Film Review: Sunshine

Director: Danny Boyle

Sunshine came after a 3 year hiatus from film-making for Danny Boyle, it was released in 2007 and featured an impressive cast including Cillian Murphy, Chris Evans and Rose Byrne to name just three. Like many films in the sci-fi genre it is set in the future with the fate of humankind hanging in the balance of one space mission. It's a film that draws much of its inspiration from 2001: A Space Odyssey and this is none more apparent than in the cinematography, the shots of the crews faces when looking at the sun with the bright light on them was popularized from Kubrick's work. But in fairness there are much worse films to aspire to be in this genre, the final act seemed more like an ode to the Alien franchise.

The crew of the Icarus II are hoping to deliver a huge payload into the sun to stop it from slowly burning out (which wouldn't happen in reality) and on their mission towards the sun end up receiving a distress signal from the Icarus I that lost communication with Earth once they past Mercury. The crew try to decide whether to investigate the lost ship or continue on their own mission to save the Earth from freezing with no sun to warm it.

The epic sun

The visuals within the film are stunning and the sun itself is a huge part of the film, not just an inherent danger that sits in the background. It is constantly a presence throughout the film and takes on its own characteristics which is an impressive feat when watching the movie. There are quite a few tense scenes in the early parts of the movie that help to build a sense of dread over the mission but a lot of this is lost by the final part of the movie. Many of the plot devices about the Captain only knowing the true mission and the malfunctions of the ships computer causing injury and death to the crew are recycled from previous sci-fi flicks but still used to decent effect here.

The final act of the film was where my intrigue piqued and saw me sorely let down by the decision to ditch the tension with it being replaced by a slasher movie. Another example of the world of film dumbing down its content to appease what it believes people want, I real shame in this case and certainly made me look back unfavorably on what I had witnessed before only for it to lead to this. The ending then becomes quite predictable and then house of cards that was slowly being built for the first hour comes crashing down to a disappointing ending.

2/4 Beautifully shot but well worn plot and final twist was a bad move