Sunshine (2007)

If you're looking for a nightmare-type movie that goes on and on and on and on and on, this baby's for you! Keep the Fast-Forward button handy.

A major disappointment, and utter waste of our evening. :( Why do people like this nonsense ???

"Our sun is dying. Mankind faces extinction." And just like that, you're in for a hell of a ride full of insightful philosophy, breathtaking visuals (which hold up even after a decade, which is quite a compliment for a film made in a time of fake-looking CGI), a great set of characters and most importantly, an original and compelling story that will leave you in awe and will stay in your memory for a long time.But seriously. Why watch 2001 if all you're attention is directed to the fact that mankind was most certainly not helped by some alien monolith sent by some obscure extraterrestrial race, or that star- children don't exist? In the same spirit, why watch Sunshine if all you're going to do is complain that "you can't get that close to the sun without burning", "the story is unrealistic because the sun won't die out for another 5 billion years" or other annoying stuff like that?. It's not like this film is pretending to be a scientific manifesto full of OCD-like levels of detail and 100% accuracy on all of its aspects. Not that i'm against filmmakers going out of their way to be as accurate as possible on their science f i c t i o n film (get it?, fiction), but if they don't get every single detail correct, it's fine, because that is not the focal point of the story. What matters is the characters (in this case the diversity is realistic and justified, some people complain about it as if it had Marvel-esque levels of political correctness, which is not even true), which also happen to be human beings that, like any other, fear for their own mortality and fragility and are flawed, and are not cold, calculating, inhuman robots incapable of reacting to the situation they're in, despite what their profession might have you believe (?). What matters is the story (a slightly flawed one at that, but very poetic and philosophical as well); the direction (helmed by the man himself, Danny Boyle, who has made all kinds of films: delved into black comedy, horror, Bollywood-esque cinema, a crime caper, a biopic, a film based on real events, comedy, even a kids film at one point. Despite being so different, all these films have his very own style that makes Boyle's body of work consistent in its variety) ; the cinematography (which by golly is some of the best out there, provided by Alwin H. Kuchler, who also worked with Boyle on Steve Jobs); the score (with the amazingly gifted John Murphy at the helm, and Underworld as well, the same guys that made Born Slippy, the iconic song featured in Boyle's best known and most revered film, Trainspotting) and the special effects (which are a shining example of the fact that you don't need an enormous budget to craft beautiful and convincing CGI while actually integrating these elements effectively into your film). For Christ's sake, it's not like you're tasked with throwing yourself at the sun strapped to the back of a literal time bomb (both of time and of tension) in order to save the goddamn world everyday, and the fact that this unthinkable amount of responsibility gets under your skin does not, I repeat, does not make you a beta cuck that belongs in a campus safe-space, this is a genuine struggle we're talking about here. I'd like to go on full autistique detail on the whole thing, but this is a film that one must experience to understand and appreciate.My advice: ignore all the bitter OCD science freaks attempting to pass as film critics on this thread (or anywhere at all for that matter) and go watch this film. I guarantee you will not regret it, and it'll probably leave a lasting impression on you (like it did on me).

The premise of a group of people alone in space has been done many times before Danny Boyle's "Sunshine" and it has been done since then and it will probably continue to be done over and over again. But what these films rarely nail is the atmosphere of isolation, claustrophobia, and our insignificance in the face of the vast emptiness of space, which is why "Sunshine" is so engrossing and exciting to watch - and why it is so disappointing in its last 20 minutes.The film starts during the dying gasps of humanity. One ship (which is fittingly named Icarus) with a bomb strapped to it to be launched into the dying sun as an attempt to create a "star within a star" has already failed for unknown reasons, so a new ship with a crew of seven has been sent to try and accomplish this same mission. This is humanity's last chance at salvation.In the first shot of the film, the ship is shown as a tiny black blip engulfed by the size of the sun. There is a room solely for the purpose of viewing the sun, obviously with modifications so that it won't fry your eyeballs. This room is one way that the crew members try to maintain their hope for their mission and their sanity. Another is apparently by sending video messages back to their friends and family, but the film starts at the moment when the messages can no longer reach Earth. While Capa (Cillian Murphy) is able to send out one final hopeful message to his family, Mace (Chris Evans) is unable to, and blames Capa for making him wait too long. This seems to be the beginning of the crew's downward spiral.As they pass Mercury, the crew suddenly hears a signal coming from its surface. This is one of the only movies where the scientists in it act like actual scientists. Of course, they make mistakes, because they are also human, but when a problem such as this arises, they consider all of the possible benefits and risks that could arise from both decisions and eventually leave it up to the crew member that is most educated for this particular situation. They argue, and they each have equally understandable opinions on what they should do, but they never jump to conclusions. All the scientific explanation that is done also feels much less forced than other films of this type because it is made clear that everyone on the ship specializes in something different, such as botany, or psychology, or physics, or piloting, and of course there is overlap between all of them but when a scientific subject is being explained to other characters, it doesn't feel like something they should already know. In other words, it feels like explanation that would logically be delivered to the characters in the film, not just something they needed to explain to the audience at home.Despite the film's sense of overwhelming impending doom, you are never quite sure what exactly will happen in the film, just that the end result isn't going to be good. What helps build this unsettling atmosphere is the eerie score for the film, as well as the claustrophobic camera work, with many tight, confined shots down the corridors of the ship, and Dutch camera angles, so it always feels like something is askew. And I know that a film based entirely in space with 2007 CGI and special effects may not sound like it would hold up, but the visuals are surprisingly gorgeous and detailed, with a clear understanding of how to blend practical effects and CGI to create a convincing environment.It's a shame that the tension that slowly builds throughout the film ends up being ruined by a rushed and nonsensical ending. After a certain character is suddenly introduced that has no logical explanation to be in the ship, or in the film at all, it suddenly becomes a corny slasher film. And by that I mean the character literally has a voice like Freddy Kreuger and spouts lines dumber than that intentionally dumb horror villain. To add insult to injury, they have a sugarcoated solution in the end that feels like it came out of an entirely different film.But the unintentionally funny ending doesn't make the entire film bad. The first hour and 25 minutes is still one of the most immersive, smartly written, and visually stunning sci-fi thrillers I've ever seen.