Sunshine

After his recent success reshaping the zombie movie genre with 28 Days Later, Director Danny Boyle makes a foray into the world of science fiction, creating a moody, visually stunning film that will please sci-fi geeks and leave the rest of the world confused, and a little sleepy. The sun is burning out and the human race’s last, best hope is the crew of the Icarus II, who are travelling to the edge of the sun to drop a Stellar bomb into the heart of the dying star. When the Icarus II picks up a distress signal from the original Icarus vessel, thought lost years before, they take a detour to investigate. Soon the mission is jeopardised by human error and mechanical problems but worst of all, somebody may be trying to sabotage the ship and destroy all of humanity in the process. More 2001 than Armageddon,Sunshine doesn’t follow the standard Sci-Fi blockbuster formula of big action, big excitement. The first two-thirds of the film slowly build tension, examining the beauty and claustrophobia of space travel to capture the audience’s imagination. Unfortunately the final act of the film falls apart, with the plot descending into little more than an action-thriller set aboard a spaceship. The special features are on par with the quality of the film, with deleted scenes that wouldn’t have seemed out of place within the film. The DVD features two commentaries — an energetic and entertaining monologue by director Danny Boyle and another by Dr. Brian Cox (the film’s science consultant) that’s almost as interesting as the actual movie. Boyle has also included two short films unrelated to Sunshine to showcase work that doesn’t often get seen by a large audience, Chris Sheppard’s unique live action/animated Dad’s Dead and Dan Arnold’s avant-garde Mole Hills. Sci-fi fans shouldn’t miss out on Sunshine, as it is one of the rare attempts at creating a film equivalent to the literary "hard sci-fi” genre. Hopefully this film will help promote the concept that, though special effects are an important part of any science fiction film, they need not be the driving force behind the story. Find a copy of Sunshine before it burns itself off of store shelves.