Director Danny Boyle is the person behind some of the most memorable films of the past decade and a half. 'Trainspotting', '28 Days Later' and the Academy Award Winning 'Slumdog Millionaire' were all his creations.
'Sunshine' is one of his movies that slipped throughout the cracks. I hadn't heard about it until I saw someone mention it on Tumblr. It's a science fiction movie about a project called ICARUS II (the second such mission sent from Earth) that was sent to re-ignite Earth's dying sun. Already the idea intrigued me and from watching the trailer this looked like a very interesting film.
You know my favorite 'situation' in movies is when a group of people are sent on a mission to do something. Usually the mission is SO dangerous that there is a good chance that most, if not all of them will NOT be coming back. This looked like a really cool and fresh take on that well worn idea.
Rose Byrne, Cillian Murphy, Michelle Yeoh and new Captain America Chris Evans star is this tale. I have a feeling that this will be proven to be one of those movie that inexplicably was sent directly to video instead of getting a chance to compete at the multiplex. I always wonder how many other good films have I missed out because they get little or no promotion. The strength of the people involved should have garnered this picture at least SOME attention. 'Rotten Tomatoes' gave it a score of 74% - very respectable.
The film is visual gorgeous with scenes constantly bathed in this beautiful yellow glow of sunlight that only gets brighter as the crew gets closer to the sun - brighter and more dangerous. After all, what they are trying to do seemed impossible - use a stellar bomb that is the size of Manhattan to restart our star.
Along the way you are treated to such scenes of grandeur as a fly pass across Mercury and a tense spacewalk.
However, the story can also be emotional and intense as the crew battle each other in the midst of all the danger they face as the mission begins to fall apart. It's hard to get along with anyone you have been cooped up with for so long.
On board the ship there is a place called the 'Earth Room' that is a holodeck like device that gives the astronauts an total immersion experience into scenes from life on earth - waves, forests, gentle breezes on the the plains - to relax and focus the crew members. Alot of real scientific imagination went into this film. Things are in place to give the mission the best chance at success by maintaining the crew's mental and physical health for the entirety of their long mission. Fascinating with real world implications.
What you get here are dazzling visuals and a terrific, intelligent adventure. Great script and very good acting are a part of this true lost gem that you would be wise to seek out. I was very impressed and entertained.
8/10
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8 comments:
Excellent, excellent film. Here's where I blogged about it, back in 2009.
It's great to read good reviews and see that someone else thought the same thing about a movie that I did. I don't know why but it's satisfying to know I was right in my opinion about something. I am even sure there are people out ther who enjoy the 'Cats and Dogs' movies as much as I do - though I haven't found anyone who will admit that publically yet.
It might have been very pretty, but it had no brains: Alex Garland's party piece for creating drama is to have supposedly smart people do very, very dumb things that get them killed for no good reason. (Case in point: Why should the captain and the mission's one civilian-- the most important, if not, in fact, the most irreplaceable, members of the crew, be the ones making that dangerous repair to the shield? Why? Because the mission mechanic "volunteers" said physicist, and the captain stupidly plays along. Bollocks.) It might have been nice to look at, but the whole thing plays out like The Three Stooges-- In Space.
I'm hooked. This is going on the Netflix queue.
Sci-Fi disaster movie? Say no more.
I saw it in the theatre, bought the Blu-ray.
Sci wise WTF- with the ability to lift manhatan size mass into earth orbit (twice) and hurl it at the Sun. They should have just left for a new system, the had the tech and if the sun stopped shinning to begin with what might make you think you could just restart it, its like The Core, only better acted.
Fi- Love the end. Sydney looks good in snow.
If you want to make it a double bill then get 'Cargo' too. It's a science fiction movie from Germany about a spaceship with end of the world implications.
Not to get into a movie science arguement with you, Nomad but they could have built the ship in space. It took them years to get to the sun so we know that their propulsion system, while adcanced, is still not enough for trips outside our solar system. Certainly not to planets that are light years away. Earth wasn't destroyed. Just cold. With all of these movies it's better not to look at them too closely. With that being said I found that this movie worked harder to make the science more believable than most films do.
I've never even heard of this! But, now I want to see it.
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