Sun, Sun, Sun Here We Come

"Sunshine"

Director Danny Boyle has a knack for giving each of his films a certain visual flare that enhances the story.  His visuals don't ever make or break the film though.  In the end it's the screenplay that we should be paying more attention to anyways right?  Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire and 127 Hours are two of his films that have solid screenplays with his fantastic imagery to amplify the cinematic experience.  In Sunshine we are treated to some very impressive shots of the solar system as a group of heroic scientists race towards a dying sun.  Their mission is to reignite the sun by hurling a stellar bomb into it.  And that's about all there is to this film.  Not even Boyle's depictions of space can save it.

The screenplay feels like it's the first draft of something bigger.  This was probably only supposed to be a pitch to the producer.  Instead he thought it'd be best to make an entire film out of this very thin premise.  There really isn't a whole lot going on in this film.  Oh sure the crew aboard Icarus II does face a number of problems, but we never seem to care.  Also, little to no science is actually apparent throughout this film let alone any explanation to why the sun is about to expire.  There doesn't need to be some long drawn out scientific answer to why our sun is on its way out but any sort of plot development leading up to mankind's impending doom would have been nice.

The characters are thinly drawn and the relationships they have with one another are barely established.  Understandably Sunshine is more of plot driven film but when your plot is on the verge of bursting into flames hopefully the audience can latch on to the characters for support.  Unfortunately at no point during the film does that ever happen.  Considering these characters are a group of scientists they make some pretty brainless decisions.  Instead of sticking to the mission they venture off course to inquire about their sister ship, Icarus I, which failed to deliver its payload seven years prior.  This is where things really start to go downhill.

The sequences of peril the characters put themselves in come off as being incredibly unbelievable.  Even though this is a science fiction film there's only so much suspension of disbelief one can tolerate before realizing what's happening on screen would never ever occur in real life.  Who are these people and why should we care what happens to them?  We aren't emotionally invested in these characters.  Did the screenwriter actually give any to how this would look on screen?

Maybe that's the real problem here.  Everyone involved was more concerned with how the film would translate cinematically.  That must have been the reason why Boyle was hired for the project.  The producers figured that if they put a visually oriented director on the film then that would mask the deficiencies of the screenplay.  Ultimately all of Boyle's strengths as a director do not come together for this piece of work.

The third act of the film is particularly frustrating because it brings a new element of suspense that comes out of left field and completely changes the tone of the film.  All the visuals mesh together for a spectacular mess of a finale.  Boyle's visuals were a perfect marriage to the storytelling in his two previously mentioned pieces of work but as for Sunshine, this one ends in divorce.  There isn't enough SPF in the world to save you from this sun burn.