Sunshine

Danny Boyle has rebooted the sci-fi genre to a magnificent start. "Sunshine", clearly inspired by the classics "Alien", "2001: A Space Odyssey" and many more, but brought to the modern age.

The plot sounds ridiculous at first, but once you get into it, you really get into it! A crew of 8 are sent on a mission to set a bomb in the sun as it is dying and the earth is suffering a solar winter. 7 years before that there was a similar mission, but that failed. They find the lost spacecraft and decide to board it, but a fatal incident occurred that lost them their oxygen supply. There is no longer enough for all of them to get back to earth alive. But there is enough for few; so who will take the plunge and who will survive? And will their sanities stay intact to last them the epic journey?

With such a small cast there was surprisingly no weak performances. Everyone had the desired screen-time to be able to care for them. But the characters anger and frustration caught up with them after being on the ship for 16 months, they begin to take acts of violence on each other and feel stressed so they forget vital aspects that could cost them their lives. You have to remember that they will save mankind if their mission is a success; that's a lot of pressure. And the film feels like a lot of pressure due to the intenseness it creates.

Boyle's skills to create tension is impressive. He uses special techniques to make us feel claustrophobic and more importantly, to panic. Close ups, angles, blurs, stretches, stops, flashes all add up to the effect. The effect of feeling the heat. It burns. But in between those scenes you get to see the relaxing side of space. The view from outside. Its beautiful, truly dazzling and spectacular.

The score is incredible. During the beginning its like a calm 'breather'. But then its turns into a beat. A fast beat. And your heart joins it. Pumping away to make you feel more insecure. Very intense.

Boyle really proves he has talent for different genres in this modern sci-fi to be classic showing how people do the most inhumane thing to survive. I highly recommend it.

Rewatches over the years have revealed its flaws and clichés but it's still enjoyable and nostalgic for me.

8/10

A brilliant movie for so many reasons (my gf had an entirely different take on this but I loved the discussion it opened, which eventually brought me here). The kind of cast who each can shine in their own right, visuals that would still be considered top notch a decade and a half later, a goosebump inducing sound/music score and a concept that is thought provoking and shines a light to so many aspects of humanity. To some a slightly shaky 3rd act and while it does feel like someone else took the reigns for 20mins or so of its direction, it's brought together in a stunning finale. The overwhelming enormity of space vs humanity's drive to dictate our destiny and the spectrum of characters earth entrusts to save the planet play together in a beautiful, bleak way. If a film can have me still thinking about concepts, faith and morality after and the score genuinely have an emotional impact, as a director I could say I've done a job well done.

I loved Danny Boyle's "Shallow Grave" I thought there was a Polanskian, Hitchcockian, Chabrolian creature trying to come out. I was wrong - it happens more often than not - but Danny is moving away from me or I from him, in any case we're like strangers now. What made me love "Shallow Grave" were the characters and the way he introduced them to us. I felt involved, totally involved. In "Sunshine" the detachment was such that I couldn't even follow. Impressive, virtuoso film-making to be sure but cold an impersonal. I could watch Cillian Murphy's face for hours without getting bored but I got bored looking at his face because I didn't have a clue who he was and after a while, I didn't care. Mr Boyle, go back to graves, human graves, earth graves, please, do it for me.

It's 50 years in the future. Eight astronauts on Icarus II are sent to restart the Sun as it begins to die. Icarus I was lost seven years ago for unknown reasons. Communications Officer Harvey (Troy Garity) finds a distress call from Icarus I. Psychiatrist Searle (Cliff Curtis) recommends to rendezvous despite engineer Mace (Chris Evans)'s objection for the extra bomb. Physicist Capa (Cillian Murphy) reluctantly agrees. Navigator Trey (Benedict Wong) miscalculates the new trajectory and Captain Kaneda (Hiroyuki Sanada) is killed. Trey goes crazy and is sedated. They board Icarus I leaving pilot Cassie (Rose Byrne) and botanist Corazon (Michelle Yeoh) on Icarus II.

Director Danny Boyle uses the sun as a visual effect and it's amazing. The look of it is beautiful and industrial. The cast is intriguing. The movie is reminiscent of Alien and then it tries to follow it into slasher horror. That may have been a mistake. I'm more concerned about the confused nature of the last act. However I just love the look and feel of this world.

I was very lucky being able to get into a preview of this movie today in Vienna. I only knew very little about it in advance, so my expectations were quite neutral.

One word of advice: this movie is not for nitpickers or physicist. The plot outline (i.e. detonating a "stellar bomb" inside the sun) sounds ludicrous at first - but if you're able to ignore this and some other scientific nonsense, you get one great movie.

This one is all about the details and the crew's behavior. Danny Boyle once again proves his insight into the human psyche as he portraits how the crew-members handle the various arising problems, some of the decision-making is displayed frighteningly realistic compared to other movies in the genre. Cillian Murphy (brilliant as ever) and Chris Evans (hated him in Fantastic 4, but showed a great performance here) pair up very nicely during most many scenes.

The entire movie has a certain feel to it, the atmosphere is very tense and Boyle manages to keep the pace at quite a high level the entire time. Visual FX are at a high level as well.

Apparently Sunshine can't deny the influences from 2001 or Event Horizon, nevertheless it should be treated as an independent film.

A few deductions for some glitches and the scientific stuff, otherwise great entertainment!