sunshine

[bigdaddy]

To those comparing 'Sunshine' to 'Event Horizon': 'Sunshine' is a "hard" sci-fi movie that unfortunately leans on the horror crutch in the last 20 mins or so to prop up the final third of the film. 'Event Horizon' on the other hand is a fantasy sci-fi horror that happens to be set in space. Personally, Sam Neil's "comedy-scream-o-terror" and a few other moments take the film several notches below 'Sunshine' with it's only slightly dodgey acting moments.

Yes Sunshine is a "hard" sci-fi movie as much as Event Horizon is, meaning not one bit.

It's a sci-fi horror movie just like EH. Just because it tries, and fails badly, to be a "hard" sci-fi movie doesn't mean anything. It's a dumb sci-fi horror film.

 

[Starbreaker]

Visuals = great
Character development, plot = awful

 

[JacksonArcher]

I wanted to like Sunshine. I really did. Alas, no matter how gorgeous it looks, or how well scored it is, I can't get past that bloody third act (no pun intended). It seems Danny Boyle has redeemed himself with Slumdog Millionaire, though.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

I wanted to like Sunshine. I really did. Alas, no matter how gorgeous it looks, or how well scored it is, I can't get past that bloody third act (no pun intended). It seems Danny Boyle has redeemed himself with Slumdog Millionaire, though.

I heard it gets a bit derailed with the Bollywood Serial Killer subplot.

 

[Ethros]

Well not everyone dislikes the film, in Empire magazine's recent "500 Greatest Movies of All Time" poll (based on readers & experts votes) Sunshine came in at 355

 

[TheMasterOfOrion]

I thought Sunshine was a disaster of a movie. It also felt like a ripoff of Event Horizon, however EH at least had Sam Niell.

No I don't agree the first two thirds of sunshine made a fantastic movie,

it was the whole EventHorizon/NightmareonElmSt style ending which destroyed it

 

[stj]

Being scientific gibberish always hurts SF, whether it's Sunshine or Event Horizon. Hollywood persists in thinking scifi means "stupid," though. As for this movie, a tale of sacrifice will always be a hard sell in today's society. The slasher seems to be there to provide victory over an enemy. It seems that people can't conceive of a story which isn't about whether the viewer's favorite character "wins." I think the movie keeps attracting comment because it starts out as something more, and finishes at the end as something more, but that wretched nonsense in the middle---!

 

[hamudm]

This movie looks and sounds AMAZING on blu ray in spite of its disjointed third act. It's not so much a bad movie as highly disappointing. I was engrossed in the first 2/3rds completely.

 

[BigFoot]

^ I also own the movie on Blu-ray and I gotta agree, some of the scenes are absolutely breathtaking.

 

[MeanJoePhaser]

Well not everyone dislikes the film, in Empire magazine's recent "500 Greatest Movies of All Time" poll (based on readers & experts votes) Sunshine came in at 355

Empire magazine is for schleps who never watch movies made before 1970.

 

[Ethros]

Well not everyone dislikes the film, in Empire magazine's recent "500 Greatest Movies of All Time" poll (based on readers & experts votes) Sunshine came in at 355

Empire magazine is for schleps who never watch movies made before 1970.

Well I can't comment on that, I'm not a regular reader, I only bought that issue for a good interesting read

 

[Barbados Slim]

I saw it in the theater on a DLP digital screen. I looked amazing. And I agree with everyone out there, from the moment the computer tells Cillian Murphy that there's five people aboard, the movie turns to crud. That finale really ruin what could've been the best science fiction film of the decade, easily (I give the award to Soderbergh's Solaris, at least until Avatar comes out and changes the world).

I left underwelmed but ultimately bought it when Blockbuster had it 3 for $20. It's better than Event Horizon and the beginning seems like a more intense, better shot Mission to Mars. I liked the idea that the danger came from the mere act of space travel, which sci-fi forgets is the craziest thing that man can do. Once it became about seeing God in the sun and going mad and killing people because of...then it just lost me.

 

[Ethros]

OK, so what would people have liked to have seen as the ending?

How would you have ended it?

 

[Barbados Slim]

Off the top of my head, I would've taken out the entire Icarus I stuff. This was a disaster movie first so it would've had a disaster movie finale. I would've continued the psychologists journey towards madness and had him screw up something that jeopardizes the function of the ship further, making it certain that they'll never return home. The rest die out in various disasters using what's left of their doomed lives getting the ship moving and the bomb to the sun. The final survivor, Cillian Murphy, gets to the giant bomb room, does some doohickey switchery and launches the bomb, riding it into the sun and delivering the final "So if you wake up one morning and it's a particularly beautiful day, you'll know we made it." The end.

 

[JacksonArcher]

Off the top of my head, I would've taken out the entire Icarus I stuff. This was a disaster movie first so it would've had a disaster movie finale. I would've continued the psychologists journey towards madness and had him screw up something that jeopardizes the function of the ship further, making it certain that they'll never return home. The rest die out in various disasters using what's left of their doomed lives getting the ship moving and the bomb to the sun. The final survivor, Cillian Murphy, gets to the giant bomb room, does some doohickey switchery and launches the bomb, riding it into the sun and delivering the final "So if you wake up one morning and it's a particularly beautiful day, you'll know we made it." The end.

I think something like this would have been more appropriate. I was more interested in seeing the way the film was headed in the first act, which centered on the relationship dynamics of the crew members and how every single one of them were undergoing some type of madness or discomfort thanks to months and months of isloation from the outside world and the people they love.

I think a movie based on that would have been interesting and made for a compelling "hard" science-fiction film.