A very smart man once said something very poignant to me in a language I could not understand. The result of this was that, while he probably felt very witty, I was left none the better for our meeting. So it goes with 'Sunshine', the hard core sci-fi flick directed by Danny Boyle, he of '28 Days Later' fame.
'Sunshine' has a lot in common with Mr. Boyle's neo-zombie flick: Same lead actor: the always amazing Cillian Murphy. Same writer, Alex Garland. A haunting soundtrack and deep, philosophical questions hidden within a seemingly rote script. Whereas '28' was accessible to a wide audience, however, 'Sunshine' is so fucking obtuse that it would be far more appropriate were the crew of the Icarus 2 journeying to a black hole instead of the earth's sun.
The sun, it seems, is dying. Not for reasons you, or me, or anyone short of our favorite hirsute resident astrophysicist would understand, no, that would be too simple. This is a hard sci-fi film, motherfucker, so you better believe that the common lay person is shit-outta-luck in grasping the subtle-as-a-testicle-kick nuances which propel the movie forward. So instead of the sun just dying, theres all this gobbly-gook flim flam about some foreign body from outerspace getting stuck in the sun and making fusion (or was it fission?) impossible and blah, blah, blah.
Hey Boyle and Garland, thanks! While I'm sure you're impressed with yourself for researching all that shit and sticking it in the script, you just lost me, At least for a few minutes I'm not paying attention to the screen, forming a bond with the protagonists and empathizing with them as they struggle to overcome their obstacle. Instead I am fishing high-school science memories as I try to construct your plot elements into an understandable diorama.
If this was a limited incident I wouldn't bitch so much, believe me. But it happens again and again. You may say to yourself, “Well, Pika's just a dumb redneck motherfucker.” To which I wouldn't argue. But I'm also the audience. I'm the second, fiscally crucial part of the theatrical symbiosis. And if you make me feel like a dunce-cap wearing shortbuser, I'm not going to appreciate it. Sadly, it didn't have to be this way. I know as much about robotics as I do about ancient Thai history, but I followed and loved 'Blade Runner'. Same goes for 'Gattaca'. Both those films dabbled a bit in technical jargon and used as central tenants to the storyline sciences I don't have a chance in hell of understanding, but they did so without alienating the Joe Blows who patronized them. They made me feel included in the story, not on the outside looking in. Ultimately, that is the main failure of 'Sunshine': it's own hubris at the cost of my suspension of disbelief.
Not that that is the only shortcoming. The plot, while simple enough on paper: “Spaceship must restart sun with huge nuke or earth dies”, becomes so incredibly muddled that I often forgot what the over-riding celestial money-shot I was waiting for was. There are questions of the nature of God, predetermination vs. free will, fate vs. chance, the too-briefly examined deconstruction of a claustrophobic, enclosed society one would find aboard a space ship that is away from earth for many years. It's a pizza pie so overflowing with toppings that you can't see the crust.
Aside from Cillian Murphy, the rest of the cast is largely forgettable, and if truth be told, I couldn't tell a few of them apart. In the early part of the movie there is this guy, obviously the rebel because he has a goatee and longish hair, who has a fight with another crew member. I have no idea what happened to that guy. Maybe he grew as bored as I did and spent the rest of the film sleeping in his space-cabin.
Then theres the sort-of love interest for Murphy, a girl with all the charisma of an old jar of paste. Sadly, she is the 'hottie'. I'd bet there was a lot of space-masturbation on the 'Icarus 2'.
You got the wise Asian Samurai ship captain. Guess who sacrifices themselves early on? Did you say the jar of paste girl? Then you were wrong. It was the wise Asian captain. Why would you even think her? What the fuck man, I set that one up as pretty obvious I thought.
Umm...theres a psychologist with cool sunglasses. I don't think they ever show him actually dying, which is unfortunate because I suppose it leaves room for a sequel.
There are four or five more cast members, but honestly, fuck 'em. They aren't worth the time it takes to write about them.
Eventually everyone dies and the sun restarts.
Hoo.
Ray.
I'm glad Boyle got this one off his chest and didn't try to stick this crap into the eagerly awaited '28 Months Later'. Now that's going to be a kick ass flick if the first two are any indication. And while it may be a dumbass zombie flick for dumbass American sheeple like me, I bet a lot more people will walk out of the theaters smiling than ever saw the light of 'Sunshine'.
