50 years in the future, Earth's Sun is dying.
Rating: 7/10
Running Time: 107 minutes
On DVD
Ever wondered what we’d do if the sun started to die? According to Danny Boyle, we’ll have to man a spaceship to the dying star and fling a few nukes in to give it a kind of nuclear CPR. In Sunshine, the job falls to the crew of the Icarus II spacecraft (Icarus I tried and went missing), who have one last chance to save the sun and consequently the world. At first, everything goes to plan for Capa (Murphy), Corazon (Yeo), Kaneda (Sanada), Trey (Wong) and company, until Trey makes a mistake with his calculations that leaves the fate of the crew and earth hanging in the balance. To make it worse, they stumble upon the abandoned Icarus I spacecraft and find that all is not right onboard.
For the first two thirds of the film, Sunshine is a real joy to watch. The eerie atmosphere onboard is built up and it’s the musings of a deep, refreshingly international crew of astronauts that are at the centre of things. An epic soundtrack fused with amazing visuals of a dying sun creates an experience that makes the hairs on your neck stand on end. The end of the world really looks beautiful and I hope I’m there when it happens. It really is a shame that barely anyone went to see this when it was out on the big screen where you could have seen it in all it’s glory. Now, your mission is to buy, borrow or steal the biggest television you can get and take away it’s virginity with this beast.
However, it all goes wrong, as all of a sudden it takes a turn for the worse and descends into standard slasher-in-space fare. The attention is taken away from the characters and the stunning cinematography and transferred to some substandard violent action akin to Event Horizon or Friday 13th. It’s a silly stretch of the imagination that ruins a semi-feasible premise and seems like a way to end things with a lack of suitable alternatives.
It's Got: Mind blowing visuals, epic soundtrack, silly plot devices
It Needs: For you to find the biggest screen you can
DVD Extras Some excellent featurettes describing the behind the scenes and scientifics elements of the film, relevant deleted scenes and commentaries, alternate ending, Two complete unrelated but very good shorts, Dad's Dead and Mole Hills. Brilliant package. DVD Extras Rating: 9/10
Summary
Looks and sounds fabulous but gets a little bit silly in the end.