Sunshine

 SUNSHINE

Director : Danny Boyle
Year : 2007
Genre : Science Fiction
Rating : **1/2



With films such as 'Trainspotting', 'Shallow Grave', 'Slumdog Millionaire' and '127 Hours', Danny Boyle has continuously proven himself to be one of the most prolific and successful British directors of our time. He has explored almost every genre and with every movie, Boyle has invigorated them with a new lease of life, encouraging others to follow in his footsteps. However, while I love most of Danny Boyle's filmography, I am not a fan of 'Sunshine' in any way shape or form. It is heavily predictable, tediously slow and there are no stand - out performances, all leading to his worst movie to date. This really is depressing to me as this was possibly the Boyle movie that I was most looking forward to seeing.

'Sunshine' takes place in 2057. The sun is dying and a small group of scientists are sent into deep space to drop an atomic bomb the size of New York City on the star, reigniting it and saving the Earth from total annihilation. The craft is called Icarus II, named after the famed Greek who tried to fly with wax wings, but failed due to the heat of the sun melting them causing him to plummet into the sea and drown. The ensemble cast includes Cillian Murphy (with whom Boyle worked with on '28 Days Later'), Michelle Yeoh, Chris Evans, Rose Byrne and Cliff Curtis. Unusually for a Boyle movie which are well known for having great character developments, 'Sunshine' has no stand out performances or memorable characters. With such brilliant character actors like Murphy, Yeoh and Evans, I would have thought that the scriptwriter Alex Garland would have written more memorable lines, relatable characters and better narrative arcs so that we as the audience could identify with at least one person in the film. Instead the characters are lost under unbelievable plot contrivances and the underlying subtext of the film, which in itself is lost under terribly slow pacing and very little actual plot development. The moments 'Sunshine' works best are when the characters have to deal with the magnitude with the situation at hand, the pressures of being left to save the entire planet on their own and the potential consequences if they don't. When this plight is explored, 'Sunshine' becomes a fantastic exploration in the massive will to survive, what it is to be a human and how far will a person go to protect themselves.

All science fiction movies have a great deal of subtext under the surface of both the script and the situtation at hand. 'Sunshine' does have a subtext as mentioned above, but it is mostly lost in a stupid plot development which really turns the movie from a gripping but insightful study into the human condition into a predictable thriller in which a number of the crew are one by one picked off by an unknown assailant. Added to this is very annoying post production effects which instead of coming across as threatening, unnnerving or tension filled come across as lazy editing, boring and very quickly makes you lose interest in the entire movie. Both my wife and I were getting slowly more agitated with the quick cut editing, shaky cam and unnessessary subliminal images which blurred the action and really forced us to piece the movie together from random images scattered across our screen. The motivation behind the killers reasoning is never explained and the way the antagonist is portrayed is distractingly silly and destroys all credibility the movie has previously had.

While 'Sunshine' is full of problems, the special effects are incredible and the images of the sun burning at thousands of degrees right in front of our eyes really were awe inspiring, if not a little blinding. The designs of the space craft were also well done and clearly owed a debt to Stanley Kubrick's '2001 : A Space Odyssey', with long white corridors, vast empty cavernous tunnels and especially one scene in which a number of characters are propelled into an air lock. However, while both the set designs and special effects are first rate, 'Sunshine' still doesn't add up to much more than a tedious, slow and painfully conventional science fiction film which doesn't add anything new to the genre and in which the main interesting bud of an idea is lost under a very silly 'Alien'esque plot development and lazy characterisation.

If you are a fan of science fiction movies or the filmography of Danny Boyle, I can't imagine that 'Sunshine' will rank high. If you are after intelligent but riveting sci-fi, I recommend Duncan Jones' 'Moon' which also explores the human condition in a much more entertaining and revealing way. However, if you are entranced by amazing special effects, then try 'Sunshine'. Just don't expect much else in terms of plot or characters, you will be heavily disappointed.