Sunshine DVD Review

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"Sunshine" reviews

DVD

Sunshine

Author

anonymous

Date reviewed

2007-08-17 14:50:25

Provider

DVD Review

The director-writer team of Danny Boyle and Alex Garland (28 Days Later and The Beach) tackle another genre, with Brit actors Cillian Murphy and Mark Strong tagging along in this space thriller.

In the mid-21st century the sun is dying and threatening to take mankind with it. A motley crew is on a fateful journey, transporting a massive nuclear bomb - as big as Manhattan - to be cast into the sun to create new life and save our solar system. However, a decision to divert their course to pick up an extra bomb throws their lives and mission into jeopardy.

Their spaceship, Icarus II, is an impressive vessel with vast life support systems and a big reflective dish to prevent it being destroyed by its proximity to the sun. Murphy is suitably brooding as the physics expert, Capa, who must launch the bomb, and his striking eyes are thoroughly utilised by the cameras. The other actors are solid but too short on material to create believable, rounded characters.

The key problem with Sunshine is that it's all rather too familiar. The style and formulaic plot borrow heavily from 2010 and Event Horizon, while the visual extremes of the Alien franchise are in evidence in what, ultimately, becomes a disjointed, episodic story with too many unresolved strands.

Despite this, the slick direction bowls things along and the effects and use of light are genuinely fantastic to behold. Visually engaging then but predictable and derivative, Sunshine casts little fresh light on a fantastic genre in need of a new angle. Best seen on the big screen, this is one title which might be better to rent before you buy.