Sunshine (2007)

Sunshine: Directed by Danny Boyle. With Cliff Curtis, Chipo Chung, Cillian Murphy, Michelle Yeoh. A team of international astronauts are sent on a dangerous mission to reignite the dying Sun with a nuclear fission bomb in 2057.

“Sunshine cost £20 million. Jerry Bruckheimer and his Hollywood cohorts must be shaking their heads in disbelief. Danny Boyle and Alex Garland, British born and bred, have outdone Americau0026#39;s effects laden finest, and at a mere fraction of the price. Armageddon ($140 million) and Pirates of The Caribbean 2 ($225 million) have nothing, nothing on the majestic visuals that Sunshine offers. From the jaw dropping opening sequence to the fantastically realised final moments, Boyleu0026#39;s latest is a mighty treat for the eyes. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eBut of course, effects do not make a film. You need only consider the two aforementioned Bruckheimer blowouts for proof. But happily, behind the blinding visuals, Sunshine has a violently beating heart. One that offers absolutely no let up, that gains speed and then gains a little more, before finally threatening cardiac arrest. You canu0026#39;t help but live and breath every moment of the crewu0026#39;s breathless existence. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe year is 2057 and a select group of astronauts are given that most trifling of tasks. The sun is dying. Drop a bomb in it. Save all of mankind. And to top it all, on a ship rather ominously named u0026#39;Icarus IIu0026#39;. Add inevitable inter crewmember tension and you have a rather heated situation. The sweaty crew are played wonderfully by a decidedly un-starry, but talented cast. Cilian Murphy, taking the lead role as the shipu0026#39;s resident physicist Cappa, the only member who has the wherewithal to actually drop the bomb, is coolly enigmatic as ever, the blue orbs of his eyes forming a nice counterpoint to the never far rather redder orb of the sun. You canu0026#39;t help but feel he isnu0026#39;t particularly challenged as an actor, but nevertheless he provides a suitably ambivalent, androgynous and faintly unsettling core to the proceedings. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003ePerhaps more impressive is Chris Evans. Recently seen in a similarly hot headed role in the undercooked comic book adaptation u0026#39;Fantastic Fouru0026#39;, he consistently snatches scenes from Murphy as engineer Mace, about as volatile and fiery as Cappa is composed and cool. Without Evanu0026#39;s energetic performance, the film would sink into an anti-libidinal quag. Maceu0026#39;s emotive instability injects pace when itu0026#39;s needed and brings some welcome variety to the otherwise glum faces. Evans is surely on the brink of big things. A small quibble would be that there are perhaps a few too many characters; meaning that a fair share of the cast never really gets a chance for development, which is irritating, as one gets the feeling that thereu0026#39;s a lot of wasted potential.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAnother chink in Sunshineu0026#39;s spacesuit, is in many places, Alex Garlandu0026#39;s screenplay. Whilst he has a remarkable talent for creating intense psychological tension, of which there is plenty in Sunshine, his philosophising is much less satisfactory. This is not to say he doesnu0026#39;t play with some fascinating ideas. With the crew circling so close to the Sun, to the giver of life, Garland begins ask the biggest of questions. Is there something, something inestimably greater than ourselves, something that could create such a magnificent star, or are we, like the sun, simply dust? Itu0026#39;s a great idea, but for the larger part of the film, it seems oddly shoehorned into what is at base a sci-fi pot-boiler. In fact these ideas are better expressed in Boyleu0026#39;s imagery. Time and time again we see members of the crew staring aghast at the immensity of the burning ball of gas and dust in front of them. The relationship between giver and taker is better explored here than in any line of Garlandu0026#39;s. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe structure of his screenplay is also a little unwieldy. The first hour and a half play as an intense psychological study – the pace at times painfully weighty as the tension is ratcheted up ever higher. The film works beautifully here – it may not introduce anything particularly new; claustrophobic stress is certainly nothing new in sci-fi, but it follows genre conventions with such panache and artistry that itu0026#39;s difficult to fault. However, come the final 20 minutes, Sunshine takes a rather abrupt and unwelcome turn. A pretty hammy (not to mention poorly explained) plot twist is ushered in and suddenly we find ourselves in a horror film – a clichéd one at that. To say much more would spoil things, but needless to say, had the filmmakers showed a little restraint in the closing moments, they would have had a real classic on their hands. When the film ditches pretensions, and sticks with the clammy, slow burn thrills it excels at, itu0026#39;s fantastic. When it descends into predictable melodrama, itu0026#39;s still alright, itu0026#39;s just disappointing considering what we know itu0026#39;s capable of. As such itu0026#39;s remarkably well shot, superbly rendered, occasionally poignant and occasionally flawed. Whatever the case, Sunshine is never far from entirely thrilling, and, all said and done, film recommendations donu0026#39;t come much higher than that.”