by Tony
Cillian Murphy To be honest with you, I was about as excited about watching Danny Boyle’s “Sunshine” as I would be about taking out the garbage. I knew it was a science fiction film, but I have lost most of my faith in Hollywood delivering anything of real sustenance. My favorite film is Alien, and it’s a film that will never be topped in its area.
Cillian Murphy
The trailer for the film seems to tell us there are 8 people who should be supermodels but have instead been sent to kick start the sun, which is another premise I found silly, and produced more trepidation within me on the matter. Add to that the overplayed “Requiem for a Dream” music and the fact that the trailer gives away most the movie, and all interest was out.
I have seen several of his films, and only one seems to work for me, and that’s 28 Days Later (the first one, mind you). I hated “Trainspotting,” and won’t even go into what I think about “A Life Less Ordinary” or “The Beach.” At one time, he was to direct an incarnation of Alien 3, one that I was sure I would hate because it revolved around a floating monastery in space. After seeing the subsequent pictures he crafted, I was happy to see that the film went into what I felt at the time were more capable hands.
Then I saw Sunshine.
Sunshine truly is a fantastic movie. It borrows elements heavily from other films in the genre, but what it borrows it gets very, very right. If I could pinpoint one thing about Sunshine that makes it unique above any other picture right now, that would be that the film has atmosphere. Every shot is incredibly gorgeous, and feels like we are in a universe not unlike the one in Alien or 2001. The loneliness and beauty and just plain enormity of space are communicated with breathtaking cinematography, set design, model design, and CGI. CGI has removed much of the beauty of space movies in the past twenty years. Save for the new Star Wars movies, this is the most recent space film to feel lived in and authentic.
The acting is very serviceable, and Boyle is careful to not make his young cast seem too attractive. Cillian Murphy plays a quiet and reluctant hero, and Rose Byrne (read my Damages review to find out more about her) is great here at playing it tough and vulnerable (to sound like a cliché). The one actor who really impressed me this time however, is Chris Evans. Here’s a guy who I’ve really only seen in a few pictures, and he always seems to play the hotshot. This film puts him back on track, and is his best work since Cellular. It’s hard to distinguish whose personality is going to emerge in this film as the hero, and who as the villain, and it’s due to his distracting performance that you won’t be sure who or what I’m talking about (you’ll know when you see the film, just what the hell I’m talking about).
Besides splendid cinematography, atmospheric sets, tight direction, and well-thought characters, does the film have a subplot that, like Alien, will have you scratching your head? You bet it does, and it both works and adds the fiction to the word science. Many who have seen the film have discredited the plot device of igniting the sun, and even more seem unhappy with the subplot I have hinted at here. The film introduces technology from an unknown future time that seems to indicate it is very far into the future, and not necessarily the present future, if you get my drift. Man has technology to do things we don’t now, hence the term science-fiction. Don’t worry; this movie is not “The Core.”
The music is not all that memorable, but it does service the film well, and does not distract. The opening credit sequence is very nifty, however. This type of film needed a minimalistic score. Mr. Goldsmith is not alive, unfortunately, but even if he were, his last decade of music was not as memorable as it was during his golden era. I digress again. I miss music that is of the caliber of Alien.
So see Sunshine. If you’ve been hungry for a movie that is on par with the great science fiction films of the past, this film will be a ray of light (sorry, had to, no pun intended). Besides Serenity and Sunshine, there just hasn’t been much to get excited about in the way of new science fiction. I hope to see more like this one, and can’t wait to review this one in High Definition.