My first thought after exiting the theater was that I have to see this movie again. In a Cinema, in 3D.
The Visuals, as John put it, were truly breathtaking. And the way they told the story, both visually and plot-wise was stunning. For instance, how they transitioned into first person shots in the middle of a scene and just kept it going afterwards was really nice. The fact that you don't get your typical Hollywood cinematography with a new shot every few seconds really felt natural in a space movie like this.
The way played with sounds, or rather the lack thereof, was also really sweet. Watching an entire space station be torn apart in the background (with the most beautiful CGI I must add) and not hear a sound from it really made it feel even bigger. It's like it's such a big event that our brains cannot comprehend what we're seeing, so adding large explosion sounds in the background would just be dumbing it down and making it feel cheap. This way they let you imagine what it would be like rather than straight-out telling you something big is happening.
I kinda agree with what you said about the language used, and also Chris Hadfield had taught me that tears wouldn't behave the way they did when Ryan was crying in the Soyuz module (
see here). But hell, it's a movie. Even Apollo 13 got many things wrong, and I don't hold that against them.
Really nice movie. Watch in in a theater.