I fear Danny Boyle has fallen into the “we’ll fix that in the DVD extras” trap in a big, big way. There are two pieces of vital information that are ABSOLUTELY NOT COMMUNICATED in the movie itself and are pretty damned important to establishing any kind of believability or coherence.

1. The film is set only 50 or so years into the future, and
2. The sun is failing not because it’s at the end of its natural life cycle but because a cloud of exotic matter has drifted into its core and is interfering with its fusion cycle.

The only way to learn of these two premises, however, is to watch the DVD and listen to either of the commentary tracks!!! BOOO!

Without these two facts up front, the premise of the film is slightly ridiculous. The sun will reach the end of its natural life cycle in something like 5 billion years by current estimates (including that of Bryan Cox, the astrophysicist from CERN who consulted on the film). But of course the characters, technology, etc. depicted in this film are more or less identical to our 21st century levels of development. Hard to swallow.

That aside, however, yes, this is a gorgeous piece of filmmaking, total eye candy in almost every shot. It’s also a very ambitious film; Dr. Cox claims and I think I have to agree that no film has ever really been made about the sun. The film also makes a good stab at tackling what it would be like on a personal/philosophical level to confront the sun in this fashion, from close up, from the point of view of preparing to tinker with it to save the solar system. Doyle and writer Alex Garland did not shy away from confronting this stuff, though I couldn’t quite buy the notion that seven years’ exposure to it would turn a person into a fundamentalist hater who wants to send us all to heaven.

So it’s worth taking in for the imagery and some of the ideas, but it’s narratively deeply flawed.

Turn it off after 90 minutes. Those are some great 90 minutes, though.

It is rare that a sf film today really is good sf, but Danny Boyle succeeds in this fascinating thriller. It is a lot more than just another special effects action-packed thriller, and instead takes its time to build tension. The pay-off is clear: we are much more involved in the mission because of it, and while I agree that the characters are flat, the suspense is well-crafted.

Also, while not exactly philosophical in the vein of 2001, Sunshine still offers a nice speculative dimension. The end is a bit of a let-down, as the film retreats into formula and a pre-established pattern which it had been better served without.

This movie had so much potential. The plot was extremely intriguing. However, it ultimately fell flat on its face.

The characters were my first complaint. They were cold, unrealteable, and flat. They could all be summed up in three bullet points. Even Cillian’s character was just solitary, in love with his creation, and had a sister. The one character I had budding affection for was the Captain, who was the first to be killed off.

The cinematography was spectacular. I would have loved to see it on the big screen. I didn’t understand the change in style near the end, where an elegant science fiction film transformed into a cheap cross between a slasher film and a monster movie.

I started disliking this movie after they engaged with Icarus I and were being killed off. The captain of Icarus I’s motive was explained, but ultimately he too was flat. The blur they put on him combined with the deep fried skin dehumanized him, making him seem more like a monster than a man.

Because of the flatness of the characters, I didn’t care if they died. If I had given a shit about the characters that might have compensated for the sudden switch in mood at the end. To me the whole ending seemed random, like it was from another movie entirely. I found myself just wanting the film to be over when the payload was falling to the sun, and Cillian was trying to escape from the crisped captain. My boyfriend and I ended up singing a song about the eternal plundge. In other words, no suspense was created there, just boredom.

The only reason I gave this movie a worth consuming is because it was pretty and because the plot had a great deal of potential had they done it correctly. It was definately disappointing.