Sunshine

I realize it's literally been years since a review was placed here, but whatever. I feel inclined to write something and give back to the interwebs again.

Internets: If you haven't seen Sunshine yet, you should definitely go and see it. Rent it. Buy it. Put it under your pillow when you go to sleep at night. It is quite simply a stunning scifi movie that only benefits from a big screen and decent surround sound system.

Audio

I will come to the ocular orgasm that is Sunshine in a moment. What isn't quite so obvious is the sound and the music which sets the mood. It's filled with light electronica that keeps you interested but doesn't seem to get in the way. A lot of it can easily be described as something that inspires hope while you're watching the intrepid crew making their way to their destination. The only complaint I have about it is the musical choice for the ending credits. It's almost as if the editor decided that he needed to jar his audience back to wakefulness from the trancelike state that the rest of the movie has put them into. This is the only bad thing that stands out in my mind.

Visuals

To say that the visuals in this movie are a feast for the eyes scarcely does them justice. While the sun is the most powerful thing in our immediate area, due to the brightness, there is no way to actually see what the sun looks like in any meaningful way without quickly going blind. In Sunshine, we are treated to a number of opportunities to see the sun in all it's glory. It's a roiling golden sphere of creamy goodness that looks fantastic on my giant TV. Whenever I watch it, I'm tempted to just pause and look, but then I rob myself of the opportunity to hear the music and the sounds that go along with the watching.

The sets are extremely detailed, down to the last non-cliche blinking light. The controls are as if they are set in the not so distant future. The space craft they travel in, Icaraus II, may be entirely computer generated, but I couldn't tell if it was or if it was a model. I was happily able to suspend any disbelief and just allow myself to get wrapped up in the story.

You don't say...

I'm going to talk a little about the end here, so you may want to skip to the rating section...

I have read critical reviews of this movie and the recurring theme seems to be how the last half of the movie sorta turns into Event Horizon. While I agree that this could be the case, I honestly don't care. What happens serves to quicken the pulse a little during an otherwise uneventful mission to Sol and back. I for one enjoyed it as I was wrapped up in the current experiences, much less the how or the why (as the rest of the movie manages to do a pretty good job of providing a back story for just about everything else).

Rating

While this is a movie that definitely takes its time (2 hours seems to last a lot longer than 2 hours), the audio, visual and coolness of the premise are more than enough to get me to highly recommend this movie. Buy it. Buy it again and give it to someone who appreciates good scifi. They'll thank you. And when they show it to someone else, that other person will thank you too. 4.5 corn cobs out of 5.

El Presidente