Movie Review: Sunshine
Sunshine takes place 50 years in the future, and follows a crew of astronauts aboard a spaceship named the Icarus II. The characters are venturing into space to deliver a payload to reignite the sun which is about to burn out, obliterating all mankind. The entire film takes place away from earth as the small crew fights technical difficulties, human error, and nature’s wrath to reach the sun intact and in time to save humanity.
Have you ever gone to a restaurant that says they serve sushi, Italian, Greek, and Indian food? I usually avoid those places because I don’t really believe that one place can do all those vastly different things well. That was pretty much why I wasn’t too sure about going to see Danny Boyle’s Sunshine. It was a huge departure from Boyle’s other successful works, including drug film Trainspotting, thriller 28 Days Later, and the family-friendly Millions, but here’s the deal, when free food and drinks are offered at a press screening, I cannot refuse. Several mini grilled cheeses, tequila shrimp skewers and quarter-sized hamburgers later, I bring you this review. This movie surprised me. It was well-shot, suspenseful, and best of all, pretty scientifically accurate for a space sci-fi film.
This is a good film because of the realistic portrayal of human reaction and interaction within a trapped space. It starts out like the intergalactic Breakfast Club, only with a purpose much bigger than teenage angst and Saturday morning detention, and also with a near impossible escape.
The ending however, is completely unexpected and out of the blue. It was the only thing that I wasn’t too sure if I liked. There was very little setup for the finale (which I cannot explain beyond the fact that there was an abrupt genre change in the third act), but I must say, it was one of the scariest films I have ever seen. I’m sure everyone sitting around me at the screening probably got a good laugh at me peeking through my fingers that were covering my eyes, and listening to the muffled audio through my thumbs in my ears throughout the last 15 minutes of the film, but it was really that scary. I actually considered walking out at some point because I was afraid of the nightmares that I would have all night, but the suspense forced me to stay.
Overall, Sunshine is a good film with mesmerizing views of outer space from your very own seat aboard the claustrophobic Icarus II. The film has a fun website too. Check that out if you get a chance.
Interview: Sunshine Director Danny Boyle
On Monday July 16th I had the chance to sit down with Trainspotting/28 Days Later director Danny Boyle about his new film Sunshine.
Fifty years from now, the sun is dying and a solar winter has enveloped the earth. Our last hope: a spaceship and a crew of eight men and women. They carry a device which will breathe new life into the star. But deep into their voyage, out of radio contact with Earth, their mission is starting to unravel. Soon the crew is fighting not only for their sanity, but their lives.
Boyle is everything you would expect - courteous, excited, intelligent, reserved yet frank and uncensored. You can listen to our entire round table interview with Danny Boyle below. We have provided chapter points after the jump.
Danny Boyle on the Influences of Sunshine:
There are three huge, titanic, space movies which if you ever make a film like this you cannot avoid. You may want to avoid them but you cannot. I’ve never known a genre like it where you are dictated to by these films, 2001, Alien, and Tarkovsky’s Solaris. Believe me, they hover over you the whole time and sometimes you just have to tip you hat to them — reference them in some way. They are there and you’re judged against them, not just on whether the film ultimately works as a film but technically. The way you depict space has been dictated by those three films and you have to get to that level. And I had no idea how intimidating that level was, when I set out to make it.
There are a lot of space movies that don’t get to that level, because they don’t have enough money or time, or people weren’t willing to make that effort. The effort involve in depicting this place is staggering. There were other influences as well like Das Boot, and Wages of Fear. There are lots of films you use as a kind of help to you but those three in particular.
Apocalypse Now is my favorite film and it’s known as The Heart of Darkness film because it’s loosely based on the Joseph Conrad book. And we always said that our starting point for this film was a “Journey into the Heart of Lightness.” There are certain rhythmical similarities. It’s a journey and at the end of the journey is a fantastic, a madman who’s seen the light in his own way. Structurally you could compare it to Apocalypse Now which has a similar shade to it’s journey as far as shape is concerned.
00:10 Comparisons to Apocalypse Now
01:10 Influencing Sunshine: The Three Big Space Films
02:45 Determining the Pace: The reality of Space is SLOW
04:00 Rules that you must Follow in a Space Movie
05:00 Editing Sunshine
05:30 Creating Chemistry Between The Actors: Rooming in a Dorm
07:00 Good Death Scenes
07:30 Experiences in Russia
08:30 Old Technology is Reliable
09:30 Russian Response to the Film
10:15 Extreme Contrasts
12:00 Action Movies Linked to Cinema
12:45 The Big Issues
14:15 28 Months Later: A third 28 Days Later Idea
15:15 Witnessing in Pursuing the Theme of Encounter
17:45 Witnessing is Universal
18:15 On Behalf of “For All Mankind”
18:45 Casting Cillian Murphy
20:20 95% of the Audience doesn’t Care About the Director or His Theories
21:30 Optimism and Humor in Danny’s Films
24:00 His Comments on Eli Roth
24:30 Michael Bay
25:15 Making a Lower Budget Sci-Fi Space Film
27:00 Explaining Sunshine’s Villain
I Am Legend Movie Trailer
Earlier today we posted the theatrical teaser poster for I Am Legend. We told you that the movie trailer would be online tonight, and now here it is. And I must admit, this movie looks even cooler than I thought it was going to be. I always thought the scenes in 28 Days Later of the abandoned city were incredible. And the shot of Tom Cruise running in a completely empty Times Square in Cameron Crowe’s Vanilla Sky was amazing. While both of the aforementioned movie examples didn’t make use of the advances in computer generated effects, it looks like I Am Legend has done that. They have created a surreal world where Will Smith is the only man on earth… or is he? You must check out the trailer after the jump, followed by the film’s official plot synopsis.
We highly recommend you check out the trailer in High Definition at Apple.com if you have a capable system.
“My name is Robert Neville. I am a survivor living in New York. If there is anybody out there…anybody. Please. You are not alone.”
Robert Neville (Will Smith) is a brilliant scientist, but even he could not contain the terrible virus that was unstoppable, incurable, and man-made. Somehow immune, Neville is now the last human survivor in what is left of New York City and maybe the world. For three years, Neville has faithfully sent out daily radio messages, desperate to find any other survivors who might be out there. But he is not alone. Mutant victims of the plague—The Infected—lurk in the shadows…watching Neville’s every move…waiting for him to make a fatal mistake. Perhaps mankind’s last, best hope, Neville is driven by only one remaining mission: to find a way to reverse the effects of the virus using his own immune blood. But he knows he is outnumbered…and quickly running out of time.
Movie Review: 28 Weeks Later
28 Weeks Later is a perfect example of what I like to call the “Blair Witch Project Effect.” That is when a low budget indie film is given a big budget glossy Hollywood sequel, and the resulting film lacks all the magic of the original. One of the things that made 28 Days Later so great was the shots of deserted London. It felt creepy and real, or maybe it felt creepy because it felt real. And don’t get me wrong, 28 Weeks Later has some incredible shots of the deserted city, which is much more expansive than the first film. They had the money and resources to make it happen. And may-be it’s because it looks almost too good, too glossy, that it just isn’t believable.
The film starts off with the best horror opening since Zack Snyder’s remake of Dawn of the Dead, and quickly falls apart soon after. Too many characters and quickly introduced, few of whom you find connection. Who are these people? What are their roles? You probably wont know who the main character is until 30 minutes in. It’s both confusing and frustrating. The story degenerates into a horrible series of badly scripted coincidences, including the token identifiable Zombie bad guy who keeps showing up like a bad penny.
Like the first film, the story becomes very episodic and quickly evolves into a militaristic story half way through (although, 28 Weeks Later keeps with the Zombie chase more than the first film). And like most films in the Dystopian story genre, there are a lot of cool ideas displayed, but not fully explored.
Juan Carlos Fresnadillo offers a few new tricks in terms of cinematography including a reverse Requiem for a Dream/Pi P.O.V. cam showing a Zombie in action. And he even borrows the cool Chopper sequence from Robert Rodriguez’ Planet Terror. But sometimes the camera direction is too shaky, seemingly just for effect. One sequence has flashing strobe lights which were so intense that I was forced me to look away from the screen (and I’m far from squeamish).
Rating: 6 out of 10