It is an understatement to say that we are less than impressed with director Danny Boyle’s (Trainspotting, 28 Days Later, Millions) first big-budgeted Hollywood venture set in space. Although the film’s first half is solid and underlined with nerve-wrecking tension, its quick descent into a “killer on the loose” plot in the second half is simply ridiculous. The film’s release date has been pushed to September in the US (we wonder why?), but judging from the film’s mostly nonsensical plot, American viewers are not missing much anyway.
The plot is essentially this: The year is 2057, and the sun is dying. A batch of scientists—including Captain Kaneda (Hiroyuki Sanada, The Twilight Samurai), biologist Corazon (Michelle Yeoh, Memoirs of a Geisha), pilot Cassie (Rose Byrne, Troy), engineer Mace (Chris Evans, Cellular) and physicist Capa (Cillian Murphy, 28 Days Later)—are on a mission in deep space on board the Icarus II spaceship to help kickstart the fading sun. Halfway through the journey, they receive a signal from Icarus I, which was supposedly lost in space seven years ago. Intrigued by their new finding, the crew decides to investigate and bump into a few things that, ahem, go bump in the night.
Alex Garland, who previously worked with director Danny Boyle on 28 Days Later, tries to elevate the film to be above and beyond the thriller genre, factoring in some scientific jargon centering on the sun’s power and the characters’ undying fascination with the sun to unsuccessful effect. Other than the cast’s solid performances, especially an intense and always reliable Murphy, simplistic and effective cinematography by Alwin Kucher (Morvern Callar) and pounding yet enthralling music score by Underworld and John Murphy, Sunshine is your typical action fodder. It pretends to be dark and philosophical, but is really just an uninspired rip-off of Alien and Event Horizon.
Watch this only if…: You feel like spacing out, as the plot is clearly spaced-out, irrelevant and unconvincing.