The new large-format IMAX production Space Station opens with a breathtaking view of outer space, an image as dreamily abstract and poetic as anything in the works of Stanley Kubrick and Andrei Tarkovsky.

The movie has some awkward, square passages, narration by Tom Cruise that is frequently too obvious and a top-40 soundtrack that deprives the imagery of its physical wonder. Fortunately, the movie, directed and edited by Toni Meyers, has some ecstatically beautiful moments  reveries about space, time and movement that are spellbinding.

This is a pretty straightforward documentary recounting the construction of the International Space Station (ISS). The two expedition crews themselves, separate teams of two American astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut, produced the most thrilling, visually exciting material, shooting in the interiors of the station that is orbiting 220 miles above the Earth.

At its best, Space Station captures the point of view of the space travelers, conveying a sense of awesome mystery and unlimited possibility. The crews engage in difficult, rigorous work that requires both mental and physical dexterity, but there is something elegantly beautiful about the weightlessness of their operation. Working at zero gravity, the ISS crews literally float through space, endowed with special grace that yields an outsized sense of wonder.

The large format only intensifies the emotion and sensation of the experience. There are some beautiful moments on the ground as well, during the two amazingly detailed launches of the respective operations that carry materials and supplies to the space station. But the films greatest moments take place in space. There, words are unnecessary, the images transfixing.