I finally watched it last night. I imagine the experience would be much different in a theater with a large screen, dark room, and full surround sound. I thought it was intense and suspenseful for moments, no doubt, but I found myself overall unfulfilled when it was over. There wasn't anything at any time that had me thinking "how did they do that?" That's not to say that I know how they did it - just nothing caught me off guard and left me in wonder. I got the impression from what I'd heard that the physics and "no sound in space" were done well, but...only kind of, IMO. As Gene said, more realistic than the latest Star Trek, sure...but Star Trek is more realistic than a cartoon, so "more realistic" only says so much.
Granted, it wouldn't have been as popular if they actually left it silent a lot instead of playing music through a lot of what should have been silence. Had I heard that it wasn't all that realistic but was a pretty cool movie with some great scenery, then I'd have had different expectations.
The only thing I didn't like about it really was that it went back and forth and back and forth too much.
Out of Context Man snickers.