Review of Sunshine (2007) by Jean Carlo C — 09 Apr 2012

Scientifically this movie doesn't really hold water. The premise is a bit far-fetched, the origin of the problem is never properly explained and the solution to that problem is shoddy at best. But, the point of science fiction is not always to be as scientifically accurate as possible. It is true that science fiction often predicts and even inspires inventions-yet-to-come, but equally as often its point is to ask the question: "What if?" What if a group of specialists were put into a ship that was the sole hope of humanity and they were forced to both co-exist under the pressure and to make hard, at times immoral, decisions? What would happen? And that's this movie and it is quite a thing to witness.

The special effects, the style and the visuals are all first class, to begin with. I truly admire this movie's portrayal of the Sun. Every time it's on the screen it inspires awe and at times even religious fear. Even mere percentages of its full might are capable of seriously harming the passengers of the ship and its full power incinerates them instantly. That mere presence reminds me why so many civilizations have chosen to worship the Sun as their god. Furthermore, the space scenery and the ship itself look very nice and realistic, and the design of the ship incorporates many space traveling theories and solutions that were popular at the time of this movie's making and still are. Attention to the detail all around, very nice.

I was also pleased to find that all of the actors were well-chosen for their roles and that they all give credible performances with special mentions going to Hiroyuki Sanada (Captain) and Chris Evans (Mace).

The movie has some faults, though. I really didn't like the genre change towards the end of the movie. The drama and slowly building psychological tension of the first half were fine in my opinion and the sudden turn into a slasher film was unneeded in my opinion. It took away from the atmosphere and thus did the movie no favors. Still, it didn't ruin the movie, per se, just made it less great. So, with that in mind, I can safely say that I can recommend this one to all fans of science fiction and to all those that like intelligent films with believable characters, high stages and lots of atmosphere.