Drooch

Garland described his script as a 'love letter' to the classics, particularly Alien, 2001 and Solaris. Sunshine may not spend as much time pondering but it still has plenty of worthy ideas, and with today's special effects is able to convince the modern moviegoer in a way the oldies, through no fault of their own, struggle to do. As a story, you would be hard pressed to find a more consistently tense, gripping ride.

As with the classics, the film uses outer space as a field in which to explore the human subconscious. In this case, a journey to re-ignite the dying sun becomes metaphor for a meeting with our creator. The sun is the source of life and totally ingrained into our very being, what happens when a team of astronauts and scientists get RIGHT UP CLOSE to it? How does the mind cope with such unimaginable power? Have they found God? Science and religion are forced to share a room, where no-one can hear you scream… The film will have you thinking long after the credits roll, and even if the subtler messages are lost on some audiences, the awesome visual rendering of the sun will emblazon itself on any brain. Never before has our burning star been portrayed with such hypnotic beauty; but Boyle also shows us the dark side of the sun – a savage entity, unkind to man. Sequences which combine this beatific majesty and blood-curdling horror are hard to forget. Special mention should go to John Murphy for his exceptional score in these moments.

The actors are completely convincing as the ship's crew, each character is revealed through the various crises that threaten their mission, some overcome their problems, others are destroyed by them. Chris Evans is particularly strong as the hot-headed but logical Mace who develops a grudging respect for Cillian Murphy's sensitive physicist Capa. Hiroyuki Sanada is also excellent as the ship's captain. The heated scientific and moral debates amongst the crew are some of the most effective scenes in the film, and contrast brilliantly with the dreamy visuals of the mostly dialogue-free final act.

The tension throughout the story is almost unbearable. Once Garland and Boyle setup the stakes – the very existence of mankind – they have us in the palm of their hand. The film wisely starts in media res, just as contact with Earth has been lost, and everything now hinges on this fragile crew in a flimsy ship. Everything that can go wrong does as the filmmakers cook up obstacle after obstacle, it should descend into farce but the credibility of the performances holds everything together, right up to the nail-biting climax, although you'll probably be up to your elbows by then.

Sunshine suffered at the box office due to poor marketing and a cinema-going audience increasingly consisting of Attention Deficit Disorder suffering apes, but I hope it becomes the DVD cult classic it deserves to be.