I saw Danny Boyle's Sunshine last Tuesday at the Lagoon Cinema. I had no expectation of what a Boyle Sci-Fi film would look like. The first surprise was the movie is pretty HARD SCI-FI.. meaning it's very conscious of the SCIENCE in its FICTION.
The story is driven by the premise that the Sun's degeneration has accelerated and it will cool to the point of human extinction in X number of years. I'll buy that for a dollar. From there out, it's a race against time and circumstance to hit a precise trajectory in the Sun's core with a manned star-igniting device. OK, I will pitch in another buck for that too.
That being said, the film was spectacular in its visuals of space, the ship and the Sun, reminding me of seeing 2001 A Space Odyssey for the first time. For somebody who actually watches the NASA channel for space videos, this movie was tremendously satisfying on a visual level. The sound palette was also rich and well applied.
The story had solid moral fiber with some Lifeboat dilemmas and technical challenges. The characters are complex enough to be interesting and dynamic, as is their struggle to balance their present crisis against their Earth-saving mission.
It was great to see my [other] girlfriend Michelle Yeoh in a role outside her type casting as that Asian woman. They gave her a dense and credible role as the ship's botanist and Life Support tech. Same with seeing Cliff Curtis as something other than that threatening foreign guy. The cast got a lot of meat to work with and turned in some... ahem... stellar [cough] performances.
I was impressed at Boyle's flexibility in directing. There are few traces of his earlier work to be recognized in this film. It seemed more like the work of a Russian Sci-Fi auteur. The movie ranges from homages to John Carpenter's Dark Star and some genuinely emotional moments. I was very happy to see Boyle avoided the obligatory romance subplot! Kudos. Like Ang Lee, he is bound to no genre, which puts him is a rare class of directors. I am already excited to see Slumdog Millionaire, not due out til 2009.
My favorite part of the movie is a moral dilemma regarding the ship's ability to sustain all the crew members to the point of payload delivery. The scene was handled deftly and packed a subtle gut punch, followed by an unexpectedly quiet and tragic moment.
For a movie that could have gotten away with just its CGI splendor and Indie star power, Sunshine works very hard for your $8.50. In fact, I will use this movie as a benchmark to develop my film rating system.
I rate films based on their worth to see.
0. Two hours of your life regretfully wasted
1. FREE at somebody's house
2. Rent the DVD
3. See it at the second-run theater
4. See it at the first-run theater - matinée
5. See it at the first-run theater - full price
6. See it opening night
7. Drive to another town to see it.
Sunshine was eminently worthy of a 5. See it at the first-run theater - full price. In fact, I will go again to see it with somebody.
