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Sunshine (2007)
Director: Danny Boyle
Synopsis
Fifty years in the future, a pack of sexy astronauts (including Cillian Murphy, Rose Byrne, Michelle Yeoh and Chris Evans) undertake a mission to save the human race by using a bomb to reignite a dying star. Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland (The Beach) last collaborated on 28 Days Later…, so you can expect matters to be complicated by a few things that go bump in the night.
Movie review
From Time Out New York
From the moment an expository voiceover—our sun is dying in the not-so-distant future, a crew of astronauts must reignite it with a megaton bomb—concludes with a fiery orb morphing into a giant eye, Danny Boyle’s blast into the void lays its ancestry bare. This is your father’s science fiction, or at least an interstellar-overdrive throwback to the era when Asimov trumped Alien. The latter is referenced as well, but Sunshine’s touchstones are the stalwarts of star-child head-trippery: 2001, Tarkovsky’s Solaris, every other ’70s prog-rock album cover. There’s even a computer with a clipped monotone that goes rogue once “the mission” is jeopardized, leaving the multiculti crew—some of whom apparently took graduate courses at the Keir Dullea School of Acting—scrambling to save their hides.
The danger in channeling those halcyon days when outer space meant inner journeys is that you risk burping up well-meaning cosmic slop like The Fountain. Thankfully, Boyle’s movie avoids getting crushed by its own weighty intellectual ambitions; Sunshine’s best scenes, both of which involve characters embracing the divine ecstasy of oblivion, balance cerebral leanings with expert shocks to the nervous system. But then comes the third act, and the film suddenly drops the transcendental yearning. Who needs metaphysical angst when you can just drag in a megalomaniacal deus ex machina? The decision to switch gears into stalker-flick territory betrays Boyle’s lack of faith in his material and his audience; what starts out as an exploration of the unknown degenerates into a galactic gasbag of cheap thrills.
Author: David Fear
Time Out New York Issue 616: July 19–25, 2007
User reviews of this film
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- panop said...
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Posted on Apr 05 2008 01:54
This story could have been much much much much better with out the psychopathic killer at the end. Heck, besides the third act, the movie reminded me of Apollo 13, where everyone comes together to solve a huge problem.
Furthermore, there are some glaring factual errors. First, when bodies are thrown into space without a pressurized suit on, their internal body pressure hits 0, and the body explodes. This would happen much faster than the time it would take for the body to freeze over, even in sub-freezing temperatures. Second, any star, as it dies, becomes a red giant. It wouldn't be the small dot in the sky; it would have swallowed up both mercury and Venus. Furthermore, earth would be far too hot to live on at this point. Finally, a satellite that is in total blackout cannot control its movement. In other words, the satellite would eventually turn to the point where the sun's light would avoid the shield and burn everyone up inside.
One last note, just how was the person from the other ship able to survive 7 years alone and suffering from overexposure to the sun? - Report as inappropriate
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- carl said...
- Posted on Jan 27 2008 03:29 Have to agree about the megalomaniacal deus ex machina. It was a decent movie until that point. But had I seen this in a theater I would've walked out.
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- Edward Timmerick said...
- Posted on Oct 15 2007 10:19 I can only disagree with 'Pawel Adameks' review. I was quite pleased to see less bike riding apes and flesh eating dinosaurs than in the film 'Bambi'. Hence concluding, Pawel Adamek can suck my cockeril
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- pawel adamek said...
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Posted on Oct 15 2007 10:03
I felt the movie lacked a significant amount of bike riding apes, let alone flesh eating dinosaurs. Also, I question the scientific content of this film, as I am certain the sun is actually quite cold.
Thank you for your time
Love Pav - Report as inappropriate
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- Cruzer said...
- Posted on Jul 24 2007 20:12 This film requires a huge suspension of disbelief, but what sci-fi nail-biter doesn't? SUNSHINE is incredibly well acted and captivating, at times excruciatingly tense. Although there is plenty for the special-effects crowd, SUNSHINE is more than a theme park ride. I luv Danny Boyle, even when he's not perfect.
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Cast & crew
Director: Danny Boyle
Producer: Andrew Macdonald
Cast: Cillian Murphy, Chris Evans, Rose Byrne, Cliff Curtis, Troy Garity, Hiroyuki Sanada, Benedict Wong, Michelle Yeoh full cast
Genre(s): Science Fiction, Thrillers
Rated: R
Duration: 107 mins
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