Sunshine Review

Sunshine

Year: 2007
Director: Danny Boyle
Starring: Cillian Murphy, Chris Evans, Rose Byrne, Cliff Curtis, Michelle Yeoh
Distributor: Fox Searchlight Pictures
MPAA: Rated R

From the director of 28 Days Later comes Danny Boyle's next thriller project, Sunshine. When I first saw the trailer for Sunshine online. I thought it looked pretty cool, but nothing Id spend money on watching. Still, the special effects and the idea of a space thriller intrigued me so I decided to watch it.

The Sun is dying and humanity is facing extinction. In order to save ourselves, we launch the Icarus I which was suppose to drop off a bomb that would restart the sun. That mission failed and now, the crew of the Icarus II, seven years after the failure of the first mission, must save the sun before humanity is extinguished. The Icarus II is a multinational team which each crew member is a specialist in his or her own field. Kaneda (Hiroyuki Sananda) captains the Icarus II. Other crew members include Corazon (Michelle Yeoh), Cassie (Rose Byrne), Trey (Benedict Wong), Harvey (Troy Garity) Searle (Cliff Curtis), Mace (Chris Evans) and Capa (Cillian Murphy). Stuck together on a 16 month mission, tension builds between the crew members of the Icarus II. It is now up to them to save humanity.

The story of Sunshine is pretty slow. The story moves pretty slow, but gets better as we go along. It gets really interesting when the crew is out there and they have to decide what there going to do. Do they stick to the plan or wonder off somewhere else for a detour? There are parts of the movie where it gets pretty predictable like something happening after another and moments like these bring down the tension that this film has. Their are parts where their could have been some character development earlier in the movie that could have helped in the end.

The acting in Sunshine is pretty good. Its nothing too special, but its pretty good. Everyone seems to be right for their roles except Hiroyuki Sanada playing the captain. He seems to be the odd one to play captain since hes not really captain material and most of the time, he seems pretty bored.

The special effect in the film are pretty damn good. I mean pretty damn good because this is a pretty low budget film costing about $40 million to make and it has some cool effects. Since this films plot involves the sun alot, theirs no denying that the sun looks amazing. The ending really showcases what Sunshine is really about.

The disappointing part about the film is its music. Their is barely any music used in the film and it feels pretty bad. Here we have a good movie that doesn't really have any good music to back it up. That being said, Sunshine doesn't really rely on music so I guess its OK, but it would have really been nice if it got atleast its own score.

In the end, Sunshine is a pretty good film. I enjoyed the film and thought it was interesting. If your a fan of space movies or those cool thriller films then I recommend Sunshine. I do have to warn people that this film starts pretty slow, but it gets really interesting as you go along.

Rating: 7.5 / 10