Review of Sunshine (2007) by Adam G — 29 Nov 2011

It's mid-september and this stands as my favorite movie this year. Hands down, no questions asked. It's one of the best in the sci-fi genre of all time, and I'd compare it to a philosophical "Alien" incorporated into a not sucky "Armageddon", with a dash of a good version of "Event Horizon" somewhere in there as well. But hey, how can you go wrong with the kind of people that made this movie?

The premise of the movie will sound lame, stereo-typical, and mediocre, but it's written so brilliantly, directed so expertly, and acted so strongly, that the idea is really only a basis for a brilliant excercise in film making. The movie's basic premise is 50 years from now 8 astrounauts are sent out into space to re-ignite the sun so that earth will come out of a solar winter and so that the people of earth will be able to live out their lives for a longer period of time than they would've otherwise. Yes, it sounds corny, trivial, and quite honestly lame, but it isn't at all. Not in the slightest. One of the things I love about it is it brings back a great, yet older genre that I miss a lot which is the "Claustrophobic Space" film. A genre that seems to have been forgotten for the past decade.

The style of the movie is purely Danny Boyle (the film's director who also did "28 Days Later" and "Trainspotting"). This always means that the cinematography is sharp and interesting, and generally when things get tense he likes a lot of unfocused takes and quick cutting which he uses more towards the end of this movie. The 3rd act is where it gets similar to Alien. The style of the movie is perfect for sci-fi, but Boyle definetely brings a new modernistic touch that you won't see in any of the other older sci-fi movies. Not to mention the fantastic CGI that they managed to pull off with a fairly modest (for a big sci-fi movie) budget of about 50 million. The effects in this movie are wonderful, beautiful, and haunting.

The acting from the whole cast is very strong. As the movie progresses they all start to become more and more unstable, some at different speeds than others. The actors have a daunting task of having to play characters that are going insane from something they could never have seen or done. First off, the fact that they all are going to "save the world" would make anyone start to have a different attitude, and the fact that they all slowly start becoming more and more obssessed with the sun, it's beauty, and it's power which becomes more and more evident as they get closer and closer to it. Cillian Murphy does a fantastic job as "Capa", the ships physics expert. I thought it was odd to see Chris Evans in this movie because he seems to be more commercial now with the two awful "Fantastic Four" movies that he has under his belt now, but he does a pretty good job as well, surprisingly enough.

The script is extremely interesting from the start and progressively gets more interesting as it goes along. It starts out in typical sci-fi movie fashion, showing us all of the cool stuff on the ship by letting us see the characters around it or while using it, and it's really a cool movie from the get go. The movie becomes more intense after the first 30 or so minutes and that's also when you see the first hints of violence in the film. Many people have a big problem with the third act of the movie, which is when it essentially turns into a claustrophobic horror movie. Many people find this entire chunk of the movie far-fetched and stupid. I however do not because I understand why people would say this while looking at this section of the movie at face value. However when you look at it's philosophical ties it's absolutely brilliant. Not to mention the fact that Boyle makes it pretty scary and suspenseful which is an interesting addition to an otherwise fairly tame and more psychological film. If you have a problem with the third act or with the ending, ponder it, and then re think what they where trying to say. I obviously won't tell you because it's open to interpretation and you might take something entirely different away from this section of the movie. All I'm saying is, don't let it ruin the movie for you as many other people have.

The music in this movie is probably it's best component. It contains one of the best, most beautiful scores I've ever heard. I wanted to buy the music but of course there is no soundtrack available for the film which made me so angry I can't even tell you. The music works throughout the film and is cut into the movie in all the right places. Music is more important than some people might think, and this movie is definitely greatly helped by it's amazing score.

Overall this goes in my top 25 films all time. It's original, beautiful, inspiring, and down right fantastic. I haven't seen anything as well done as it is in its genre in quite some time. It's great human struggle and philosophical ideals propel it to the next level making it not just a sci-fi movie, or just a horror movie, but really it's almost a brilliant metaphysical movie, and a gut wrenching dramatic tale. It's an achievement of epic proportions and I hope you all see it when it comes out on DVD. An amazing film that I see as being perfect.

10/10.