Cry Havoc
12-30-2009, 03:53 AM
I just purchased this movie on Blu-Ray and watched it tonight.
Absolutely fantastic. I don't agree with every decision Danny Boyle (quickly becoming my favorite director) made, but this movie, for it's flaws, is still phenomenal.
Really, it's a microcosm of how Boyle directs. In the most compelling way possible, he demonstrates in his movies that really our flaws -- and how we react when our "shields" aren't up, so to speak -- is where our true humanity lies. Probably not nearly as good as we would idealistically like to believe, but still capable of surprising moments of epiphany and selflessness. He also never forgets to inject a bit of realism into perhaps the most superfluous medium of art: That when the chips are down, most people will fight tooth and nail to survive. In much the same way, this movie is amazing because the good completely dominates the majority of the film, providing far more enjoyment than a typical Hollywood action/adventure movie. There is depth here far beyond the pretty visuals.
The basics of the storyline: At some point in the future, our Sun suddenly begins to die, and with it, life on Earth. In response, we launch two vessels, being propelled toward the Sun at thousands of miles per hour. Each one houses a nuclear bomb the size of a football stadium. The idea is to use a massive solar shield to penetrate the Sun at it's coolest point and detonate the bomb, reigniting the colossal solar furnace and bringing the Sun back to it's full blazing inferno. This is the story of the 2nd crew, after the first fails to complete it's mission.
If you love stellar (heh) cinematography, or like your Sci-Fi with a big helping of science to go along with the fiction, Sunshine dazzles. I could write a lot more about the intricacies of this film... the way it captures human emotion at it's rawest, and gives us a perfect model of exactly how to connect an audience to a movie, but I will stop here, at the risk of revealing too much. Aside from a couple of odd situations, it's an experience I savored, one that threw me through a wringer, vacillating between moments of high emotion and incredibly tense action scenes. You do, at times, feel like you're falling directly into the Sun, with no way to stop yourself.
8.75/10 -- A sci-fi classic that stands among the best in the genre.
Absolutely fantastic. I don't agree with every decision Danny Boyle (quickly becoming my favorite director) made, but this movie, for it's flaws, is still phenomenal.
Really, it's a microcosm of how Boyle directs. In the most compelling way possible, he demonstrates in his movies that really our flaws -- and how we react when our "shields" aren't up, so to speak -- is where our true humanity lies. Probably not nearly as good as we would idealistically like to believe, but still capable of surprising moments of epiphany and selflessness. He also never forgets to inject a bit of realism into perhaps the most superfluous medium of art: That when the chips are down, most people will fight tooth and nail to survive. In much the same way, this movie is amazing because the good completely dominates the majority of the film, providing far more enjoyment than a typical Hollywood action/adventure movie. There is depth here far beyond the pretty visuals.
The basics of the storyline: At some point in the future, our Sun suddenly begins to die, and with it, life on Earth. In response, we launch two vessels, being propelled toward the Sun at thousands of miles per hour. Each one houses a nuclear bomb the size of a football stadium. The idea is to use a massive solar shield to penetrate the Sun at it's coolest point and detonate the bomb, reigniting the colossal solar furnace and bringing the Sun back to it's full blazing inferno. This is the story of the 2nd crew, after the first fails to complete it's mission.
If you love stellar (heh) cinematography, or like your Sci-Fi with a big helping of science to go along with the fiction, Sunshine dazzles. I could write a lot more about the intricacies of this film... the way it captures human emotion at it's rawest, and gives us a perfect model of exactly how to connect an audience to a movie, but I will stop here, at the risk of revealing too much. Aside from a couple of odd situations, it's an experience I savored, one that threw me through a wringer, vacillating between moments of high emotion and incredibly tense action scenes. You do, at times, feel like you're falling directly into the Sun, with no way to stop yourself.
8.75/10 -- A sci-fi classic that stands among the best in the genre.