The One where I review "Sunshine"
in molten wire, movies, review, sunshine on Thursday, September 30, 2010
Good evening. As I stated in my first post a while ago I'll also be having some posts about movies or tv series and after a long movienight with some friends I thought it'd be a good idea to have a movie spotlight from time to time.
And so here we are, my first movie spotlight will be featuring Boyle's Sunshine ( imdb ). Now I know you might be thinking "wait a minute, that's from three years ago. I already know that." Yeah, well, there are however people out there who might not have seen it on the cinema or elsewhere. Even if, maybe this will spark some discussion, which of course, is always welcome in the comment section of this post. If you agree, let me know, if you disagree and want to call me a douche, you may do so as well. Enough with the babbling now.
It is the year 2057, seven years after humanity first sent out a mission to the sun in the hopes of rekindling it as the sun is slowly losing it's power. As one might expect a weaker sun will ultimately result in the death of all lifeforms on Earth. After an apparent failure of the first crew, a new one is sent to the sun on board the Icarus II (clever name eh). The movie starts sixteen months into their journey, a mere thirtysix million miles away from their goal. We meet the eight daring astronauts, all more or less specialists at certain tasks needed to complete this mission. Interestingly enough, half the crew consists of Asians and we see everyone eating with chopsticks. A hint at the future?
Back to the review... Once the Icarus enters the dead zone, the zone in which no more communication is possible with Earth and the space station near the moon, we start to realize the "down-to-earth" aspect of the movie. It's all quite plausible and given the scenario, believable.
Slowly problems arise. Communications are down already and now the hull of the ship, protecting them from the sun's full force, is damaged. Boyle is pushing us back into our chairs and he keeps us interested with ease as the story progresses. To make matters worse, the oxygen producing biodome was destroyed by accident and it is revealed that there will not be enough oxygen for everyone to reach the target destination alive, let alone return to their homes.
It's all good and entertaining to watch until the Icarus II discovers the remains of the first Icarus and decides to check it out, since it might still have a fully intact payload. And "two chances are better than one", as they say in the movie.
However, this is the turning point in Sunshine for me. Briefly after entry into the first Icarus Boyle seems to have forgotten what kind of movie he wanted to create here. It's bizarre to see Sunshine become a scifi with horror and thriller elements in it, even featuring characters that seemed to have wandered off from the set of 28 days later and forgotten their way back. The science based approach goes haywire as the movie implodes and quite frankly, destroys itself with ridiculous elements being thrown into the pot. Even so, the movie did deliver with the first two acts. It's a shame Boyle and Garland did not manage to give the movie the last act it would deserve to have.
Rating and conclusion
5/10
Like an imploding star, Sunshine does shine brightly in the beginning, but ultimately, it implodes into a horrible dramatic black hole. 
# by BLUERAD - September 30, 2010 at 5:32 PM
Like your review, very detailed, and also liking the layout of your blog. Good job!
# by Lizard - September 30, 2010 at 5:51 PM
i actually really liked this movie. plus the score is beautiful. the ending scene could have been better.
# by LifeHacks - September 30, 2010 at 6:06 PM
I liked this movie....I thought the score was amazing.
# by firemn - September 30, 2010 at 6:09 PM
I guess I better go watch it and see what it's all about
# by AnbuJustin - September 30, 2010 at 8:11 PM
man i know exactly what you mean when they encounter the first icarus. the movie was like wtf is going on here do you what your doing? It was a cool concept though.Also I agree with what ppl are saying. The blog layout looks very nice.
you should watch that one scary movie with laurence fishburn in space too. event horizon OMFG
# by Unknown - September 30, 2010 at 9:55 PM
I've seen most of this movie, but I do agree. It did get kind of out of hand in the last half.
# by McRohanheim - October 1, 2010 at 5:36 AM
Another movie I avoided due to the plot of the movie. The sun is dying. We need to send a crew over there and install 2 new AA batteries. Maybe I'm being a bit too harsh on the movie :)
# by Sean - October 1, 2010 at 8:42 AM
@LifeHacks
Yeah, I didn't talk about the score. No complaints there from me either.
@McRohanheim
Well I agree, if you want to have the movie in a really serious, believable setting by today's knowledge you'd have to do have an even stronger sun, as the sun is nowhere near losing its power for a long time.
I guess it doesn't really matter. Even though the ultimate goal is to give the sun more power, I feel like the important part Boyle wants to show us is the actual journey.
# by Slumph - October 1, 2010 at 9:04 AM
Good read, hope your day is going well.
# by Deadslip - October 1, 2010 at 10:05 AM
Good movie, though the end felt rushed compared to the pacing of the rest of the film.
# by McRohanheim - October 1, 2010 at 10:26 AM
@Sean
Good point. I'll watch the movie tonight without thinking of it as SciFi. It sounds as though the movie is similar to Apollo 13.
# by crankdesert - October 1, 2010 at 1:37 PM
u are right sunshine is really disapointing
# by couragewolf2 - October 1, 2010 at 1:50 PM
Very good blog, congratz!
# by Andu - October 2, 2010 at 2:04 AM
You made me want to watch this now. Thanks.
>.> It's not like I have time for pretty much anything right now, so much to do..
# by Slumph - October 2, 2010 at 8:34 AM
not a bad review, another one in the works? =D
Pretty nice post, you should check out my chill music post on my music blog.
# by max - October 2, 2010 at 11:12 AM
nice very detailed reviev :)
# by River - October 2, 2010 at 11:28 AM
Dunno if I agree entirely with your review, I loved this movie and oh my god the music is beautiful
# by juancarlitosx - October 2, 2010 at 11:44 AM
great review, very nice and detailed. I wouldn't even have given it a 5/10 haha :P