Art & Entertainment

Sunshine

Danny Boyle's sci-fi remains a largely middling, inconsistent effort, swinging between the downright boring to the outright thrilling.

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Sunshine
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Even a technologically challenged person can easily make out that the science behind Sunshine is all quite wonky. But that wouldn’t really have been an issue had the film been stirring enough to make you willingly suspend your disbelief. Danny Boyle’s sci-fi remains a largely middling, inconsistent effort, swinging between the downright boring to the outright thrilling.

It’s 2057. The sun is dying. A team of eight astronauts is sent on a mission aboard space ship Icarus II to restart the sun. They have taken along a Manhattan-sized bomb and have to detonate this nuclear payload to reignite the sun. We meet them when the ship is in the process of entering the Dead Zone. When the sun shines brighter, they will know they have succeeded in their mission.

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However, all is not as simple. Several accidents follow, leaving them in jeopardy. There is damage to the ship when its coordinates are changed, the captain, Kaneda (Sanada), dies under the scorching sun while repairing the vehicle, the oxygen garden catches fire, leading to severe depletion of oxygen, and there’s a distress signal from a previous ship, Icarus I, which had been lost seven years ago. Should they take a detour and pick up an additional payload from the previous mission? Why was the mission abandoned when everything was going well?

The human interaction and tension works, how every single member can be sacrificed for the larger good of the humankind. But the acting is uniformly dull, the cast is deadpan, poker-faced and robotic at best. The film does come alive in the climax when it incorporates elements of horror, thriller and slasher genre in the narrative. There are dramatic twists and turns to keep you guessing. A strange apparition docks in the observation room. Who is he, what does he want? What stands out is the SFX, most importantly, the sensual way in which Boyle films the sun and how he portrays the eye-damaging, mind- and life-altering effect of the sun on man from that close a distance. The play of light, the tight shots of the retina, the angular close-ups translate into some intriguing moments. Wish the film was that absorbing too.

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High Fives

Bollywood

1. Life In A Metro
2. Ta Ra Rum Pum
3. Ek Chalis Ki Last Local
4. Good Boy Bad Boy
5. Raqeeb

Hollywood

1. Spider-Man 3
2. 28 Weeks Later
3. Pirates Of Caribbean: World’s End
4. Shrek The Third
5. ‘Lost’

Jazz

1. Call Me Irresponsible (Michael Buble)
2. Oh, My Nola (Harry Connick, Jr)
3. Surrender (Jane Monheit)
4. Betcha Bottom Dollar (Puppini Sisters)
5. From This Moment On (Diana Krall)

Courtesy: Film Information

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