The plot is straightforward. The sun is dying and a mission is sent to drop a giant “solar†bomb on/in the sun to reignite it. The crew of 8 are meant to detach from the bomb and return home. An earlier mission (the spacecraft nicely called Icarus) failed for reasons unknown, and now the Icarus II is hoping to succeed. It will not be a spoiler to say that pretty much everything goes wrong. The cast includes Michelle Yeoh and Cillian Murphy and nobody else I have heard of.
I recommend this, but not as much as I had hoped. It is a Danny Boyle film, and I had hoped for something a little different out of a genre movie, just as Trainspotting and 28 Days Later offered a twist on our expectations, and also a little of Boyle’s dark humor. Instead we get a highly competent, and certainly gripping (I have no nails left), but otherwise entirely conventional sci-fi disaster movie: The Core made by adults who understand how to craft a movie. Everything takes a back seat to the special effects, which are terrific. The psychological drama of the crew falling apart and contemplating death doesn’t appear to concern Boyle at all, which is lucky because only Yeoh and Murphy appear able to act. The sun deserved a place in the credits, as there is wonderful use of light — blinding light — as the crew expose themselves to the sun voluntarily and involuntarily. Initially, it looks as though Boyle is offering an homage to 2001, as the dialogue is sparse and we are treated to endless shots of the spacecraft and its “payload.†But while Kubrick offered us a sedate, near silent, antiseptic future, Boyle’s is just plain loud, and every contemplative moment is displaced by the crash of machinery or drums and bass on the soundtrack. Near the end Boyle introduces an almost supernatural figure, which I think was unnecessary and a cheap plot device.
I have made this sound worse than it is. I just had high expectations. It is a pleasure to see a genre movie executed this well, but he could have done more.
I couldn’t agree much more with Chris’ review. One would have thought that if anyone could learn the S-F lessons of Kubrick it would be Boyle. Which are:
1. Computers don’t make noise when they do calculations.
2. There’s no sound in space because there is no air.
3. Computers with phone-sex female voices belong in Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Kevin Sorbo Sci-Fi series. Not in good movies.
It did look great, and I’m sorry to have seen it on DVD rather than on the big screen.
But what’s up with the “crazy-guy psycho killer” in the last hour? The fate of earth is in balance and the crew members are their own worst enemies. Why muddle things up with a blurry dude with a knife? There was plenty of conflict and some decent characters sketched out that could have been developed more if Blur-God had been written out.
I liked the psychologist a lot. (This was the guy from Whale Rider by the way!) I liked Chris Evans as Mace. The soundtrack – mostly by Underworld was quite excellent – and better sound design throughout would have helped greatly.
I guess I fault Alex Garland more than anyone. Having never seen Armageddon, The Core or any of that crap, I thought this was a ludicrous idea, (I prefer Event Horizon), but the dying sun is just the McGuffin to go take a drive into the sun.
I never posted on this, but I’m in agreement with both of the above. I saw it on the big(gish) screen, with huge loud pounding sound, which I think is the best way–as a pure sensory overdrive, so that all the malarkey (the lousy science, the silly plot points both Chris and Mark mention, and the dull crazy-guy twist) kind of fades into background.
why the fuck are you dumping random shit in here? i’m starting a new thread for them.
re sunshine: i too watched recently, and i think i liked it more than any of you. i liked skinless man, i liked the bad science, i liked when the human torch froze to death. this is a movie about restarting the sun–you people want it to make sense?
Speaking of ’70s films, Arnab Chakladar rearranged spells Bad Anal Chakra.
and michael reynolds rearranged spells lanced him sorely. which, of course, is mike’s porn name.