By Aniruddha Basu • Aug 30th, 2007 • Filed under: Film Review, Hollywood, Movies

This was moody, cerebral stuff, and exactly how science fiction should be treated, I thought. The grandeur and beauty of outer space came out beautifully, through images which were haunting and spectacular, writes Aniruddha Basu

I had been wanting to see this one for months. It was of course the plot, about a team of scientists sent out into space to save the Sun from dying, in the not too distant future, that held a lot of appeal. And it was also the director, the incredibly gifted Danny Boyle who gave us treats such as Trainspotting and 28 days later. So who better to helm a sci-fi trip into the depths of outer space?

Then I started viewing the film and its images opened up like a dream. This was moody, cerebral stuff, and exactly how science fiction should be treated, I thought. The grandeur and beauty of outer space came out beautifully, through images which were haunting and spectacular. The long take of Mercury drifting past the Sun should come as every cosmic gazer’s dream. As would the images of the Sun, past its full glory but still majestic. “Goodbye StarWars”, I thought happily

The characters were not your regular Hollywood superheroes either but (mostly) conscientious scientists who make logical decisions to complete their mission. It is fairly evident from the beginning that the mission is a suicidal one and it will be impossible for all the crew members to survive. Aboard on a spaceship appropriately named as Icarius 2, the largely diverse crew members (three Asians, five Caucasians, but oddly no blacks), are carrying a nuclear device which can reignite the Sun.

Complicating an already insurmountable mission is a signal from the previous spaceship (Icarius 1) that the current crew receives from beyond Mercury. Icarius 1 was sent out 7 years ago for the same purpose. But the ship had disappeared and all its crew members were incommunicado. After some deliberation, the crew members of Icarius 2 decide to contact their predecessor, mainly in order to pick up additional nuclear devices to complete the mission.

Things however literally go off course for the crew, in a sequence of escalating events. Eventually we get a bizarre video message from the previous ship’s commander that was recorded 6.5 years ago. But neither he, nor the rest of his crew, can be found.

Until this point Sunshine is a space opera in the truest sense, serving as a joint tribute to Kubrik and Tarkovsky, describing man’s fight against a vast and impersonal cosmos.

However things start to go wrong with the movie when it stops being a hard-sci-fi tale and abruptly decides to become a thriller. Is there any need for a mutant-madman -out to- damage- the-mission in a film like this? But believe it or not, that’s exactly what happens in the final half-hour or so, and it simply throws the sublime plot off-balance.

So why did director Boyle make such an unfortunate departure? Possibly because he was worried (justifiably) that the metaphysical musings and grandeur of the plot were not enough to grant success at the box office. But bringing down this glorious effort to the level of a slasher thriller towards the end, just to make the story more mainstream, is almost inexcusable.

But despite the climactic flaws, I liked Sunshine. The technical details of the spaceship, the tension and interaction among the crew, the sense of approaching doom and those glorious shots of the dying Sun, all make for a heady, mind-bending voyage.

It’s a dazzling vision to be sure, but sadly also a compromised one.

Disclaimer: Should be ideally watched in the theatre with full sound effects.
[imdb]0448134[/imdb]

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