Sunshine

Directed by - Danny Boyle

Written by - Alex Garland

Year - 2007

Country - UK

Genre - Science Fiction

Cast - Cillian Murphy, Rose Byrne, Cliff Curtis, Chris Evans, Troy Garity, Hiroyuki Sanada, Mark Strong, Benedict Wong, Michelle Yeoh

I have a problem; I fall asleep while watching films that are set in space. I have fallen asleep 4 times watching 2001: A space Odyssey and pathetically, I fell asleep during a film society screening of Andrei Tarkovsky’s Solaris. Fortunately Sunshine grips its audience from the onset, Danny Boyle launches into this film at an unusual starting point, wasting no time with tedious background development, Sunshine starts with the crew of Icaruss II well on their way to the sun, where they are to deliver their payload, a nuclear bomb the size of Manhattan. This bomb is earth’s last chance to reinvigorate the dying sun, thus averting an impending Ice Age.

This is an ambitious film to make especially with Sunshine’s reportedly modest budget. The cast consists of 8 lesser known but excellent actors hailing from New Zealand, Japan, Malaysia, Australia, Ireland, Britain and America. New Zealander Cliff “Uncle Bully” Curtis gives a first-rate performance as Searle the ships medical officer. Searle becomes increasingly obsessed with the sun and in a couple of psychedelic scenes he even seems to be communicating with the dying star. Irish actor Cillian Murphy (Batman Returns, 28 Days Later) plays the lead protagonist and does an excellent job balancing the unhinged and heroic characteristics of the ships physicist Capa. Space movies provide an opportunity for production teams to get creatively expressive, as every set, prop and costume is made from scratch. The Sunshine team have done an incredible job with the stunning and believable interior and exteriors of Icarus II. The real draw card for this film is its intelligent storyline, which combines real sciences, thought provoking science fiction and explores how humans deal with extreme circumstances and what defines humanity.

The film is however not without its plot flaws and clich?©s, the fact that only Capa can arm the nuclear bomb seems a little short sighted and the story line certainly goes off the rails towards the end of the film although you could argue that this is an expression of the characters degrading psychological well being. Also the god like Artificial Intelligence seems all too familiar, as do the scary corridors and airlocks, which have been, used to death in other sci-fi thrillers in particular the alien series.

Boyle and Garland have teamed up previously with The Beach (the production of The beach is notorious for wrecking a beautiful Thai beach on which it was filmed) and for the disappointing zombie film 28 days later, but with this sci-fi, Boyle and Garland have creating a film which is laden with visually stunning imagery, excellent acting and is driven by a thought provoking script which will thrill and entertain a broad audience.

Address: