Sunshine - You won't need your sunglasses.

I saw Sunshine on Friday and it wasn't a very bright film.

If you forget that little known fact that anything attempting to go into the Sun will melt; then the theory is bright (oxygen gardens, sun shields etc…), but that is about it.

The film was just a mess. Was it a horror? Not really. Was it a slasher? For about two minutes. Was it a thriller? I can't say I was thrilled.

SPOILERS!

Now call me stupid, but I knew what the film was about (the Sun is failing etc…) and I guessed they were going to fix it in the end, so the film wasn't going to impress me by achieving that goal. How the film gets to the end was going to be my bit of entertainment for the afternoon.

The build up was okay. A bit of techno-explaining dropped in here and there to make things interesting, then they find the first (presumed lost) ship they sent on the same mission 7 years earlier. They go after it and Captain is killed correcting the result of a mistake made by a crew member (very heroic), and they loose their oxygen so they can't make it to the Sun. People must die to save oxygen, and whilst on the other ship (which his broken so they can't use the oxygen there), two more crew members are killed. Only one more and they will have enough air to breathe, so remaining members decide to off the guy who screwed up and is now on suicide watch because his mistake killed the Captain, but he has committed suicide (wey hey!), no we don't see a difficult choice followed through.

Then we have something like:

Crew Member: "Computer; Isn't is great we now have enough air to get to the Sun"
Computer: "No you don't"
Crew Member: "Yes we do!"
Computer: "No you don't"
Crew Member: "There are 4 people, we have enough air for 4 people"
Computer: "There are 5 people on board, you don't have enough air."

Then we have a two minute slasher movie, where for some reason that is NEVER explained, the Captain of the first ship has survived and tries to kill everyone so they can't defy God's will by 'saving' the Sun.

Now, all of that should make a pretty exiting film, but what was presented in the cinema missed the boat by a mile. There was never a single point in the film when I thought "how on earth are they going to do it now?". Even when the Captain from the other ship started killing people the worst I thought was "well that's inconvenient". No explanation given as to how he survived exposure to the sun (he is burned almost to a crisp, but can still walk, run, talk and kill), and 7 years in deep space. Is he a ghost, alien or God's agent? Who knows?

Then we get to the end where they fly a big bomb into the Sun without it melting to complete the mission (well, apart from the getting home because they are all now dead).

Visually it was great, but pretty poor otherwise. It was a toss up between Sunshine and the Will Farrell ice skating thing. I wish I'd chosen the ice skating option.

Oh well.

C