At some point, scientists say, our Sun will die. It will burn itself out and cease to give us the life that we all enjoy. In Sunshine, Earth has sent its last hope to the Sun in an effort to revive it before our planet freezes in space.
Aboard the Icarus II are eight astronauts and scientists, their mission; to fire an immense nuclear bomb in to the heart of the sun which will, hopefully, resurrect the star and breathe new life on our freezing homeworld. Protected from the Sun’s rays by an immense reflective shield, the vessel glides towards the centre of our solar system in relative darkness whilst its inhabitants wonder whether they will succeed and what happened to Icarus I, the original vessel that disappeared 7 years previously.
When a slingshot around Mercury reveals the location of a seemingly lifeless Icarus I, the crew decide to dock with the original vessel with a view to obtaining a second bomb which could drastically improve their chances of success. Unfortunately veering from their original mission brings in to play new factors which soon have the crew running for their lives and threatening the very survival of the human race.
Directed by Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, 28 days later), this movie is a compelling scifi thriller that, even at its slowest point, is dripping with tension, tightly directed and well acted by all involved, it’s one of an increasingly small club of movies that aren’t overweight - there’s no fat here to put the pacing off, indeed if anything it could have done with slowing down in a few places just to let the audience catch up… it’s almost as if the audience are as close to losing it as the crew are! Also worthy of mention is the photography - lots of shots in this film are just plain beautiful, whether they are SFX or set shots, they reminded me a little of Ridley Scott’s movies - like something out of Alien, and indeed lots of the movie seems to pay homage to classic films in the genre, it’s just that you don’t have time to decide what they are because things move at such pace. Even the score, by Underworld and John Murphy, reminded me a lot of Ridley’s Vangelis soundtracks.
 Also worthy of mention is the sound effects. Right from the start these have you almost jumping out of your seat, and throughout the movie the sound enhances the solar effects, turning the ball of fire in to a living, breathing creature, groaning in its last throes of life. Then, at other times it brings your attention to the smallest details, such as air being pumped in to a room, just to remind you that everything on the spacecraft is in such fine balance, that the smallest thing that we take for granted can become a life or death issue. Be sure to watch this in a cinema or on a very good surround system if you catch it on DVD at home.
I have few complaints about the film however something doesn’t sit quite right with me. I love the idea of the Sun, the source of all life, being this heavenly body, almost a deity to be revered, and at times, the script treats it as such, but this metaphor isn’t really resolved… we don’t get any revelation regarding this aspect of the story, and I wonder whether it was there originally and removed in the edit for the sake of pace. I will look out for an extended \ director’s cut of this movie because I suspect that there are a few subplots that hit the cutting room floor before it got to cinemas.
Perhaps it is with this in mind that I feel that the ending let me down a little… the film is great throughout and so sets itself a high standard for the final act, and for me it didn’t quite deliver. So in the end Sunshine comes close to being a truly great SciFi movie and just misses the mark by a whisper. This is a very, very good film, it’s just not quite up there with the classics, which is a real pity because for the majority of the film I really thought it was going to be.
Find out more at www.sunshinedna.com
