Sunshine
October 24th 2007 06:03
Category: Movies
Director: Danny Boyle.
Producer: Andrew Macdonald
Screenplay by: Alex Garland.
Starring: Rose Byrne, Michelle Yeoh, Benedict Wong, Troy Garity, Hiroyuki Sanada, Cliff Curtis & Mark Strong.
Produced by: 2007 20th Century Fox.
Running Time: 103 minutes. Rating: MA 15
At some point in the not to distant future the sun has begun to fade and as a result the fate of humanity looks extremely bleak. The solution, send out a space ship with a huge nuclear device to drop into the heart of the failing sun and attempt to reignite it through a thermonuclear explosion. Sounds like an interesting premise on which to base a science fiction movie; unfortunately though it is operating with an interesting premise Sunshine realistically does not do anything with this premise. Instead Sunshine seems to be something more of a homage piece to various other cult classic sci-fi movies as well as suffering from what I like to call Mad Astronaut Syndrome (or MAS for short), survival of the fittest complex (or SOTFC for short if you want) and a little dose of the god in the machine thrown in for good measure.
Essentially the bulk of the action takes place on the space ship Icarus 2, the ships computer and its crew are the protagonists of the movie, their interactions giving it its driving impetus. Someone back on earth must have had a macabre sense of humour when they named this ship; after all flying close to the sun on something called Icarus has to be a definite recipe for disaster if ever there was one. Then there is the little fact that it’s the Icarus 2, one wonders what happened to the first one. In the initial few moments of the movie a few hints are dropped about what happened to Icarus 1 and as things unfold this becomes part of the drama that develops.
There is of course mention made about how important their mission is and that it should take precedence over all other considerations but it seems to be a rote thing, something said to drive along the script at slow points rather than out of any actual ‘conviction’. Nobody in the slightest seems to be curious about why a perfectly ‘healthy’ astronomical body like the sun is suddenly going on the Fritz; it’s almost as if this factor is not worth mentioning. In reality it shouldn’t be possible for the sun to be undergoing any significant changes in the next few billion years let alone in the next few centuries or immediate near future. The answer to this unusual conundrum lies in where the movie introduces its little does of the god in the machine to drive along its plot; it’s also where the MAS is fully unleashed upon the unsuspecting viewer.
“I have spoken to god” claims the movies sole antagonist “And he wants us all to join him”. Such a lovely sentiment; it’s definitely a Book of Revelations shtick and just the right tone for an end of the world kind of scenario, it also gives us a rationale as to why a relatively stable celestial body has started going down hill – it’s all due to God. This sudden revelation then turns the action that follows into something of a modern day Aztec sacrifice ritual. Carnage ensues and all in the name of reigniting the sun. It seems that just shooting a mega large nuclear device into the sun is not enough; blood has to be spilt to really make it all come together and see life return to a slowly dying world. In ancient Aztec mythology the fading of the sun was used as a justification for the practise of ritual sacrifice, blood had to be shed in order to prevent the sun from dying and with it all life on Earth.
Frankly I would have preferred a much more prosaic rationale as to why the sun was going downhill, aliens, a previous scientific experiment that had gone wrong, anything that didn’t have to do with the divine or involved MAS and SOTFC to drive along the plot. Sunshine ranks as a kind of art house style science fiction movie, something that is watched by fashionable people who sit around drinking lattes and moccachinos whilst waxing lyrical on the nature of god and existentialism. For me it just wasn’t my cup of coffee, which having been said I have to admit the production values of the film were slick and professional whilst the cast worked well with what they were given. But in the end it just didn’t jell as well as it could have done in my opinion.
Producer: Andrew Macdonald
Screenplay by: Alex Garland.
Starring: Rose Byrne, Michelle Yeoh, Benedict Wong, Troy Garity, Hiroyuki Sanada, Cliff Curtis & Mark Strong.
Produced by: 2007 20th Century Fox.
Running Time: 103 minutes. Rating: MA 15
At some point in the not to distant future the sun has begun to fade and as a result the fate of humanity looks extremely bleak. The solution, send out a space ship with a huge nuclear device to drop into the heart of the failing sun and attempt to reignite it through a thermonuclear explosion. Sounds like an interesting premise on which to base a science fiction movie; unfortunately though it is operating with an interesting premise Sunshine realistically does not do anything with this premise. Instead Sunshine seems to be something more of a homage piece to various other cult classic sci-fi movies as well as suffering from what I like to call Mad Astronaut Syndrome (or MAS for short), survival of the fittest complex (or SOTFC for short if you want) and a little dose of the god in the machine thrown in for good measure.
“I have spoken to god” claims the movies sole antagonist “And he wants us all to join him”. Such a lovely sentiment; it’s definitely a Book of Revelations shtick and just the right tone for an end of the world kind of scenario, it also gives us a rationale as to why a relatively stable celestial body has started going down hill – it’s all due to God. This sudden revelation then turns the action that follows into something of a modern day Aztec sacrifice ritual. Carnage ensues and all in the name of reigniting the sun. It seems that just shooting a mega large nuclear device into the sun is not enough; blood has to be spilt to really make it all come together and see life return to a slowly dying world. In ancient Aztec mythology the fading of the sun was used as a justification for the practise of ritual sacrifice, blood had to be shed in order to prevent the sun from dying and with it all life on Earth.
Frankly I would have preferred a much more prosaic rationale as to why the sun was going downhill, aliens, a previous scientific experiment that had gone wrong, anything that didn’t have to do with the divine or involved MAS and SOTFC to drive along the plot. Sunshine ranks as a kind of art house style science fiction movie, something that is watched by fashionable people who sit around drinking lattes and moccachinos whilst waxing lyrical on the nature of god and existentialism. For me it just wasn’t my cup of coffee, which having been said I have to admit the production values of the film were slick and professional whilst the cast worked well with what they were given. But in the end it just didn’t jell as well as it could have done in my opinion.
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