Shines just bright enough

By: amatorian
Date: Thursday, September 27, 2007

Intelligent Science Fiction (or Speculative Fiction) is not a rarity through film history. There is a discernible prevalence of it for a great amount of time. But, the larger amount to be found is going to be that which is merely to entertain. At it's purest core, from the authors more renowned than any, it's a way of speaking to audiences of what one sees in our own world without fear of persecution. As an example, despite how flawed they ended up being, the Planet of the Apes movies are political films made when it would not have been allowed by studios. Philosophical debates of all natures can be found inside the pages or celluloid of science fiction ranging from who we are to is there a god. Giant budgets produce movies that need to make their money back so the awe and splendor of 2001: A Space Odyssey doesn't work as it did upon it's release to a current generation of moviegoers. Great intelligent speculative fiction still exists in movies, you just have to search it out.

Sunshine delivers in modest quantities.

Danny Boyle is one of those filmmakers who with each genre attempted tries to elevate it just that much more. We saw it previously, and most effectively, with his horror movie 28 Days Later. Taking a genre that is the least respected of all and harnessing the power it can provide. Shallow Grave and Trainspotting informs the viewer that this a director of formidable capabilities, extrapolating characters of believability from most circumstances. He's had his pitfalls, A Life Less Ordinary and The Beach, but still conveys effectively what we are attempting to believe in.

In Sunshine our star, Sol (the Sun), is dying. I have read they gave a reason that fits within the realm of possibility scientifically, but it is not spoken of in the movie. No reason is given, and none is needed. The first mission to save it through a jump start, what is described as making a second star within our own, did not succeed. We follow the attempt of the second mission, the Icarus 2, as it's crew try and stop a cataclysm that can wipe out all life on our planet. The crew is made up of multiple scientific minds each with their own assets, even a psychologist to help when the claustrophobia becomes too great to bare. Each one of them have their fields, their importance and the need to succeed where the previous mission failed.

Essentially we have a disaster film attaching itself to an intelligent piece of fiction and falling into place somewhere between. The frenetic pace required of the former not present and unfortunately the necessary subtlety of the latter lacking as well. What we find is a jumbled attempt at a legendary batch of movies come and gone. To compare this movie with classics, whether new or old, is preposterous. It harnesses everything they did with great care and love, but is too open about it's intent.  2001 was subtle, so much so that a great deal of the meaning inside can be lost upon first viewing.  Yet, that is what made it such a legend amongst speculative fiction movies.  Unfortunately understanding Sunshine isn't about subtlety and more of simply folliwing dialogue. The questions are there, the belief, the philosophy and all else to create something we can discuss of nuances. It's fault is not so much it's take on the material, but the legacy preceding it.

Without the necessary elements of an over-the-top action movie we can't take it as a fun ride. Yet, throwing into our faces the theoretical, even theological, references seems to retard the material.

Does this still exist within the realm of Danny Boyle's capabilities? Yes, it does quite well. This is a step above the typical speculative fiction we get at blockbuster screenings across the nation. Does it succeed in lifting itself to be on par with so many classics before it? No, it doesn't. The attempt works, and works well but doesn't hold a candle to so many other movies that dealt with what I perceive as the general basis of the movie. This isn't a movie about humanity, what we can accomplish or what we deserve. It's a tale of the individual, of the singular and how such minimal or massive differences between us make the final decision.

Acting is spot on all across the board.  Everybody, and I mean them all, does their fair share of legwork while trying to embody each persona. We feel for them, yet do not see them as a collection of nobodies, as the means to an end. Each one of these actors, not one of them huge stars, shines (no pun intended) with their collective abilities giving us a great deal of heart.  Which comes through as the best of the patchwork quilt of the movie.

In the end what this movie comes down to is what has come before it. An ancestry of films done better remind us of it's faults. To compare this to them is hard not to do, because they are what it's attempting to appease. At the same time we must remind ourselves that it's hard work with such a heritage behind. I found this movie to be vastly enjoyable and a great distraction from the current wave of mindless action sci-fi movies. Something that does ask you to think, to question and to wonder.

But not with too much brain power.

Amatorius


Click here to read the staff review by Mania.