Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Movie Review: Sunshine

I'd heard some people grumbling about this movie. They said there were four storylines and they tried cramming them all into one movie. So it was with some hesitation that I went to see it anyway.

In "Sunshine" the sun is slowly dying a few billion years early. Mankind goes forth to reignite the sun. The first ship, Icarus, disappeared shortly after passing beyond communication range. That was seven years ago. Now Icarus II is trying to complete the mission.
The movie starts just as Icarus II is reaching the limit of communication ability. The solar interference is becoming too great. This is a bit dubious since we later find out they haven't yet passed inside the orbit of Mercury.

You know something has to go wrong. It's just a question of what.
More and more crew members are spending time in the observation deck with the filter as low as possible for them to survive. Maybe they're going mad.
Some of the crew is having nightmares about dying on the Sun. Premonitions or just stress?

Naturally, they get a distress signal from Icarus. Do they complete the mission as is or do they try to get a backup bomb from Icarus? Not much of a movie if they don't visit Icarus. That's when things start going wrong and people start dying. You don't think maybe whatever stopped Icarus might get you, too?

There's a few points where the science goes wrong. I only mention that because they were trying to get so much right. The Icarus II has a big hydroponic garden to provide oxygen and some variety in their diet. Most sci-fi movies never show it if they mention it at all. The ship looks like something 21st century humans might make instead of a sci-fi ship that just looks like a building with style.

It's not an "Armageddon" style sci-fi. They treated it more like "2001: A Space Odyssey".

I liked it, but I'm on the fence about whether to get it on DVD or not.

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