If you've seen the trailer for Danny Boyle's latest, Sunshine, then there's probably little point in seeing the rest of the film: whatever you envision in your head, thanks to a brilliantly edited and scored trailer, will most likely be more satisfying than the end result.
Which is a real shame, because for at least half of its 107 minute run-time, Sunshine has the potential to be quite good. It desperately wants to be as relevant in its genre as the films it pays homage to; and yet I'm not entirely convinced that it's knowingly tipping its hat, or whether it thinks it's being original in some misguided sense. You can happily play "spot the sub-genre reference" for a good deal of the film: there's a little Silent Running, a smattering of Star Trek, a huge portion of Alien, a healthy dash of Event Horizon, and some longing looks at 2001, and its sequel 2010.
The plot doesn't make an awful lot of sense, but you're not really given any details beyond "our sun is dying; we've strapped ourselves to the back of the biggest nuclear weapon ever invented and are heading out to reignite it". Which is okay; I can accept that. I don't really want to be bored with any technical reason why the sun's not what it used to be - in actual fact, no explanation is likely to be more conceivable than any explanation that the film attempts. I'd be happier if no mention/presentation of Earth was actually made in the film, but that's unavoidable when trying to give the characters context.
There it goes again: by trying to develop its characters, their context, and the emotional impact of being in such an essentially inhuman environment, Sunshine tries to elevate itself above the typical genre offerings. And some of the topics really are worth exploring. One member of the crew - the ship's psychiatrist - becomes obsessed with viewing the sun from the ship's observation lounge. His obsession affects him both physically and mentally, and is one of the film's more thought provoking aspects. But it never really goes anywhere.
Similarly, the film questions the nature of orders and explores the "needs of the many" aspects by introducing the temptation to board a marooned ship, just in case there are any survivors, but more importantly so that the crew can double their payload. Again, these threads don't really go anywhere. Chris Evan's character becomes the "stay on target" voice of reason, and various members of the rest of the crew contest his opinion - but that's about as far as this particular theme is pushed: it's used as a source of dramatic tension, and a catalyst for the film's ultimately disappointing finale.
Article comments
1 - Billy
This is the most realistic movie ever. Put together a crew of idiots to save humanity from an implusable threat with an even more impluasable solution not based on any known science... and if it doesnt work the first time, ignore all the obvious faults, don't find out why the first mission failed, actually don't change anything, and just keep trying until it does. Sounds like the kind of mission the government would come up with (and has before) This movie nailed it right on. =) Now if the government came up with something that made sense and was rational...that's unbelievable sci-fi.