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A decade ago, Danny Boyle treated us to the best spaceship crew in Sunshine

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S

SCULLIBUNDO

Banned
img_388632jrz.jpg

What do you see?

Sunshine is 10 years old this month.

I fucking love this movie. It's easily one of the best scifi films this millennium and one of the biggest reasons outside of 28 Days Later that I wish we could've gotten one more collaboration between Boyle and Garland before the latter went off to do his own thing.

This is one of the only space thriller films I can think of where the spaceship crew don't act like dumbasses. They're scientists who act logically and whose misery is set off by an understandable mistake (Trey forgetting to account for the angle of the solar panels for the Icarus' new trajectory).

The script is excellent (and went through something crazy like 60+ drafts by Garland), the directing on point and John Murphy's score is still being aped for trailers today.

And people can shit on the third act all they want for being a jarring departure from where they were expecting the film to go, but the third act contains one of the greatest scenes put to film this millennium (apologies for the link, YouTube clip is down: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x33l4lo_sunshine-capa-s-jump_shortfilms ). I think the only thing I would have changed is that the Icarus 2's psychologist should have been the one to go insane. They half set that up already with all the scenes of him in the sun room.

This also happens to be the film where I started really appreciating Chris Evans.
 
N

NoFaceNico

Member
I saw it. A local friend of mine does a movie podcast (Podmax Podcast) and gave this one an episode. It's a really strange twist when it turns into a slasher film. Hope I didn't spoil too much with that.
 
A

AmyS

Member
The first 3/4 (or 2/3rds) of the film were good.

I loved the scene where they watched Mercury cross the sun.
 
S

Skux

Member
Fantastic film, absolutely gorgeous cinematography and amazing soundtrack. You really feel the weight of the mission and the crew. which is especially hard to do since the film never cuts back to shots on Earth (until
the end
).

I don't really mind the third act. It made sense for where the story was going and increased the stakes of the finale.
 
F

Freeza Under The Shower

Member
Ah yes, that movie about rebooting the sun. The Core, but in spaaaaaaace.

I did not like that movie at all, and I really don't know why anyone does.
"yeah, but the first two acts were fine".. don't care, it's one whole, not the parts. It's forgettable, just like The Core is, a movie you completely forgot even exists until I mentioned it. And that's how I feel about this one too.
 
G

Gaius Cassius

Member
Ah, yes, otherwise known as the big hyped sci-fi movie that despite being visually brilliant, had an annoying crew and was a huge let down by the end. Prometheus before Prometheus.
 
S

SCULLIBUNDO

Banned
UnemployedVillain said:
The ending of the movie really isn't as bad as people make it out to be. I wonder if it's just that popular opinion and people jump on it
Click to expand...
I like it. I think it's that people found it jarring. But that doesn't make it bad. Same thing with 28 Days Later.
Third act was stellar, but not where people were expecting the film to go at all.

The ending with Capa inside the payload is also pretty damn great.

Gaius Cassius said:
Ah, yes, otherwise known as the big hyped sci-fi movie that despite being visually brilliant, had an annoying crew and was a huge let down by the end. Prometheus before Prometheus.
Click to expand...

The fuck? Firstly, can you explain why you found this crew annoying? How are they at all like Prometheus' crew outside of the one actor that appears in both films?

Secondly, in what world were you living in where this film had big hype behind it?
 
S

Staccat0

Fail out bailed
I don't like Sunshine, but boy-oh-boy do I love it's bones and a lot of things about it.

Freeza Under The Shower said:
Ah yes, that movie about rebooting the sun. The Core, but in spaaaaaaace.

I did not like that movie at all, and I really don't know why anyone does.
"yeah, but the first two acts were fine".. don't care, it's one whole, not the parts. It's forgettable, just like The Core is, a movie you completely forgot even exists until I mentioned it. And that's how I feel about this one too.
Click to expand...

This is not how art works. You sound like a robot.
 
M

Maengun1

Member
UnemployedVillain said:
The ending of the movie really isn't as bad as people make it out to be. I wonder if it's just that popular opinion and people jump on it
Click to expand...

Agreed, I've always liked the ending. It becomes a different type of movie, for sure, but I found it to be good throughout. Not for everyone, but it definitely became one of those things where people hear "it's good until the last act which was terrrribleee" before they even see it and then they agree.
 
D

daviyoung

Banned
Sun God Zombie Killer bit was a bit much, but the parts either side of it are great.

Underworld - To Heal is such a beastly bit of music.
 
J

jelly

Member
For some reason I love the way she says "surface of the sun" as he makes the jump.

Good film, the third act is odd but my main complaint is the dude actually surviving that long and being burnt toast and the blow out to get back on the ship was another scene I didn't care for.

Wish Boyle would do more sci fi.
 
Y

yanipheonu

Member
Good movie, though I could have done without
Melted Murderer Man
. Felt like the movie dives into a slasher film with a mediocre villain for a while.
 
A

afternoon delight

Member
Agreed! International, smart, well written, and acting like goddamn adults. Alex Garland tends to write it that way and I love it.

Still hasn't been a better spaceship movie since, unless Moon came out afterward?
 
M

MattKeil

BIGTIME TV MOGUL #2
First 2/3 are really top notch, but damn does that last act drop it into "never watch again" territory. One of the biggest ball drops I have ever seen in any genre. I'd say this century so far only Signs outdoes it in the "fumbled ending ruins whole experience" department. Just awful stuff.

And no, that is not some kind of "popular opinion." Sunshine is not well known enough to have a groupthink problem. It's just 2/3 of a good movie and 1/3 of a terrible one.
 
S

Skittles

Member
One of my favorite movies of all times. That soundtrack is one of the best.

I like the idea for one of the cut endings, even though it would have made the movie fairly depressing. It was the one where the
sun crazy man
was actually an A.I. placed there by another civilization to stop other civilizations from becoming too advanced. The sun going out was a test to see if the civilization was advanced enough to justify wiping them out. At the end of the movie they succeed in restarting the sun but the A.I. tells them that Earth is going to destroyed.
 
Razorback

Razorback

Member
This is one of those rare movies that isn't bad, but that fact makes it worse.

Bad movies are forgettable, maybe good for a laugh. Sunshine on the other hand, hurts. Because it does everything right and suddenly shits its pants in a really unexpected way.

It's like you're eating an amazing ice cream and someone walks up behind you and sprinkles rat droppings all over it.
 
F

Firemind

Member
When the movie cut to that picture of the Icarus 1 crew several times for one frame I thought there was something wrong with the DVD. Then I realized holy shit.
 
R

RinsFury

Member
Chris Evans was amazing in this, brought me to tears. Amazing movie start to finish. Even of the last quarter could have been handled better, I still love the ending. Such a beautiful movie.
 
F

Fallout-NL

Member
MattKeil said:
First 2/3 are really top notch, but damn does that last act drop it into "never watch again" territory. One of the biggest ball drops I have ever seen in any genre. I'd say this century so far only Signs outdoes it in the "fumbled ending ruins whole experience" department. Just awful stuff.

And no, that is not some kind of "popular opinion." Sunshine is not well known enough to have a groupthink problem. It's just 2/3 of a good movie and 1/3 of a terrible one.
Click to expand...

Agreed. It redeems itself a fair bit with the jump stuff. But that slasher bit just wasn't needed. Film had tension enough.

Still like the movie.
 
A

Ashhong

Member
Fuck you 2/3 lovers. It's all or nothing!

I recently had to mail in my Sunshine bluray to FOX because of the whole picture in picture issue. Getting it back tomorrow. I think I'll celebrate by watching it for the 20th time.
 
B

bsp

Member
Poppy said:
struggling to imagine the metric by which this is ever a true statement even if i like event horizon
Click to expand...

Yeah. Just because they are both in space does not mean they are comparable/in the same style of filmmaking at all (I love both).

Sunshine is a masterpiece, including the ending.
 
C

Carbonox

Member
I love this film. Really need to rewatch again. The final act is jarring but still enjoyable in its own right. Soundtrack is god tier.
 
Monocle

Monocle

Member
UnemployedVillain said:
The ending of the movie really isn't as bad as people make it out to be. I wonder if it's just that popular opinion and people jump on it
Click to expand...
Yeah it is. Sunshine was shaping up to be one of the very best movies of its kind. Then it went off the rails and switched genres. So much potential squandered by a dumb twist.
 
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