Chris
April 10th '07, 02:53 PM
Starring: Rose Byrne, Cliff Curtis, Chris Evans, Troy Garity, Cillian Murphy, Hiroyuki Sanada.
Director: Danny Boyle
Running Time: 107 Minutes
Certificate: UK-15, USA-R, IRE-15A.
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdiIxTVzUPU
Official Site: http://www.sunshinethemovie.co.uk/
Release Date: UK/IRE-Out Now, USA-14th September 2007
The Plot: Our Sun is dying. 8 astronauts are blasted into space, leaving a snow covered Earth, with the sole purpose of “re-igniting” the Sun with a very large nuclear bomb in the hope of creating a new star. Upon reaching the Sun, the Icarus II’s sensors pick up a faint distress signal from the Icarus I, the vessel that was originally supposed to re-ignite the Sun 6 and a half years previously, but mysteriously failed and was presumed lost. Deciding that 2 nuclear payloads gives them a better chance of success, the Icarus II crew board their stricken sister vessel…
What’s Good?: The special effects on this film are simply amazing to behold, it even eclipses (pun intended) ‘300’ in terms of visual prowess. The scene where Mercury passes across the Sun is beautiful to watch, and without going into too much detail about the finale, the climatic scenes are absolutely astounding, this is definitely a film to catch on the big screen. The film is consistently entertaining throughout, and the scenes where the Icarus II crew board the abandoned Icarus I are quite tense, with pictures of the original crew flashing very briefly on the screen to try and un-nerve you. Later on in the film an intruder is discovered, and in a similar way to which Ridley Scott kept the alien in the shadows throughout most of his film ‘Alien’, Danny Boyle does the same here with his intruder, creating a sense of mystery to who or what it is, while also using a neat blurring/heat haze effect so we can’t fully see it. Also, for a film that is so far fetched, it never seems to be “unbelievable”, and with the help of the relatively unknown cast members, the film seems fairly credible. On top of this there is also a very real sense of claustrophobia, particularly in the final act.
What’s Bad?: ‘Sunshine’ does borrow quite a lot of ideas from other sci-fi films like ‘Alien’ and ‘Event Horizon’, so if you are a hardcore sci-fi nut you may think it is fairly unoriginal, especially if you have actually seen ‘Event Horizon’. However, despite this obvious ripping off of other films ideas, it puts all the ideas together considerably well to create a fun and gripping film. The principal idea of the film is also extremely far fetched, but apparently there has never been a film set around the Sun, so at least that part is fairly original.
Conclusion: An entertaining and thrilling sci-fi movie. While it doesn’t have many ideas of its own, it pulls it all together to create one of the best sci-fi thrillers of the past few years. Highly enjoyable.
9/10
Trailer:
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Director: Danny Boyle
Running Time: 107 Minutes
Certificate: UK-15, USA-R, IRE-15A.
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdiIxTVzUPU
Official Site: http://www.sunshinethemovie.co.uk/
Release Date: UK/IRE-Out Now, USA-14th September 2007
The Plot: Our Sun is dying. 8 astronauts are blasted into space, leaving a snow covered Earth, with the sole purpose of “re-igniting” the Sun with a very large nuclear bomb in the hope of creating a new star. Upon reaching the Sun, the Icarus II’s sensors pick up a faint distress signal from the Icarus I, the vessel that was originally supposed to re-ignite the Sun 6 and a half years previously, but mysteriously failed and was presumed lost. Deciding that 2 nuclear payloads gives them a better chance of success, the Icarus II crew board their stricken sister vessel…
What’s Good?: The special effects on this film are simply amazing to behold, it even eclipses (pun intended) ‘300’ in terms of visual prowess. The scene where Mercury passes across the Sun is beautiful to watch, and without going into too much detail about the finale, the climatic scenes are absolutely astounding, this is definitely a film to catch on the big screen. The film is consistently entertaining throughout, and the scenes where the Icarus II crew board the abandoned Icarus I are quite tense, with pictures of the original crew flashing very briefly on the screen to try and un-nerve you. Later on in the film an intruder is discovered, and in a similar way to which Ridley Scott kept the alien in the shadows throughout most of his film ‘Alien’, Danny Boyle does the same here with his intruder, creating a sense of mystery to who or what it is, while also using a neat blurring/heat haze effect so we can’t fully see it. Also, for a film that is so far fetched, it never seems to be “unbelievable”, and with the help of the relatively unknown cast members, the film seems fairly credible. On top of this there is also a very real sense of claustrophobia, particularly in the final act.
What’s Bad?: ‘Sunshine’ does borrow quite a lot of ideas from other sci-fi films like ‘Alien’ and ‘Event Horizon’, so if you are a hardcore sci-fi nut you may think it is fairly unoriginal, especially if you have actually seen ‘Event Horizon’. However, despite this obvious ripping off of other films ideas, it puts all the ideas together considerably well to create a fun and gripping film. The principal idea of the film is also extremely far fetched, but apparently there has never been a film set around the Sun, so at least that part is fairly original.
Conclusion: An entertaining and thrilling sci-fi movie. While it doesn’t have many ideas of its own, it pulls it all together to create one of the best sci-fi thrillers of the past few years. Highly enjoyable.
9/10
Trailer:
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