Gets Fact-Checked By Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson

Alfonso Cuaron’s Gravity has a spectacular weekend, posting an estimated $55 million to win the weekend box office and break some surprising records in the process. By most everyone’s accounts, it was a huge win for a brilliant movie. But not everyone was so easily impressed.

Noted astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, for example, caught Cuaron’s space-walk thriller and left with a few very specific complaints. Using the identifiable hash tag “Mysteries of #Gravity,” the scientist talked to his 1.4 million followers about the various issues he had with Cuaron’s film. It’s really hard to argue with just about everything that he brings up. I kind of feel bad that Tyson’s incredible wealth of knowledge took him out of the experience of Cuaron’s wild ride, but given his position, I totally understand. Here are a few of my favorite Tweets Tyson posted in response to Gravity:

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 6, 2013

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 6, 2013

Mysteries of #Gravity: Satellite communications were disrupted at 230 mi up, but communications satellites orbit 100x higher.

— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) October 6, 2013

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 6, 2013

Mysteries of #Gravity: Why Bullock, a medical Doctor, is servicing the Hubble Space Telescope.

— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) October 6, 2013

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 6, 2013

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 6, 2013

The film #Gravity should be renamed "Angular Momentum"

— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) October 6, 2013

Now, does that mean Tyson hated the film? Absolutely not. In fact, a Tweet he posted days earlier might have predicted how he’d respond to that question:

Just because you don't agree with something, doesn't mean that what you don't agree with is wrong.

— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) October 4, 2013

I’m trying to put myself in Tyson’s shoes. If Hollywood ever got around to making a movie about film criticism of entertainment journalism, I’m sure I’d take to Twitter and nitpick the hell out of it. Doesn’t mean I didn’t like it. In fact, if Charlie Kaufman ever gets around to completing Frank Or Francis, I just might get the chance. Until then, we can just sit back and enjoy Tyson’s informative, entertaining Twitter feed, which gives us yet another interesting way to look at Cuaron’s fantastic film.