Review: Sunshine

Sunshine, Danny Boyle's first foray into science fiction, had me wondering something: Why aren't more space movies made? You really only see maybe one of them a year.

The plot of Sunshine is as follows: The Sun has been penetrated by a Q-Ball, a theoretical quantum particle, and it's dying. The Earth has been covered in a solar winter and an attempt to travel to the Sun was made by a ship, Icarus I, 7 years ago (Icarus? Who, in their right mind, would name a ship Icarus? Why would that make the crew feel any better about their mission's success?). Their mission was to deliver a large nuclear payload into the center of the Sun, knocking out the Q-Ball. With Icarus I missing, Earth sends Icarus 2, and that is where the film begins.

The film is spread into three acts, and if you know anything about how a story is told, you can probably guess what happens. Act I, introducing the characters and the story. Act 2, something goes horribly wrong. It's Act 3 that most people have been criticizing in this film. In Act 3, the movie takes somewhat of a metaphysical turn, and it surprised people to say the least. In the genre of science fiction, extremely far-out situations are expected, however they're all grounded, albeit theoretically, in science. That's how people can explain away things like time travel. Danny Boyle takes us to a different realm with Sunshine. I don't want to post any spoilers in here, so I won't go into any detail about the film. All I'm asking is that you approach it with an open mind.

Visually, this film is stunning. I always love the cinematography in space movies. Soderbergh's Solaris was beautiful, Aronofsky's The Fountain was amazingly gorgeous, and Sunshine follows suit. This is definitely a movie to see in theaters. If anything, the absolute size of the objects in space, and how they dwarf the microcosm of man, will only be magnified by the hugeness of the screen placed in front of you at the theater.

8 / 10