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Sunshine
Directed By:
The Story
Sunshine is such a bizarre movie that I really struggled to connect with it. The story itself is just so ridiculous that everything else that follows just feels like overkill. I couldn’t quite understand the movie’s identity. Disaster movie, Survival movie, Sci Fi or even slasher?. Sunshine just didn’t seem to know which route to take, and it kind of felt very messy at times.
Danny Boyle was so impressed with Michelle Yeoh's audition that he told her that she could choose any part in the script and he would give it to her - he was even prepared to change the gender if she had chosen a male character. She ultimately decided on Corazon, the biologist.
Danny Boyle found working on a sci-fi project so exhausting, he vowed never to make another one again.
One of the biggest challenges facing the visual effects team was to create the sun itself. This was done with CGI and turned out to be the longest CGI sequencing ever done by a London production house.
The plot does not revolve around the sun dying in the normal sense: this is not due for around five billion years based on our understanding of nuclear fusion. It has instead been "infected" with a "Q-ball" - a supersymmetric nucleus, left over from the big bang - that is disrupting the normal matter. This is a theoretical particle that scientists at CERN are currently trying to confirm, and was one of the many contributions of the science advisor. The film's bomb is meant to blast the Q-ball to its constituent parts which will then naturally decay, allowing the sun to return to normal.
The distinctive golden color of the space suits was intended to make them memorable to sci-fi fans. The character "Kenny" from South Park (1997) was used as a design reference for the funnel-shaped helmet. A small number of suits and helmets were built as wearable costumes, so the actors could experience the claustrophobia and react appropriately.
The Cast
I felt absolutely nothing towards the characters in this movie. No emotion, no bond, no chemistry. Everything just felt dull and very wooden. On paper the cast are great, but this movie doesn’t do any of them any justice at all. Honestly, their wasn’t one single character that i liked. And with a movie like this with so much at stake ...that’s a very big problem.
Movie Highlight
At times Sunshine looks amazing. Their are some visually stunning scenes and some very cool ideas (mostly regarding the ship). Sunshine also has some great sound and musical moments. Especially towards the end of the movie when Adagio in D Minor begins to play. That piece of music makes that scenes so so so much better than it should of been. Very powerful piece of music.
My Verdict
Overall I didn’t enjoy Sunshine. It left quite an uneasy feeling in me that I can’t quite explain. It was just a very strange and unusual movie that I haven’t experienced before. I did like the musical moments and some of the visual stuff, but that’s about it. I think this movie is kind of like marmite. If you like it then like it, but if you hate then you hate it. And judging by a lot of reviews their isn’t much of a in between.
Directed By:
The Story
Sunshine is such a bizarre movie that I really struggled to connect with it. The story itself is just so ridiculous that everything else that follows just feels like overkill. I couldn’t quite understand the movie’s identity. Disaster movie, Survival movie, Sci Fi or even slasher?. Sunshine just didn’t seem to know which route to take, and it kind of felt very messy at times.
Movie Trivia;
Danny Boyle was so impressed with Michelle Yeoh's audition that he told her that she could choose any part in the script and he would give it to her - he was even prepared to change the gender if she had chosen a male character. She ultimately decided on Corazon, the biologist.
Danny Boyle found working on a sci-fi project so exhausting, he vowed never to make another one again.
One of the biggest challenges facing the visual effects team was to create the sun itself. This was done with CGI and turned out to be the longest CGI sequencing ever done by a London production house.
The plot does not revolve around the sun dying in the normal sense: this is not due for around five billion years based on our understanding of nuclear fusion. It has instead been "infected" with a "Q-ball" - a supersymmetric nucleus, left over from the big bang - that is disrupting the normal matter. This is a theoretical particle that scientists at CERN are currently trying to confirm, and was one of the many contributions of the science advisor. The film's bomb is meant to blast the Q-ball to its constituent parts which will then naturally decay, allowing the sun to return to normal.
The distinctive golden color of the space suits was intended to make them memorable to sci-fi fans. The character "Kenny" from South Park (1997) was used as a design reference for the funnel-shaped helmet. A small number of suits and helmets were built as wearable costumes, so the actors could experience the claustrophobia and react appropriately.
The Cast
I felt absolutely nothing towards the characters in this movie. No emotion, no bond, no chemistry. Everything just felt dull and very wooden. On paper the cast are great, but this movie doesn’t do any of them any justice at all. Honestly, their wasn’t one single character that i liked. And with a movie like this with so much at stake ...that’s a very big problem.
Movie Highlight
At times Sunshine looks amazing. Their are some visually stunning scenes and some very cool ideas (mostly regarding the ship). Sunshine also has some great sound and musical moments. Especially towards the end of the movie when Adagio in D Minor begins to play. That piece of music makes that scenes so so so much better than it should of been. Very powerful piece of music.
My Verdict
Overall I didn’t enjoy Sunshine. It left quite an uneasy feeling in me that I can’t quite explain. It was just a very strange and unusual movie that I haven’t experienced before. I did like the musical moments and some of the visual stuff, but that’s about it. I think this movie is kind of like marmite. If you like it then like it, but if you hate then you hate it. And judging by a lot of reviews their isn’t much of a in between.