This evening, I went to see Sunshine, the stark new science fiction film by Danny Boyle about a doomed mission to reignite a dying sun. It's a film that's going to hang with me for a while -- the sort of experience that stuns you into silence for a while afterward.The movie is a strange mix of contradictions.
One moment, it's claustrophobic and intimate, like a stage play with a small cast. The next moment, there's sweeping vistas and grandeur like the effects sequences the original Star Trek movie.
One moment, it's cold and literal, like the director's previous film, 28 Days Later. The next moment, it's completely non-literal, metaphorical and metaphysical, like some of the more bizarre sequences of 2001.
One moment, it feels like it's on the cusp of being a full-out summer sci-fi movie. The next, it's reigned back in to the "art house."
I can say this for sure. The first hour and fifteen minutes or so are completely amazing. It's tense like the original Alien, The Thing, and other such confined suspense films.
And then there's an ending that you'll probably either love or hate. I think I'm leaning toward the former, but I won't deny that the style of it doesn't really fit with what precedes it.
But I do recommend seeing it with some friends who will want to discuss and dissect it. And I very much recommend seeing it in the theater, rather than waiting for video -- there's something undeniably "big screen experience"y about this movie that I suspect will get lost in the translation to home video.
I give the movie a B+ overall. Though anyone else who has seen it could probably open up a discussion with me that might very well shift that rating up or down. It's just that kind of a movie.
1 comment:
Spoilers lurk ahead, don't say I didn't warn you.
The first time I saw it, it was on a DVD screener and I was struck by how much it needed seen on a big screen. I loved about the first 2/3 of the movie - and then was kind of jarred by the sudden turn it took into a slasher film kind of territory.
My opinion changed on the second viewing however. On the big screen, the visuals impact you more and you seem to get a clearer view of the turmoil and fear that is in each of these people. They're not all astronauts (as you find when Cillian Murphy's character is going on the spacewalk and he's reminded that he's done spacewalks in simulation dozens of times.) They're all trying to save humanity, but they don't quite realize how brave they really are until they're faced with never seeing what they're going to accomplish - never going home.
And the killer...well...I bought him a whole lot more. After seeing how intent the others were on completing their mission, I found it much more plausible that someone out in the nothing by themselves for so long would go crazy; would develop a god complex and decide that humanity didn't need saving and try to stop the missions from being accomplished. I think the fact that you never really make him out visually helped convey the real "inhumanity" of what he had become.
In the end, I thought it was one of the better science fiction films I'd seen in a long time. One that didn't rely on aliens, crappy one liners, and Michael Bay. >:) Just one that had well crafted characters, a cohesive story, and makes you think about humanity and where you fit in it.
Just my 2 cents though. ;)
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