Sunshine

Posted by christopher on January 31, 2011

Sunshine is a movie I was keenly interested in. While it’s somewhat dated today, coming out in 2007, the moment I first heard of it I was instantly captivated.

As a self-aware geek, I quite enjoy a sci-fi that is based in reality: futuristic but educated; full of imagination but plausible. And while any fact that I’ve read regarding our life-giving star Sol suggests it will well outlive humanity, the response played out in this movie is generally well founded and reasonably executed.

But before I get ahead of myself, in a quick summary: the sun is “dying” causing global cooling, which the viewer is led to believe is causing suffering, requiring a drastic response in the form of some kind of fusion-igniting bomb package delivered into the sun.

For me, the concept of the sun dying and our response was what initially sold me. And while the first quarter of Sunshine delivers interesting exposition, leading the viewer into a hopeful experience, executing a solitary space-oriented film is difficult without cliches: things go awry, difficult decisions need to be made, calamity ensues. And, again, while this experience in-and-of itself is at least entertaining, Sunshine delivers a twist which is alluded to and ultimately expected, leaving me to feel cheated and certainly let down by the overall experience. In other words, Sunshine turns from one genre, which I find interesting, to another. Yet the flip does not feel true; it feels forced, with characters and sub-plots introduced but not fully explored, which ultimately don’t contribute to the outcome of the overarching story. This leads me to believe that Sunshine was either born of an interesting concept that may have been better suited for a short film, or was forcibly modified in an attempt to potentially capture mainstream appeal.

Hope, however, is not completely lost. I actually did learn about space through the film–though through my own exploration, the film brought up the questions and was generally true to scientific consensus. In a similar vain and as I stated initially, the science fiction was well thought out; I can foresee the technology following a path similar to what was in the film, from the design of the spacecraft and how oxygen is maintained in long journeys to the more extreme earth room. The film also delivered realism in what longer-term space travel might feel like, what would be required from a psychological perspective, and how we may react to an abundant resource becoming scarce. On this note and finally, there are many moments of excellence where the actors and actresses reactions are captured, the camera focusing on their faces, both in awe and desperation, engaging me with the movie and character and balancing the drawbacks.

I feel I have been harsh on Sunshine. My expectations were high and ultimately not met. The ‘thriller’ aspects of the movie were too heavy, but the film does entertain and would be enjoyed by most.

The Verdict:

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