Sunshine

[darkelastic]

Sunshine was Directed by Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, 28 Days Later, etc.) so I was expecting a good film, especially with the good reviews it had received. I wasn't disappointed. Boyle seems to be able to make films of varying genres and pull it off. The film had a good cast, was well shot and looked beautiful (sets and CGI). The thing with Boyle's films, normally, is that they change direction in the last quarter - this film is the same. But, this is not a bad thing as the character's situation becomes dire.
Sunshine had traits of two other great Sci-Fi films - 2001 and Event Horizon. That is very high praise as I love those two films.

www.imdb.com/title/tt0448134/

[richardburton]

Yeah I'm looking forward to seeing this one - thanks for the review.

[richardburton]

Managed to see this at the weekend and I wasn't disappointed.

In a nutshell, a team of eight astronauts are sent to re-ignite the dying sun 50 years into the future basically strapped to the back of an immense bomb. There's is the second mission as the first failed and all contact was lost with them.

Danny Boyle manages to create tension and grittiness from the start and continuously builds it up throughout the film. Cillian Murphy is on form as the physicist forced to make a decision that throws the entire crew into serious trouble. Chris Evans (Johnny Storm in F4) is excellent as the black and white no nonsense hero that is shown at times as ultimately heroic and at other times cold and calculating.

The basic premis is not particularly new, but this is an excellent take on it with spectacular special effects and solid characters and performances. It all feels very real in an Alien sort of way.

Well recommended.

[mrgrotey]

Have either of you two seen 'The Core'? this seems a very similar film to me, where they tunnel down to restart the spinning the Earth's Core,

The person who came up with that one went past 'crazy ideas',
bypassed 'completely unbelievable plots',
overtook 'simply ridiculous storylines'
and didnt even stop to look at '......your kidding right?'
he then went on for a few thousand miles to come up with his 'The Core' story,

How would you rate Sunshine over The Core? The Core was an abomination of a film and because of that fact I don really want to see Sunshine. Would you say The Core was good? because if you do then I think ill steer clear of Sunshine

[richardburton]

The Core is total far-fetched nonsense in comparison to Sunshine. Sunshine is as gritty and realistic as you can get with a sci-fi. Almost as good as my all time favourite film, Alien. The only thing they have in common is the basic premise of saving the world. Sunshine is in a different league.

[Scifishocks]

The only thing that stretched it a bit was one character that cropped who I won't mention in case I spoil it.
For those who have seen it, let's just call him 'Mr Crispy'.
I thought it was a good mix though, in general feel, of 'Alien' and 'Event Horizon'.

[FALLINGSTAR]

I haven't seen it yet - but if films like this can be made in this country why can't someone do a decent WOTW?

[David Faltskog]

Excellent movie

I,d give it 9/10 on the D.F. scale.

D.F.

[thedonal]

I just watched this today. It has so much going for it- great cast and performances. It looks AMAZING. The atmosphere is tense and very scary in places. There's also an awful lot of beauty in the film.

Alien was very much what I compared it too- the grittiness and realism of the ship, Also, I guess Event Horizon has some similarities, but didn't strike me as a particular reference, but I was put in mind of The Black Hole when I watched this- not sure exactly why- perhaps big ship on the verge of destruction with many pyschological issues running about the second half of the movie- it just rang some bells in that way. Almost, what The Black Hole could have been (without the silly robots)

The music is also fantastic and adds much atmosphere to the film, Stylistically, the music and feel of the film is very much of a similar style to the remake of Solaris- very stylish indeed, but Sunshine has the edge.

[Scifishocks]

Many influences seem to be there... and still it works.
Always good!

[nervouspete]

I actually really enjoyed The Core. The plot was stupid, true. ("Oh no, the Golden Gate Bridge is melting! Best stay in our cars! Oh no! Now we're tumbling into water! *ARGLE BARGLE!*") But what gave The Core the edge over other disaster movies was a funny tongue in cheak script (the metal they make the ship out of is called 'unobtanium' for crying out loud) and very likable characters. That goes a long way in my book. Plus it was good ol' fashioned 'being knocked off one by one' fun.

Anyway, Sunshine is better by a ways and more plausible (though still a bit bonkers), but I still love The Core. My only annoyances with Sunshine are the plot holes that could easily be fixed with one extra line of script. For example all that oxygen in the massive payload shell. Gngh. Still loved it for the J G Ballardesque fragmenting of time and perception at the end.

[RustiSwordz]

I liked the Core if only because they knew they were taking the royal p*ss.

[RustiSwordz]

I'm finally watching sunshine, the opening is awesome with the Icarus ship. Very Alien like in its production design i like it...so far.

[RustiSwordz]

Well what can i say. brilliant movie until they docked with Iarus 1 then it went downhill from there rapidly. I wanted someone of the Icarus 2 to flip out and start slicing ip the crew not that they find on Icarus 1. Didnt do it for me really.

first 2/3rds of the film 8/10 last third 4/10.