A Brilliant Ray of 'Sunshine'

Movie: Sunshine
Coming Out: July, 20th 2007
Verdict?

5 out of 5
Way more exciting (and a WHOLE lot smarter) than Transformers.

Starring: Cillian Murphy, Chris Evans, Cliff Curtis, Michelle Yeoh, Hiroyuki Sanada, Rose Byrne, Benedict Wong, Troy Garity, Mark Strong
Director: Danny Boyle
Writer: Alex Garland
Website: www.sunshinedna.com

Ever since I was little, I've been a sci-fi nerd. I suppose Star Wars was my first foray into sci-fi films, but my mother was a big movie fan, and showed me wonderfully campy sci-fi like Starman, Enemy Mine and Logan's Run. Later in life I would see the big one's, like 2001, and the Alien films, and then more recently Steven Spielberg's back to back looks into the future, AI, and Minority Report. And now, we have Sunshine.

Sunshine is the story of eight astronauts, on a journey to restart our dying sun. Okay, I'll stop here really quickly for the instant naysayers. Yes, this is a slightly unbelievable plot, so if you can't get past that, this probably isn't for you. But I assure you, this movie contains no aliens or ghosts. The movie is a human drama mixed with a psychological thriller wrapped in a candy coated science fiction shell.
Back to what I was saying, the sun is dying. Their ship, the Icarus II, is heading toward the sun with a nuclear bomb the size of Manhattan to attempt to restart the sun, and warm our planet from an ever worsening winter. Will it work? Can they get back to earth? That's why you need to see it.

The movie was directed by Danny Boyle, who many should know from his other movies, the drug-laden Trainspotting, and the zombie-wonder, 28 Days Later. He's joined once again with writer Alex Garland, who wrote both of the previously mentioned movies. Together, they've created such a fantastic movie, it's hard to know where to start.

The entire look of the movie is phenomenal. The only CG used is when you see outside of the ship (obviously), as it's not some shitty George Lucas blue screen a la his prequels. The work put toward making a very realistic sun really shows. It's completely overwhelming, and you feel oppressed and amazed by it the entire time. Inside the ship it feels extremely real, partially because the interior of the ship was completely constructed on a set. One good thing about the movie is that it takes place 50 years in the future, so the film makers didn't try to get to fancy with the gadgets they had. The ship itself is probably the most complex machine in the film.
While you watch the movie, you definitely feel like you're in the ship with the crew. A lot of the time you see things close-up, if not EXTREME close-ups. You feel claustrophobic, trapped, feeling like the only way to get out is for them to get to the sun. They also were very careful with the choice of colors, having mostly cool colors inside the ship, while venturing outside you're blasted with oranges and yellows.

The sound and music is quite good as well. I can't imagine it being an easy job to come up with the sound of the sun, but damn, I'm guessing they did a pretty good job. The music in the film was by the electronic duo of Underworld. Their music gave such a an odd, unknown feel to the movie. I'm not one for buying a lot of soundtracks, but I'll buy anything that they create.

But what really makes the movie is it's writing. It's about 8 people, flying toward the sun in a gigantic spacecraft to restart the sun. One of the main points is the humanity of people, a familiar theme that Danny Boyle deals with in his other films as well. Would you kill 8 people to save the entire earth? I think most people would answer yes, no matter who was on board. But what if you were on board that ship, and had t get rid of one of them? What about two? This is what makes the movie so engaging.

If you're a fan at all of science fiction, this movie will be a no-brainer to go see. If you're just a person who likes good movies, well... this would also be a no-brainer.