Dvd
Sunshine
Starring Cillian Murphy, Michelle Yeoh, Cliff Curtis, Chris Evans, Rose Byrne
Directed by Danny Boyle ('Trainspotting', '28 Days Later', 'The Beach', 'Millions')
Written by Alex Garland
Science Fiction, Thriller | 1hr 47mins | Rated (M) | contains violence & offensive language | Origin: UK | Official Site »
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Flicks review
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50 years in the future and there’s a solar winter on earth, sun is dying. Crew sent on sun-bound spaceship with bomb to re-ignite her, that failed, second crew sent on second spaceship (the pessimistically named Icarus II), to remedy the situation. This is where we find ourselves at the beginning of Danny Boyle’s 'Sunshine'. First of all, it’s refreshing to not start with grown men weeping as they leave their girlfriends, no baby head kissing goodbyes, just begin on the damn ship. Good start.
4
The journey is fraught with peril, problems, perspiration and psychological stymieing. It can get pretty whack up there, I can tell you. Isolation and 'what is our point?'-type questions seem exasperated a billion miles or whatever from earth. As Icarus II gets closer, the film busies itself with the psychological impact, on the astronauts, of approaching the giver of life on earth.
Also refreshing is the international cast. A mix of accents from even NZ, there’s Cliff Curtis, rising Irish star Cillian Murhpy as the ship’s scientist, ship captain Hiroyuki Sanada (a stand out), also Michelle Yeoh & Aussie Rose Byrne.
Sunshine is a "sophisticated" sci-fi if you will – certainly more concerned with drama and existential questions than special effects (which are nonetheless, or perhaps because of this, spectacular). Wearing its inspiration on its sleeve, it’s very much more '2001: A Space Odyssey' and 'Solaris' and very much less 'Armageddon'-type rubbish.
Whilst it took me 20 minutes or so to get into the groove - where there’s a bit of exposition and hammyness - 'Sunshine's intensity wins you over. This is thanks to the films claustrophobia, Boyle’s skills in white-knuckled thrills & action, and it all being underpinned by grand sound design and a powerful, near perfect score by Underworld (whose music also features in Boyle’s 'Trainspotting' & 'The Beach').
If you’re going to see it, see at the cinemas to do it justice. I don’t even much like sci-fi films, but found 'Sunshine' a dizzying opus – at times frustrating in its ambiguity, but mesmerising to the end. It's also got awesome space suits.
[Reviewed by Ed]SHARE:
The people's reviews
9 reviews
Press Reviews
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BBC
3
A liaison with the ship of a previous mission that had mysteriously disappeared, tips events into a confusion of horror movie shocks and generally unexplained weirdness. The idea is to send you out perplexed, but chattering over possible solutions, but the salty authenticity that made it so rich is lost in space, and a superb sci-fi movie becomes merely a very decent one...
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Empire Magazine
4
Aside from a last minute blip this is knuckle-gnawingly tense, gloriously handsome action-horror...
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Guardian/Observer [UK]
4
Converting the nuclear sword into a ploughshare is not, however, as easy as that: and the movie also suggests a terrible and unalterable act of hubris in trying to augment the sun's fissile energy with a big bang of our own - or an unconscious, ambiguous kind of thanatos. Rather than endure a slow fadeout as the sun runs down, we will gamble on blowing it and everything else in the universe to kingdom come in one supremely risky act of helio-deicide. Superbly photographed by Alwin Kuchler and designed by Mark Tildesley, Sunshine is a thrilling and sensual spectacle....
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NZ Herald [Russell Baillie]
4
But it remains compelling thanks to the acting and being technically convincing to the end. And for all that abundant solar glare, it's at its brightest as it attempts to illuminate some very big ideas...
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TV3 [Kate Rodger]
3
Boyle builds relationships and tension swiftly and successfully. The film is visually very cool, the stunning sets coupled with very stylish CGI make this movie gorgeous to look at...
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