Oh, boy. I am a pretty big fan of Sci Fi and willing to go out on a lot of limbs for it (Ha! I'm going to see The Invasion!), so I was looking forward to Sunshine, the new movie from Danny Boyle, who previously has brought us the awesome 28 Days Later and the unusual Trainspotting. Sadly, Sunshine is a muddled...
...mess of a movie that no amount of bright light can illuminate. The plot revolves around a mission to the Sun on the Icarus II, a ship carrying a massive nuke ("all the fissile material on Earth was mined for this payload," says one character) designed to restart a failing sun. Mind you, it's only the year 2057, so you'd almost think a failing sun + global warming = solution, but no. The ship's crew includes several hunky men (Fantastic Four's Chris Evans and Batman Begins' Cillian Murphy among them), a botanist (Michelle Yeoh), and an ingenue-astronaut (Damages' Rose Byrne). Together they make up a varied and interesting mini-social experiment in space.
The movie is most successful when it follows the characters around their daily routines during their months-long mission. Space fever, a bit of paranoia, fear, courage, weasliness all surface as they get closer to the sun and the point where they will lose radio contact with Earth. There's the thought of being isolated in space, plus the primal attraction of the sun, and 7 very intelligent, motivated, would-be heroes, all cooped up in a tin can behind a giant aluminum umbrella hurtling toward destiny. A thoughtful exploration of the psychological issues that this might raise would be a good movie. This isn't it, unless you consider the last 20 minutes of 2001 to be seriously profound. (You do? Watch it again, without mind-altering drugs. It is dull and makes little if any sense.) Instead, the psychological issues quickly take a back seat to a detour necessitated by the discovery of the Icarus I still in orbit and broadcasting a distress signal. I wanted to yell: Don't open that airlock!! Could it be any more obvious that trouble awaits on the other side?
At that point, the movie takes a crazy turn that throws it from thoughtful rumination into scary action flick, and lost me. Part Solaris, part Alien, part 2001: A Space Odyssey -- and in no case any of the good parts of those -- Sunshine left me cold.
Comments (2)
I don't disagree with any of your points. I did want to let you know, however, how deeply this film has touched my 15 year old son and all of his friends. I mean, they've all seen this film many times, left the theater crying, etc.
I've tried to understand the source of the attraction to this story, and I think we people over 30, uh, even 40, can't understand it or feel it like they can. These teens have been brought up in a world where the story of Sunshine doesn't seem that fictional. Perhaps the thought of these astronauts risking their lives to save all us Earthlings touches a teen in a way we "elders" can't even begin to comprehend. "Sunshine" means SO much to them, I had greater respect for it.
Just thought you might be interested to know.
Hollyt
Posted by Holly | November 6, 2007 10:42 AM
Posted on November 6, 2007 10:42
I'm fascinated that these teens find the movie so moving. I think if it hadn't veered off into a crazy stalker scenario, I might have found it a lot more thought-provoking, because I liked the characters and their various responses to the challenges along the way. Maybe it is indeed an age thing. Thanks for sharing this.
Posted by ljmb | November 10, 2007 12:19 AM
Posted on November 10, 2007 00:19