Sunshine

Posted by Loukas Tsouknidas (loukas@filmschoolrejects.com) on April 19, 2007

Oh! Danny Boyle… Danny Boyle! “28 Days Later” marked the Brit’s return to moviemaking fame. After the overlooked “Millions” he gets to make a sci-fi flick that quotes his own favorites of the genre. Mankind is of course in danger and the thing about to be lost is no other than “Sunshine”.

The sun is about to go off and the world faces extinction. A spaceship, by the ironic name of Ikarus-I, is sent to drop a mega-bomb meant to turn the sun back on but it disappears. Ikarus-II follows, holding a crew of eight scientists, spacemen and spacewomen. On their way there they get a chance to find out what happened to their predecessors and they grab it. Wrong move. A series of unexpected events make their mission very hard to accomplish and the earth is still in danger…

“Sunshine” is a space movie without much care for scientific plausibility. That’s clear from the plot itself. Re-igniting the sun? The name Ikarus reveals the creators’ self-awareness and the irony towards their own script. That aside, we have a movie that aspires to depend on character development and conflict, the kind of diatribe good ol’ “2001: A Space Odyssey” was. A difficult task for capable filmmaker Danny Boyle who knows his classics well enough to compose a descent tribute. And that’s what his movie really is.

The eight scientists meet their first dilemma when they find Ikarus-I. That’s when the human element prevails. They argue about what to do: stick to their mission or get the second bomb too for double sun-igniting power. As scientists they try to weigh the situation based on facts. As men they throw responsibility on the next guy like a hot potato. Capa (Cillian Murphy), the physicist, gets it last and has to decide. He goes for the detour and human mistakes begin to pile up resulting to dead crew members. Now it’s time for that humans’ resourcefulness to charge up.

Throughout this first part, we hear conversations and watch extreme close-ups of crew members looking anxious about their fate. The scientific mumbo-jumbo is irrelevant, the point is not for us to get it. These people have already been together for sixteen months and they just begin to lose it. When the going gets tough and decisions are in order, there is tension and stress all around. Mace (Chris Evans) is the stronger one, constantly rationalizing about how the mission is above any individual. His rivalry with Capa fires up when the latter decides to risk it.

When we think they have found a solution, comes the twist. An Ikarus-I member seems to be alive, half-baked, crazy and sabotaging the new mission. Those left do their best to complete it, finally accepting that they are lost either way. There is some pure action, photographed and edited in an eccentric manner, with almost sickening camera moves, extreme close-ups and blurs, all clearing up in the final scene.

Good acting compensates for the few under scripted characters and i think that Chris Evans fits right into Mace’s persona and steals the show.

I wasn’t blown away but i liked this film though I’m no space movie buff. I believe the strange visuals and the main characters are what kept me interested throughout. It’s a good Boyle movie, though he shouldn’t have rushed so much towards the ending.

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