Sunshine (2007): Movie Review

In the future, the sun is dying and mankind is nearing extinction. And so, the human race is gathering all of its best metals just to create the ship that would take 7 astronauts near the heart of the sun. There, they will release a stellar bomb with atoms that would explode rapidly in succession, creating a star within a star. The first expedition had failed its mission and now, Icarus II is to set out with the last best metals earth has to offer. They had to do the mission at all cost, deliver the payload at the dying star's heart to save mankind amidst some trouble within the group.

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All images are courtesy of Fox Searchlight Pictures

Review

With only 8 major characters in the film and 5 with minor roles, you would have thought that the filmmakers didn't cost that much when it comes to the actors. But no, I'd say this film is in a power house heck of a cast. There's:

Chris Evans (Human Torch of Fantastic 4, and now famous as Captain America), the spaceship technician who has quite an arbitrary character.
Michelle Yeoh (you might have seen her in Babylon AD), the 'bio-keeper' who has a bad habit of appearing in so many action and scifi movies I watched. She's like everywhere!

Rose Byrne (Briseis of Troy 2004; Insidious), a pilot, one of the last characters that will stay in the movie. There's a certain vulnerability in her looks but like as usual, she's always a fighter.

Cilian Murphy (28 Days Later; In Time), the physicist with the mission's success at the palm of his hand, the highest priority. Well, what do you expect, he's the Physicist! He's the one we'd say who knows the entire mission, the one who can project the possibilities and outcome in an action and most of all, the one who knows their payload well.

You'd also see some usual samurai, warrior or fighter in other films like Hiroyuki Sanada as the captain of the crew and Benedict Wong as the Mathematician who would pave the way to the major problem that the crew will be facing. You might not know these Asians by name, but I bet they're both familiar to you by face. And Cliff Curtis, the resident psychiatrist who's so addicted with the sun, he'd bask in it despite having his skin parched. The other two, I have no idea just who the heck they are. Well, there's the Communications officer whose actor I know nothing of.

They say that this movie didn't cost that much. But they weren't stingy with the visual effects. It was superb! Everything's so realistic. And despite that you'd only see the sun and the ship the entire time, you would probably be in awe with the beauty of the images even with the searing Sun. The sun was just sooooo beautiful.

The visual effect was one thing, the story line quite another. I'll guarantee that you will enjoy everything that this movie has to offer. For those of you who are teaching, I suggest this film for film viewing with your junior or high school class. It will never fail you in any objective for a science class as this touches subjects like Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and even a subbranch like Electronics.

For a taste of awesome visuals, here's an image of the super-filtered sun at the observation room when the crew was viewing the orbit of mercury:

I also love the musical scoring. It totally rocks. And also, there was a point where I thought that the movie was like one of those Apocalypse thing. With the sun dying, it's like at the end of the world already. Life is at the brink of its existence. And then a sudden thought: perhaps, the angels both glorified and fallen would suddenly take role in the film. Not entirely science, but this this film did seem like apocalyptic. Well, almost.

Here's more amazing snapshots: