In the future, the sun is a dying star. Earth has been getting colder and colder as the sun fades.  The Icarus I mission was sent seven years before to detonate a large thermonuclear bomb to restart the star.  The mission was never heard from again and their mission was not accomplished.  The Icarus II mission was then set about and used the remaining materials on Earth for the massive bomb – so this is the planet’s last chance. 

The ship is shielded by a massive golden, solar shield that keeps the destructive effects of the solar rays from destroying the ship and crewed by Captain Kaneda (Hiroyuki Sanada), physicist Capa (Cillian Murphy), communications officer Harvey (Troy Garity), pilot Cassie (Rose Byrne), navigator Trey (Benedict Wong), engineer Mace (Chris Evans), botanist Corazon (Michelle Yeoh) and psychiatrist Searle (Cliff Curtis). 

When the Icarus II is passing Mercury they pick up the distress signal of Icarus I and adjust their course to investigate and to potentially have the payload of the first mission’s bomb, but they find that this curiosity will lead to endangering their mission and lives.  

Director Danny Boyle points out in his solo commentary that when doing these sorts of sci-fi epics that the ghost of Stanley Kubrick is always in the room when you set about to design the thing.  I sometimes tell you that you should just turn off your brain and enjoy the ride and mainly that applies to mindless popcorn movies.

Sunshine is a bit of an exception in that it’s an intelligent film but you need to turn off portions of your brain that harkens back to Kubrick, Ridley Scott, and even Event Horizon.  Because if you don’t, those spirits will be looking over your shoulder and hampering your enjoyment of the film. 

Sure, there are echoes of 2001 (no sci-fi film can really get away from those), Alien, Aliens, and Event Horizon but Boyle has also created a film that has the ability to grab you, if you let it.  I say that because I wasn’t going to let me grab me and was focusing on the fact that the ship is similar to the Jupiter I, computer reminded me of Hal, etc. 

However by the end of the film I was swept along and ended up liking the film, beyond my first impression.  I still thought that some of the plot elements were a bit much (I’m thinking Event Horizon here) but I can forgive it for that however if you obsess over the comparisons you might not like the film as much as I did.  

Sunshine is presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions.  Special features include a commentary from director Danny Boyle and another from Dr. Bryan Cox from the University of Manchester. 

Next are 19 minutes of deleted scenes with an optional commentary from Boyle and some web production diaries.  What’s nice is that Boyle decided to highlight two short films by putting them on the disc (he thinks ever filmmaker should do this and it sounds like a good idea to me), the 7 minute “Dad’s Dead” by Chris Shepherd and the 7 minute “Mole Hills” by Dan Arnold.  Finally, there’s the 2-minute theatrical trailer.  

Sunshine does have some things that point back to other science-fiction films, but I got caught up in the film and ended up liking it very much.