I refer, of course, to the 2007 Danny Boyle (28 Days Later) film "Sunshine" of which Keith and I saw a screening of last night. The basic premise of the plot is this: In the somewhat near future the sun is dying and, by a simple logical process, so is the earth. The planet's most able scientists purge the land for all remaining resources and invest them in the constuction of what is pretty much just a giant nuclear bomb. Naturally, an international team of physicists and astronauts must embark into space on a ship that looks retardedly like a giant golden contact lense to ignite the bomb and "restart" the sun. Onboard the Icarus II is an oxygen replenishing garden, a freezing cold well in which computers are stored, and a room in which one character looks at the sun a lot. You can taste the originality. En route to the sun the Icarus II picks up a signal from the Icarus I, which was lost in space seven years previously. Physicist and main character Capa played by Cillian Murphy (28 Days Later, Batman Begins) makes the tough decision to change the trajectory of the ship so as to take the bomb (referred to in the film as a "payload" which opens a whole host of innuendos that I'm not even going to touch) and have a second shot at saving the world should their own payload fail. Of course... disaster, insanity, sexual tension, and terrible cinematography ensue.
Right now you are most certainly saying, "But Mike, haven't I seen this movie before?"
And the answer to your question would be "Yes" you have. This streak on the underwear of cinema is most easily described as the child of the mediocre "Armageddon" and the horrendous "Event Horizon". The ugly child. With down syndrome.
We'll get the good stuff out of the way first. Granted, what we saw was still in post-production so whoever is producing this thing could still pull the plug and leave with his dignity. Also, the CGI was incomplete but that doesn't much matter as I wasn't about to discuss the absurd overabundance of sunscape shots and poorly placed beams of light anyway.
Cillian Murphy and Rose Byrne are actually quite good. Their characters shine (har har) particularly brightly (har har) onscreen together, somehow managing to bring humanity to a bleak and dim (okay, I'll stop) screenplay. Cillian's Capa is the textbook unlikely hero, establishing himself as a big softie shortly after the film begins through a video mail to his family back on earth. He is tragically sensitive and responsive to pressure, human both in emotion and imperfection. The audience actually gives a shit when he is in danger. Rose is the likely compliment. She's the girl you grew up playing manhunt with before suddenly realizing that she's smokin' hot. She is young but subborn, petite but intelligent. Her soft presence commands scenes as they are such a contrast to nearly every other character in the movie. She is fragile. A voice of morality amongst a sea of mechanized characters and two-dimensional personalities. The two are a joy to watch and I look forward to seeing them work together in a film that doesn't take place on a fucking UFO and that wasn't written by a four year old.
Unfortunately, the good points (sans the Postal Service-esque soundtrack) end there. The rest of the movie pretty much sucks. What's-his-fuck from The Fantastic Four (Chris Evans) fills the role of the gritty loose cannon, the man dedicated so firmly to the mission that he'd sacrafice any crew member to see it through. He's the Rafael of the cast (yes, the red Ninja Turtle. Leave my analogies alone). Unfortunately for viewers of "Sunshine", his performance is about as good here as it is in TF4. Which means it isn't. Good, that is. The rest of the characters really don't fit into the group dynamic at all - from the asian chick who loves to garden to the asian dude with a terrible memory to the asian capt... wait. What the fuck? I guess in order to obtain international appeal Boyle casted as many asians as possible. He probably hates blacks and hispanics. Nazi douchebag.
I won't ruin the ending for you, or completely detail the rediculous connection to "Event Horizon" but if you're smart, you don't care anyway. 2007 brings with it Spiderman 3, Shrek the third, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, Transformers, The Simpsons, Harry Potter 5 (okay, I'm stretching) so why in God's name would you spend money on this trash? That's right. You wouldn't.
Thanks for reading, and you're welcome in advance.
Bomb the Blogosphere,
Mike
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