After turning horror trendy again in 28 Days Later, Danny Boyle damn near does same for sci-fi with this gripping, scientifically plausible mission to reignite a dying Sun crippled by a collision with "Dark Matter". The feel is far more Alien and 2001 than anything Jedi-like, with Cillian Murphy and crew attempting to kick-start our sun by hurling an atom bomb of unimaginable magnitude into it. However, not killing each other first would help.
On a relatively tiny budget for this genre, the special effects are pretty impressive. Boyle and his screenwriter Alex Garland had immersed themselves in astrophysics beforehand, and luxuriate in the stunning visual possibilities of viewing the dying star up close. Not to be outshone, the cross-cultural mix of actors get to grips with the various characters' unravelling minds. Both Murphy, as an emotionally distant physicist, and a fiery Chris Evans (the hunk from The Fantastic Four) as the brash, confident engineer he rubs up against, stand-out.
"A VERY DECENT SCI-FI MOVIE"
Boyle's method is to create an entire movie as if it were the third act of some greater story, ramping up the tension from the start as one foolhardy decision expands like a virus into full-scale catastrophe. Ironically, it's the third act of this "third act" that proves a let down. A liaison with the ship of a previous mission that had mysteriously disappeared, tips events into a confusion of horror movie shocks and generally unexplained weirdness. The idea is to send you out perplexed, but chattering over possible solutions, but the salty authenticity that made it so rich is lost in space, and a superb sci-fi movie becomes merely a very decent one.
Sunshine is released in UK cinemas on Thursday 5th April 2007.
Sunshine (2007)
