John's Movie Musings

Independent movies rarely do Sci-Fi. Indie directors have a choice between special effects and, say, a cameraman...or food. But all that's changing (hopefully). Computers are cheap and anyone can torrent a copy of Maya. Even the Star Trek/Star Wars fan movies are looking pretty good. What? I only saw one.

Sunshine comes to us from the UK. I think that's a little joke since we all know the sun never shines in London. Like I said earlier, it's an Independent movie so no one famous is in it. There are, however, a few actors who make you shout, "Hey! It's that guy!" I think this is one of the movie's strengths since you have no idea who will get killed off.

OK, so the acting is a strength, let's talk about a weakness -- the premise. The idea is that years from now, the sun starts to die. This makes the Earth like Hoth. Humanity grows tired of snow and decides the only way to save itself is to send a nuclear warhead into the sun and hope to "restart" it.

...

BWAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA.

Being a somewhat technical person, that's laughably bad. This had to come from a Windows crash on the writer's laptop. Going outside in anger, he saw the sun and put two and two together.

But here's the kicker, the movie's pretty good. If you can force yourself into the concept, Sunshine makes a boring trip through space fairly suspenseful. Not knowing who's going to make it helps, but the writing is good on its own. Also, the director did a lot with the Special Effects, especially considering how little he had to work with. The shot of Mercury passing was definitely a "whoa" moment.

So yeah, things aren't perfect but I'd bet a few of you will like this one.

Grade: B