Delta Films Movie Reviews
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Sunshine
Review - " Sunshine " (on DVD) - By Roland Hansen
Review: Sunshine (DVD)
Sunshine -
20th Century Fox, Directed by Danny Boyle, Written by Alex Garland. Rated R for violent content and language.
50 years into the future, the Sun is dying, and Earth is dying as a result. A team of astronauts is sent, in a super starship Icarus I, to
revive the Sun - but the mission fails. Seven years later, a new team, in Icarus II, is sent to finish the mission. They are Earth's last hope,
no further missions are possible as Earth has used up all it's available resources.
Overall I found "Sunshine" interesting and compelling. The visuals were stunning and the science plausible. The director does an
excellent job of building tension and demonstrating the disastrous consequences of even the slightest mistake. I was often on the edge of
my seat in anticipation of what was to come next. So much for the positive aspects, more critically, the acting was no more than ordinary. I
think too many of the characters were much too concerned with their own survival. People assigned to this type of mission would have
been chosen for their dedication to the mission and nothing else matters. In this, the two most believable characters were Chris Evans
(Mace) & Cillian Murphy (Robert Capa). Rose Byrne (Cassie), although nice as eye candy, was way to whiney, crybaby, for a critical
space mission and totally unbelievable and unnecessary. When the team comes across the disabled Icarus I they choose to board it to
see if they can salvage technology to repair their own damaged vessel. There was no believable reason why the director chose to flash
on the former crews grotesque dying faces as the Icarus II’s crew boarded the seemingly dead yet stable Icarus I, except to segue from a
science fiction to horror. There was nothing I could see in their mission that couldn't have been completely automated even with today’s
technology, never mind technology as obviously advanced as they were 50 years in our future. Although, if it were a drone sent to re-
ignite the sun, there would have been no movie so this can be forgiven. What cannot be forgiven is the filmmakers use of Captain
Pinbacker’s literally unfocused depiction with no explanation as to why he should appear this way. He seemed to phase in and out of
reality as if viewed through a constantly changing waves. And even more unforgivable was, at the end when Capa set off the star bomb,
he stood within inches of the newly formed star, and even put his hand directly inside it, without being completely incinerated instantly.
This is especially unacceptable since they demonstrated many times that anyone or anything even so much as venturing out from behind
their shields and into the sunlight from still millions of kilometers away was completely vaporized in the blink of an eye. Most of the time
the film kept to believable physics and if you overlook these few lapses “Sunshine” can be enjoyed and is a decent science fiction movie.
Not great in any way, but moderately entertaining nonetheless.
Review: Sunshine (DVD)
Sunshine -
20th Century Fox, Directed by Danny Boyle, Written by Alex Garland. Rated R for violent content and language.
50 years into the future, the Sun is dying, and Earth is dying as a result. A team of astronauts is sent, in a super starship Icarus I, to
revive the Sun - but the mission fails. Seven years later, a new team, in Icarus II, is sent to finish the mission. They are Earth's last hope,
no further missions are possible as Earth has used up all it's available resources.
Overall I found "Sunshine" interesting and compelling. The visuals were stunning and the science plausible. The director does an
excellent job of building tension and demonstrating the disastrous consequences of even the slightest mistake. I was often on the edge of
my seat in anticipation of what was to come next. So much for the positive aspects, more critically, the acting was no more than ordinary. I
think too many of the characters were much too concerned with their own survival. People assigned to this type of mission would have
been chosen for their dedication to the mission and nothing else matters. In this, the two most believable characters were Chris Evans
(Mace) & Cillian Murphy (Robert Capa). Rose Byrne (Cassie), although nice as eye candy, was way to whiney, crybaby, for a critical
space mission and totally unbelievable and unnecessary. When the team comes across the disabled Icarus I they choose to board it to
see if they can salvage technology to repair their own damaged vessel. There was no believable reason why the director chose to flash
on the former crews grotesque dying faces as the Icarus II’s crew boarded the seemingly dead yet stable Icarus I, except to segue from a
science fiction to horror. There was nothing I could see in their mission that couldn't have been completely automated even with today’s
technology, never mind technology as obviously advanced as they were 50 years in our future. Although, if it were a drone sent to re-
ignite the sun, there would have been no movie so this can be forgiven. What cannot be forgiven is the filmmakers use of Captain
Pinbacker’s literally unfocused depiction with no explanation as to why he should appear this way. He seemed to phase in and out of
reality as if viewed through a constantly changing waves. And even more unforgivable was, at the end when Capa set off the star bomb,
he stood within inches of the newly formed star, and even put his hand directly inside it, without being completely incinerated instantly.
This is especially unacceptable since they demonstrated many times that anyone or anything even so much as venturing out from behind
their shields and into the sunlight from still millions of kilometers away was completely vaporized in the blink of an eye. Most of the time
the film kept to believable physics and if you overlook these few lapses “Sunshine” can be enjoyed and is a decent science fiction movie.
Not great in any way, but moderately entertaining nonetheless.
January 17, 2008
