I've got a real problem with this movie...
Added 3/14/2010
So, (spoiler alert) the sun is going out and the people on the spaceship are going to restart it and save the earth. They have a lot of challenges to overcome like in any movie, and then they overcome them. But here's the thing about the movie that you won't believe: no one ever looks really serious and says "It's daylight saving time."
Not one character. No one says "It's daylight saving time." In the entire movie. I know you don't think it's possible, but if you watch it you'll feel like you wasted 4 hours of your life (time moves slower when you're waiting for someone to deliver an amazing line). What were the writers thinking!?
797 out of 837 people found this helpful.
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Captivated, yet bored...strange
Added 3/13/2010
I completely understand why people would hate this film. The final act is such a violent swerve in pace and story, a bad misdirection, that it detracts from the whole.
However, the subduing soundtrack, mixed with some vibrant, beautiful, directing techniques had me transfixed.
The story is of the dysfunctional crew of the Pegasus. A deepspace craft whose sole purpose is to reignite our dying star. Much like Pacino's 'Insomnia' there is a strong sense of days, weeks and months bluring into one long day. The editing and direction conveys the lulling, tired and taught crew's emotions with vivid perfection.
I found a wonderful beat to the action, which is slow, akin to 2001 Space Oyssey. But the majesty of the voyage, the Pegasus, and the relationships of the fraught crew is very gripping.
It's a shame Boyle didn't have a great ending, as what he came up with feels a little like he had a great concept but couldn't fulfil the final act. That's probably a little unfair as it does fit well with the theme of finding and becoming God, the giver of life. Still, the Zombie-esque finale doesn't quite fit.
It's not a film for most, perobably a sunday afternoon film to snooze to in most cases, but I liked it.
Space is Man's final conquest. The nature of our species is to explore and discover. It's what drives us to evolve. Our Solar system is so close, yet so far from our grasp, and anything that brings me closer to it excites my senses.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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Over and under baked
Added 3/13/2010
The camera angles, framing (how close we are to the subjects), editing and composition of the internal shots are way, way over done. I felt like I was watching someone parodying a Paul Greengrass film (as if such awfulness like the Bourne sequels isn't bad enough strait-up) while borrowing further stylistic aesthetics from better director's like Michael Winterbottom. Shot after shot is partially obscured, dutched, lens flared, and/or is too close... and scenes continue for the most part with more subsequent shots that are just random variations on these ones they began with. We rarely have a sense of geography outside of what we can piece together like some kind of puzzle. The cinematography and editing just call attention to themselves in Sunshine without lending emotion or substance. It does not aid plot development. It does not "paint" our emotional response uniquely. Just gimmick. Again, I'm not talking about the effects or the externals, though one could make the case of the latter being neglected further by insufficient geographic lucidity. I'll give a pass on that due to it succeeding in revealing the grandness of the ship's structure over successive, disparate scenes.
Even more problematic is the lack of character development by showing strengths, weaknesses, insecurities, and joys. We just kind of get thrown into this motley crew without being given any reason to care about them. Sure, Earth is in trouble but considering it's in the future and we don't know what they're like back home, for all I know it's now just a planet of texting automatons not worthy of saving. For that matter, this crew itself lacks maturity, professionalism, and many other attributes you find in pilots, astronauts, and accomplished scientists. They whine & stress about dying, and argue like a bunch of junior high girls. Before we know it, there's the formulaic plot devices reminiscent of Mission to Mars or Deep Core where one technical problem after another needs to be overcome in sequence as the characters are lost to attrition until only the final few remain. This is fulfilled by such absurdities like airlocks needing to be manually triggered from within, even though there's a guy in a space suite that could stay behind so someone doesn't actually need to be left behind to die. These are contrivances that such a weak script relies upon to propel us to further heights of suspense, and then finally an ending.
I was hoping the basic story concept and painstaking effects would be matched with substance and intelligence at some point in the film to justify them. Some patience. Some interesting interpersonal dialogue. Some genuine teamwork, compassion, and illustration of their acquired skills. Striking visuals and some droney, heavily-reverbed emo music can't fill in those gaps. Turning up a knob that actually says "resonance" can't be such a crutch. It could have augmented a better film, so I waited and watched. Unfortunately, Sunshine takes a turn for the highly predictable, which I suppose Boyle tried to remedy by further gee-wiz obscuring post-production effects to make it more cryptic and interesting. Well, it's certainly visually cryptic to a point, even perhaps welcome in making the gore more palatable, but the look on my face was probably one more of disappointment and amazement that *this* is what a Danny Boyle sci-fi outing turned out as. I am admittedly shocked at how much I disliked this film. My friends would ordinarily assume this would be right up my alley. I loved Trainspotting. I enjoy science fiction. The cast was alright. Perhaps it didn't get the critical acclaim it didn't deserve and that's why I didn't hear about it until now...?
0 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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Sunshine shines
Added 3/9/2010
SUNSHINE is an epic sci-fi thinker. The effects and the science behind the mission to our nearest star are both interesting and reasonably plausible. Of course, the movie takes theatrical liberties, but all in all the integrity of the film stays intact. The movie is more about psychology than it is about anything else. There are confusing moments, but for the most part the plot is solid and engaging. The acting is very good. The emotional investment comes at a much slower pace than movies like ARMAGEDON, but it still resonates. Great film for thinkers!
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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Great Sci-Fi
Added 3/3/2010
I agree with most of the other reviews that this is a great sci-fi flick with a disappointing ending. I didn't hate the ending, just thought they could have come up with something better. But that doesn't stop this from being a very good film. Good acting, good story, great special effects.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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I've got a real problem with this movie...
Added 3/14/2010
So, (spoiler alert) the sun is going out and the people on the spaceship are going to restart it and save the earth. They have a lot of challenges to overcome like in any movie, and then they overcome them. But here's the thing about the movie that you won't believe: no one ever looks really serious and says "It's daylight saving time."
Not one character. No one says "It's daylight saving time." In the entire movie. I know you don't think it's possible, but if you watch it you'll feel like you wasted 4 hours of your life (time moves slower when you're waiting for someone to deliver an amazing line). What were the writers thinking!?
797 out of 837 people found this helpful.
|
Captivated, yet bored...strange
Added 3/13/2010
I completely understand why people would hate this film. The final act is such a violent swerve in pace and story, a bad misdirection, that it detracts from the whole.
However, the subduing soundtrack, mixed with some vibrant, beautiful, directing techniques had me transfixed.
The story is of the dysfunctional crew of the Pegasus. A deepspace craft whose sole purpose is to reignite our dying star. Much like Pacino's 'Insomnia' there is a strong sense of days, weeks and months bluring into one long day. The editing and direction conveys the lulling, tired and taught crew's emotions with vivid perfection.
I found a wonderful beat to the action, which is slow, akin to 2001 Space Oyssey. But the majesty of the voyage, the Pegasus, and the relationships of the fraught crew is very gripping.
It's a shame Boyle didn't have a great ending, as what he came up with feels a little like he had a great concept but couldn't fulfil the final act. That's probably a little unfair as it does fit well with the theme of finding and becoming God, the giver of life. Still, the Zombie-esque finale doesn't quite fit.
It's not a film for most, perobably a sunday afternoon film to snooze to in most cases, but I liked it.
Space is Man's final conquest. The nature of our species is to explore and discover. It's what drives us to evolve. Our Solar system is so close, yet so far from our grasp, and anything that brings me closer to it excites my senses.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
Over and under baked
Added 3/13/2010
The camera angles, framing (how close we are to the subjects), editing and composition of the internal shots are way, way over done. I felt like I was watching someone parodying a Paul Greengrass film (as if such awfulness like the Bourne sequels isn't bad enough strait-up) while borrowing further stylistic aesthetics from better director's like Michael Winterbottom. Shot after shot is partially obscured, dutched, lens flared, and/or is too close... and scenes continue for the most part with more subsequent shots that are just random variations on these ones they began with. We rarely have a sense of geography outside of what we can piece together like some kind of puzzle. The cinematography and editing just call attention to themselves in Sunshine without lending emotion or substance. It does not aid plot development. It does not "paint" our emotional response uniquely. Just gimmick. Again, I'm not talking about the effects or the externals, though one could make the case of the latter being neglected further by insufficient geographic lucidity. I'll give a pass on that due to it succeeding in revealing the grandness of the ship's structure over successive, disparate scenes.
Even more problematic is the lack of character development by showing strengths, weaknesses, insecurities, and joys. We just kind of get thrown into this motley crew without being given any reason to care about them. Sure, Earth is in trouble but considering it's in the future and we don't know what they're like back home, for all I know it's now just a planet of texting automatons not worthy of saving. For that matter, this crew itself lacks maturity, professionalism, and many other attributes you find in pilots, astronauts, and accomplished scientists. They whine & stress about dying, and argue like a bunch of junior high girls. Before we know it, there's the formulaic plot devices reminiscent of Mission to Mars or Deep Core where one technical problem after another needs to be overcome in sequence as the characters are lost to attrition until only the final few remain. This is fulfilled by such absurdities like airlocks needing to be manually triggered from within, even though there's a guy in a space suite that could stay behind so someone doesn't actually need to be left behind to die. These are contrivances that such a weak script relies upon to propel us to further heights of suspense, and then finally an ending.
I was hoping the basic story concept and painstaking effects would be matched with substance and intelligence at some point in the film to justify them. Some patience. Some interesting interpersonal dialogue. Some genuine teamwork, compassion, and illustration of their acquired skills. Striking visuals and some droney, heavily-reverbed emo music can't fill in those gaps. Turning up a knob that actually says "resonance" can't be such a crutch. It could have augmented a better film, so I waited and watched. Unfortunately, Sunshine takes a turn for the highly predictable, which I suppose Boyle tried to remedy by further gee-wiz obscuring post-production effects to make it more cryptic and interesting. Well, it's certainly visually cryptic to a point, even perhaps welcome in making the gore more palatable, but the look on my face was probably one more of disappointment and amazement that *this* is what a Danny Boyle sci-fi outing turned out as. I am admittedly shocked at how much I disliked this film. My friends would ordinarily assume this would be right up my alley. I loved Trainspotting. I enjoy science fiction. The cast was alright. Perhaps it didn't get the critical acclaim it didn't deserve and that's why I didn't hear about it until now...?
0 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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