I watched Sunshine Saturday afternoon during Loren's nap. Generally, I liked the movie although I would have done a couple things differently. The short synopsis is that the sun is dying and the crew of a second spaceship is approaching Mercury on their way to deliver a payload to re-ignite the sun. The movie is by the same director as 28 Days (which Cheryl and I both really enjoyed), so I should have expected a very serious SciFi/horror film (which is what it is). But for some reason I thought it would feel less serious.Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the film, but I think it needed some comic relief. It was almost too serious from the start. I know the future of mankind hangs in the balance, I know that they have the specter of the failed first mission, but everyone and everything was so incredibly serious from the very start of the film - even before things started going wrong. I could have used a character with some humor. There were a couple of humorous lines, but in general the mood of the piece was very somber and very serious and from the first minute I found myself anxious, knowing that things were about to go horribly wrong. You knew from the first minute that you were watching a tense film. I think it might have been more impactful to have had some levity at the start, which would have contrasted with the later scenes.
Not sure if my friend James has seen it or not, but I'm sure he'd have some comments on the computer access and security issues, as I found myself having a bit of an issue with the suspension of disbelief over some items near the end, but I won't go into them here because I try to avoid spoilers in my reviews.
I still give it a thumbs up, but be prepared for a somber ride. If you are interested in Jess' viewpoint and her meeting with the director, click here.
NYC
2 comments:
Haven't seen this one yet. I think I ran across it at some point when I was browsing Netflix and decided to try it eventually, but given my current queue depth I doubt it'll be anytime soon.
It's a very dark, sober film. I don't think that the third-act "twist" is set up correctly or justified by the film's previous tone; I think that if Boyle had kept going with the first hour's storyline we might have had this generation's "Solaris" or even, just possibly, "2001: A Space Oddysey." But I admire its visuals immensely; it was overlooked for a cinematography Oscar this year.
Still, I give "Sunshine" lots of praise for ambition and effort, and everyone who sees the film is struck by how different it is than what they were expecting. Give me gloomy and depressing any day for my sci-fi. :)
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