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Hey guys! :D It's been a long time (since Agora) since I've written my thoughts about a movie, and mere reason being... I rarely see anything good enough to compel me to write about it. xD But, as always, European cinema is full of treasures, and this one deserves a mention me thinks.
Movie Review for: Sunshine
Story and Presentation: In the 2050's, a Q-Ball enters our Sun and begins eating it away. The spaceship, Icarus II, is to re-ignite the Sun using a large fissile "stellar bomb". For anyone with a decent amount of scientific knowledge, the premise for the story probably sounds very ridiculous. But that is the amazing thing about this film: It somehow made a highly believable, beautiful, touching drama out of that premise, I simply didn't care about the technical inaccuracies in the film - because the rest of the film is so strong, suspending disbelief wasn't at all a problem. There were no over-the-top action scenes, none of the characters did anything stupid or tried to be a hero, and the camera angles were all fairly traditional (I think that is part of the problem with Hollywood films - everyone's having so much fun with CG's and doing crazy things with their virtual cameras, they forget the root of cinematography. They forget how to frame shots, how to establish lighting and mood; they forget what "artistic" even means in cinema). Can you imagine if Hollywood tried to make a movie with a similar premise? I can: That movie was called The Core and it is better left forgotten. The only problem I have with the story is the decision to introduce Pinbacker (the captain from the first Icarus) into the story as a monster-like character, which basically turned the latter half of the film into a horror/slasher movie, which IMO was just unnecessary, and really takes away from the emotional poignancy the film otherwise has.
Character Development: The characters in Sunshine were all very believable. I really liked how each of them are flawed in their own ways, which impacts them when they are forced to make tough decisions. For example, Cassie (the most emotional and gentle of the crew) put the mission at jeopardy on several occasions because she cannot stand the thought of sacrificing a colleague to save their mission. The ship's doctor and botanist, Coryzon, has a strong attachment to the plants in the ship's garden, and when the garden caught fire, she tried to force her way through the door even though the garden was already lost. The communications officer/acting captain, Mace, had a moment of cowardice when they were trapped on another ship and tried to gain control of the only space suit available (the other crew members gave the suit to Capa, the ship's physicist, because he's the only one who can operate the stellar bomb). In essence, I loved everyone on the crew - they were all believable characters, with their strengths and weaknesses, which are all consistently portrayed during the course of the film (in other words, they were memorable because they all had very distinct personalities... Hollywood, take some lessons?) The moral dilemmas in the film are all very well-presented and made for some very interesting character dynamics. The question "Can you weigh the life of one against the survival of humanity?" came up several times during the film, and the scientists and astronauts repeatedly made the hard choice rather than "try and save everyone". Hollywood films ALWAYS try to save everyone, and of course things always turn out to be okay - that overt sense of implausible optimism and American can-do-ism always bugged me - in fact, the director commented on that, saying if the Americans made the film, they would have named the ship "Spirit of Hope" or "Ship of Destiny", but he chose the name "Icarus" to portray the sense of bleakness that is persistent throughout the film. According to the Wiki, the film's writer meant to depict the "necessary arrogance of science" in his story, and I think the point came across rather well - however politically incorrect it may seem, sometimes the only way to make the best, most informed decision for the society is by leaving those decisions in the hands of people who are actually knowledgeable and informed. As stated by the Icarus II's psych officer Searle, who went against the idea of having a vote when they were deciding whether or not to rendezvous with their sister ship, "We are not a democracy. We are a collection of astronauts and scientists, and we are gonna make the most informed decision available to us: Made by the person best qualified to understand the complexities of payload deliveries - our physicist." The last thing worth mentioning is the Sun being depicted as sort of a character - there is (arguably) a slight mythical element to the film, as implied by the crew of the first Icarus going insane by staring into the Sun for too long (both Searle and Kaneda were seen lost in thoughts as they stare into the Sun as well; and the film does imply that Searle may be going down the same path of insanity as Pinbacker). Pinbacker is, according to the Wiki, supposed to be a deeply religious man who believed God meant for the human race to die out, but the way I read it from the film is that he stared into the Sun for so long and began to see the Sun as his God, and therefore the Sun chose to let mankind die. Either way, it was an interesting plot element, and I liked how at the end of the film, when Capa fell into the center of the Sun in the stellar bomb, he was able to see and touch the inner core of the Sun (because space and time is completely distorted) - an act I interpret as "touching the face of God". I think the idea itself is quite beautiful.
Cinematography and Special Effects: As I mentioned briefly before, the visual elements in this film really shines. For one, I really really like industrial designs in sci-fi films, and Sunshine manages to do that without making everything look hideous or boring. It didn't resort to making everything all sleek, shiney, minimalist and touch-screen (like... Avatar, and Prometheus... gosh I can't even tell the visual designs apart in contemporary American sci-fi titles anymore), and to me that is much more plausible. The few scenes of outer space were breath-taking, and really depicts that sense of vast loneliness. Space is something that is to both be feared and awed, and the film gets that across beautifully. Again, kudos on the more traditional camera angles used for the SFX scenes - nothing in the visual presentation broke the audience's immersion in the film.
Soundtrack: The music for Sunshine is the kind of drawn-out ambiance similar to ones used in EvE Online and X3: Reunion, which I just loooooooove - I think the music is about as perfect as it can be for the space sci-fi genre.
Movie Review for: Sunshine
Story and Presentation: In the 2050's, a Q-Ball enters our Sun and begins eating it away. The spaceship, Icarus II, is to re-ignite the Sun using a large fissile "stellar bomb". For anyone with a decent amount of scientific knowledge, the premise for the story probably sounds very ridiculous. But that is the amazing thing about this film: It somehow made a highly believable, beautiful, touching drama out of that premise, I simply didn't care about the technical inaccuracies in the film - because the rest of the film is so strong, suspending disbelief wasn't at all a problem. There were no over-the-top action scenes, none of the characters did anything stupid or tried to be a hero, and the camera angles were all fairly traditional (I think that is part of the problem with Hollywood films - everyone's having so much fun with CG's and doing crazy things with their virtual cameras, they forget the root of cinematography. They forget how to frame shots, how to establish lighting and mood; they forget what "artistic" even means in cinema). Can you imagine if Hollywood tried to make a movie with a similar premise? I can: That movie was called The Core and it is better left forgotten. The only problem I have with the story is the decision to introduce Pinbacker (the captain from the first Icarus) into the story as a monster-like character, which basically turned the latter half of the film into a horror/slasher movie, which IMO was just unnecessary, and really takes away from the emotional poignancy the film otherwise has.
Character Development: The characters in Sunshine were all very believable. I really liked how each of them are flawed in their own ways, which impacts them when they are forced to make tough decisions. For example, Cassie (the most emotional and gentle of the crew) put the mission at jeopardy on several occasions because she cannot stand the thought of sacrificing a colleague to save their mission. The ship's doctor and botanist, Coryzon, has a strong attachment to the plants in the ship's garden, and when the garden caught fire, she tried to force her way through the door even though the garden was already lost. The communications officer/acting captain, Mace, had a moment of cowardice when they were trapped on another ship and tried to gain control of the only space suit available (the other crew members gave the suit to Capa, the ship's physicist, because he's the only one who can operate the stellar bomb). In essence, I loved everyone on the crew - they were all believable characters, with their strengths and weaknesses, which are all consistently portrayed during the course of the film (in other words, they were memorable because they all had very distinct personalities... Hollywood, take some lessons?) The moral dilemmas in the film are all very well-presented and made for some very interesting character dynamics. The question "Can you weigh the life of one against the survival of humanity?" came up several times during the film, and the scientists and astronauts repeatedly made the hard choice rather than "try and save everyone". Hollywood films ALWAYS try to save everyone, and of course things always turn out to be okay - that overt sense of implausible optimism and American can-do-ism always bugged me - in fact, the director commented on that, saying if the Americans made the film, they would have named the ship "Spirit of Hope" or "Ship of Destiny", but he chose the name "Icarus" to portray the sense of bleakness that is persistent throughout the film. According to the Wiki, the film's writer meant to depict the "necessary arrogance of science" in his story, and I think the point came across rather well - however politically incorrect it may seem, sometimes the only way to make the best, most informed decision for the society is by leaving those decisions in the hands of people who are actually knowledgeable and informed. As stated by the Icarus II's psych officer Searle, who went against the idea of having a vote when they were deciding whether or not to rendezvous with their sister ship, "We are not a democracy. We are a collection of astronauts and scientists, and we are gonna make the most informed decision available to us: Made by the person best qualified to understand the complexities of payload deliveries - our physicist." The last thing worth mentioning is the Sun being depicted as sort of a character - there is (arguably) a slight mythical element to the film, as implied by the crew of the first Icarus going insane by staring into the Sun for too long (both Searle and Kaneda were seen lost in thoughts as they stare into the Sun as well; and the film does imply that Searle may be going down the same path of insanity as Pinbacker). Pinbacker is, according to the Wiki, supposed to be a deeply religious man who believed God meant for the human race to die out, but the way I read it from the film is that he stared into the Sun for so long and began to see the Sun as his God, and therefore the Sun chose to let mankind die. Either way, it was an interesting plot element, and I liked how at the end of the film, when Capa fell into the center of the Sun in the stellar bomb, he was able to see and touch the inner core of the Sun (because space and time is completely distorted) - an act I interpret as "touching the face of God". I think the idea itself is quite beautiful.
Cinematography and Special Effects: As I mentioned briefly before, the visual elements in this film really shines. For one, I really really like industrial designs in sci-fi films, and Sunshine manages to do that without making everything look hideous or boring. It didn't resort to making everything all sleek, shiney, minimalist and touch-screen (like... Avatar, and Prometheus... gosh I can't even tell the visual designs apart in contemporary American sci-fi titles anymore), and to me that is much more plausible. The few scenes of outer space were breath-taking, and really depicts that sense of vast loneliness. Space is something that is to both be feared and awed, and the film gets that across beautifully. Again, kudos on the more traditional camera angles used for the SFX scenes - nothing in the visual presentation broke the audience's immersion in the film.
Soundtrack: The music for Sunshine is the kind of drawn-out ambiance similar to ones used in EvE Online and X3: Reunion, which I just loooooooove - I think the music is about as perfect as it can be for the space sci-fi genre.