Sunshine
Starring: Cillian Murphy, Cliff Curtis, Chris Evans, Rose Byrne
Director: Danny Boyle
Genre: Adventure / Sci-Fi / Thriller
Duration: 1hr 47mins
Rated: Rated R for violent content and language.
Plot: Fifty years from now, the sun is dying, and mankind is dying with it. Our last hope: a spaceship and a crew of eight men and women. They carry a device which will breathe new life into the star. But deep into their voyage, out of radio contact with Earth, their mission is starting to unravel. There is an accident, a fatal mistake, and a distress beacon from a spaceship that disappeared seven years earlier. Soon the crew is fighting not only for their lives, but their sanity.

My Review: Sunshine is a science fiction space thriller/horror movie that combines elements of 2001 Space Odyssey, Solaris, Event Horizon, and even a touch of Alien. Danny Boyle’s return to the horror genre along with a re-teaming with Cillian Murphy (28 Days Later) proved to be a very effective formula and I loved every minute of it.

Here the crew’s mission is simplistic in objectives: reach the Sun and delivery the nuclear payload. However, no good space movie can allow things to flow smoothly and uninterrupted and Sunshine is no different. When the crew of Icarus II detect the distress beacon of Icarus I, lost 7 years early without explanation, the choice is made to rendezvous with the original ship in hopes of securing an additional payload. From here things go deathly wrong as mistakes and mysterious occurrences plague the dwindling crew. With few options remaining the crew pursues its original goal but as they hurdle through space hope of success, much less survival quickly diminishes.

Sunshine is a tense and stressful thriller that continued to wear me down just as though I was one of the embattled crew members. I found the story to be very well written and flowed smoothly without disconnects between plot points. While some may have plausibility issues with the idea of long distance space travel, much less traveling to the Sun, I didn’t have any trouble just accepting that as fantastic scientific advancements over fifty years. The crucial elements of the story reminded me a lot of previous space movie favorites of mine, but they were combined together and wrapped up in a very exciting arrangement here. Think 2001 Space Odyssey on crack. Instead of calm silences and slow moving characters this story rushes at you and keeps running the whole time.

I was very pleased with the well rounded casting for Sunshine as there were no weak links in this movie’s chain. Cillian Murphy has repeatedly shown his abilities to carry large roles (Batman Begins, 28 Days Later) and this time around is no different. Murphy plays the crew physicist who is burdened not only by the weight of managing their nuclear payload but also must confront obstacle after obstacle in his continuous struggle to complete his mission. Cliff Curtis plays the team’s psychologist Searle, a man who might not be on top of his own mental game when it comes to basking in too much sunshine in the ship’s sunroom. While Murphy may have been billed as the marquee actor I believe it was Chris Evans that stole the show with his role as Mace the ship’s engineering lead. Evans embodies the entire theme of selflessness and continuous heroism and bravery at every single turn. He brought a thrilling aspect to the story as he would pursue the most dangerous route if it meant ensuring the payload’s arrival at its destination. Many of these decisions weighed on the intensity of the film as he pushed each character to make the hardest choices. After Evans has been mostly relegated to sillier roles in movies like the Fantastic Four franchises and Not Another Teen Movie I’m hoping this performance will provide him a vehicle for more serious opportunities.

I would definitely recommend Sunshine. This is a space action movie at its finest combining great characters and an exciting storyline. Considering the weak marketing for this film and how it was sneaked into theaters I would suggest going to see it soon as it probably won’t last much longer.

My rating: 5/5 stars
High point: non-stop, intense thriller
Low point: none for me

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