Sunshine [A New Film By Danny Boyle]

[Ghostboy]

This was pretty good, but the third act kinda goes haywire.

SPOILER

It would have been perfectly fine without the crazy captain turning it into a variation on Jason X meets Event Horizon. There was more than enough technologically based suspense already -- plenty of things that could go wrong. What about having the suicidal guy actually be the one responsible, instead of letting it be false herring? He could even have gone completely berserk, paralleling the captain on Icarus I. That would have been far more chilling than some silly and improbable monster. Also, I suspect the makeup looked really stupid, because I can't think of any other reason why the imagery got all trippy and opaque when he showed up.

That said, there's some pretty suspenseful stuff here. The first space walk gave me a mild case of vertigo.

[children with angels]

SPOILERS

I actually quite liked the crazy captain stuff at the end, partly because it totally took me by surprise generically for it to suddenly launch into that horror territory. I also like the overall point of that character being the ultimate antagonist, because it hammered home the point that this film is (despite all the comparisons and echoes) the anti-2001 in philosophical terms. In 2001 it is science and technology that is dangerous, and it is the search for some kind of higher, spiritual transcendence that is the saving grace for mankind. In Sunshine the search for God/ enlightenment proves fruitless, and in fact creates a mad religious-freak killer.

The film as a whole, though, wasn't good enough to deserve all the philosphical implications that it strived for, but they were there I think.

[SiliasRuby]

This worked on every level for me and I agree about the 2001 comparisons and contrasts. Actually a couple of times during the scenes of them in suspended space I really was enamored and happy. I was surprised because I didn't watych the trailer and I tried to stay away from most of the spoiler reviews and articles from here so I wasn't expecting anything and it turn it presented itself to me as something just plain wonderful. Definitely huge replay value. The theatre was packed with people.

[Gamblour.]

SPOILERS

I agree with Ghostboy. The thing with the captain....just plain dumb. He's not even fleshed out (no pun intended) into a dynamic metaphor or anything. Just a big, inexplicable creature. It's ironic that given how logical the film and its characters are, how realistic the science seems, that this character comes out of nowhere. And it felt way too much like Event Horizon and Sam Neill's character. --thanks P

However, I would compare the film to 2001 in regards to the special effects, which I thought were really amazing, to the point that I didn't notice them. And it's a fucking movie about being inside the sun, so that says something. They made than unimaginable obvious, and it was really great. Became a great grounding point, when everything else was going weird, the sun and the ships made sense.

[Pubrick]

sam neill.

[clerkguy23]

this was this worst movie ive seen in a long time. i dont know how anyone could find something positive in this movie, with the exception of some of the visual effects. the script and dialogue were horrbile/laughable and i would never compare it to 2001. huge let down.

[squints]

first of all. clerkguy is a retard.
second: if you haven't seen this yet and if you haven't watched any of the trailers or read any of the bullshit danny boyle has said about it.....for your sake please please don't, it will make the movie a million times better. the main reason to see this is because there hasn't been anything like this visually in the theaters since the fountain. did anyone else feel a fountain comparison at all? like:
spoiler
the scene at the end where he's facing the big wall of energy or whatever and he's all smiles and happiness like hugh jackman looking directly into the nebula

i was totally getting the whole event horizon feel and i hated the fact that the other captain looked like freddy krueger. The movie could've been just as suspenseful without that guy. i mean shit, the ultimate villain in the film is THE FUCKING SUN! and space and human emotion and everything else.

still: go see this. sit on the front row and damage your eyes. its fantastic.

[elpablo]

After watching this, my friend and I had a discussion about how Alex Garland seems to struggle with his third acts. Both 28 Days Later and Sunshine are really good up until the third act when they seem to fall apart trying to get across some big idea to the audience. Overall, I was disappointed by Sunshine. I enjoyed the action and the visuals, but I just wasn't buying the story.

[Pubrick]

After watching this, my friend and I had a discussion about how Alex Garland seems to struggle with his third acts.

danny boyle should get some of that credit/blame at least for choosing those kinds of projects. see: millions.

[ponceludon]

I saw the 2001 connection, and The Fountain connection (as far as visuals and color scheme) but I'm pretty surprised that nobody mentioned how it has the exact same story arc as Alien. It wasn't so obvious at first, but as soon as Freddie Krueger captain man jumped on board, it was JUST like Alien, and even in the way they joked about, "picking off the crew members one by one." I thought that it was stunning, and I enjoyed it, but it was just a little devoid of originality.

[clerkguy23]

first of all. clerkguy is a retard.

its nice to know that people aren't assholes on this board.

[squints]

first of all. clerkguy is a retard doesn't share the same opinion about Sunshine as I do.

[Kal]

I just saw this finally and it was great. SPOILERS

I kinda agree with a lot of the stuff said here, especially in the third act with the freak-super-captain. I thought there was so much that could happen other than a freak of nature, but it didnt bother me so much because everything else was great and the way it ended was pretty good too. After thinking about 2001 so much through the movie, I was happy that the ship didnt go crazy or anything like that.

The special effects were amazing and the level of tension during the whole movie, with the music and the background sounds, everything worked great. I tried not to see much footage about this or read articles and I was happily surprised during the film.

[Stefen]

This had potential to be an all time great, but as others have said, the third act just falls apart.

Spoilers.

The most interesting and entertaining thing about it was how the crew was dealing with the psychological effects of being on a space ship heading towards the fucking sun, struggling to get just one bare eyed glimpse at it. It got better and better the more the crew began to realize that not only were they never going to make it back to earth, but they may never be able to deliver the payload and complete their mission and save humanity. I wish they would have explored the dynamics of the mentality each crew member must have had. For example some felt like screw the rest of the world, I just want MYSELF to survive as long as possible, and others felt like their life meant nothing and they must finish the mission and save the sun AT ALL COSTS NECESSARY.

I liked when they found the distress signal from the Icarus 1 and decided to change their course and check it out. It gave the film a creepy feeling and it was nice to see some of the more cocky crew members be humbled by what had happened to the crew of the Icarus 1. The shot fo the crew members burned in place holding eachother while staring at the sun was both eerie and beautiful.

All the problems that kept arising just kept adding to the suspense of the movie. I couldn't look away.

Then that third fucking act kicks in with the unidentidied crew member on the ship using up all the oxygen and it just turned into a fucking joke at that point. This stoweaway has super human strength as a result of getting burned in the sun? Gimme a fucking break.

Overall, probably the best first 1 hour and 10 minutes of a movie all year, and probably the worst half hour of a movie of all time.

Did anyone else get a Cunningham vibe from some of the shots and interiors? The solar flares really reminded me of something Cunningham would do.

All in all, this sort of genre (contemporary sci-fi) is probably my favorite genre in all of movies. I may be the only person on the site to have both A.I and Soderberghs Solaris remake as some of my favorite films of this decade. Throw in Children Of Men and this is definetely my favorite (sub) genre in film.

[Redlum]

I finally saw this and was really impressed. I suppose I came to it with low expectations having been put-off slightly by the trailer and third-act rumours.

I thought it was great to have a film like this where for the second half the crew are knowingly fighting their way through to their death. Unlike, say, Alien where its pure survival.

I didn't get the impression that this went off on a philosophical tangent, the science was far more interesting (which is why I'm looking forward to listening to the commentary from the technical advisor). Any earthly pondering was in the back of our, and their minds; for them as a matter of necessity. When they have to deal with the issue of self-sacrifice they're almost all pragmatic about it.

...so then the last third. I'm trying not to give the Icarus 1 captain more of my imagination than is necessary in order to preserve the integrity of rest of the film.... For a start, the visual disturbance surrounding him was simply to indicate how destroyed his vision must have been, right? We'd already established he could survive on Icarus 1 and the ship must have been sterile. He was clearly insane. I'm avoiding calling him as some kind of monster in fact my first reaction to him was Kurtz.