Sunshine

People often assume I'm a science fiction fan. That's not entirely the case.

It's true that I bow at the altar of certain science fiction classics (Alien and Blade Runner most prominently, but then again which cinephile doesn't?). I'm also a lifelong Doctor Who fan who thinks that the new series of Battlestar Galactica is one of the best things on TV at the moment. Then again, Doctor Who is one of the most popular programmes on British TV, so I'm hardly alone there, and Battlestar Galactica has been roundly praised by critics of all persuasions.

Adding further counterweight is the fact that I rarely read science fiction, probably like more films outside the science fiction genre than within in, and find that the larger share of science fiction television is generally unwatchable.

However, the one thing that does continually draw me to the genre is the facility it offers writers for truly stretching the boundaries of fiction. As long as the confines of reality and credibility aren't completely broken science fiction allows for a near limitless expression of imagination. You can go anywhere, do anything and bring the audience with you. Interesting, then, that science fiction works at its very best when it reflects the world right outside your door.

Finally this brings me to Sunshine. Danny Boyle's ambitious science fiction epic wraps themes of environmental catastrophe, religious fundamentalism and globalism into a spectacular looking homage to several other science fiction classics. It was Boyle's biggest film to date and, judging by the relatively low box office takings and mixed reaction from critics, his most notable failure. But that's not to say that the film itself fails, more the case that, perhaps like Ang Lee's Hulk, there are a few conflicting elements that leave the finished product in that strange cinematic purgatory wherein the film is generally admired but not particularly successful. In the years to come it'll either be forgotten or lauded as a missed classic ahead of its time.

There is a lot that works in Sunshine. The acting is flawless, though all seem to play second fiddle to the stunning visuals. Indeed, the premise of a ship flying into the sun allows for some remarkable  photography. The image of the unimaginably huge fireball is striking in itself, but the threatening orange hues that colour many scenes also put the familiar warm glow of the sun into a new light (no pun intended, well, maybe a little).

One of Boyle's obvious influences is Alien, and there are shots throughout the film that any die-hard fan of Scott's genre-making classic will recognise. There's also touches of 2001 and Solaris and, perhaps less commendably, Event Horizon. In fact the obvious comparison between the plot of Sunshine and Event Horizon is one of the film's great undoings. While on the brink of creating a truly original science fiction classic, Boyle spends too much time paying homage to other overly familiar works and borrowing wholesale from someone as undeserving of plagiarism as Paul W S Anderson.

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Equally trouble, and a commonly noted flaw, is the shift into slasher movie for the final act. One suspects that studio interference demanded a more commercially appealing conclusion, but the throughline of the final act is so intrinsic to the rest of the plot that the story would probably fall apart if the final twenty minutes were substantially altered.

Interestingly, Boyle's own editing through these later scenes suggests that even he was thoroughly demoralized by this point. The 'arty' camera obscura photography and excessively jarring cuts suggest either a director who is truly bored or one that expects his audience to be. Had Boyle maintained a consistent style throughout then the last act might not have been so obviously 'set apart from the rest of the film.

Along with the visuals, which linger in the mind for a long time after, the story makes a bold attempt to burrow its way inside. Boyle and screenwriter Alex Garland are obviously trying to say something profound (for a summary of the plot just go and watch the damn film - at the very least it's worth sitting through once) but you end up with the feeling that Sunshine, for all its million miles travelled, doesn't really go anywhere. Maybe it's scuppered by that final act, or maybe the pressures of trying to create a commercially appealing movie simply made Garland's ruminations on God and global warming somewhat untenable.

In the end Sunshine must be viewed as a failure, but as failures go you're unlikely to see one that looks as magnificent, nor one that tries so hard to engage your brain as well as your eyes. Boyle has said that the experience of making Sunshine was so exhausting that he won't make another science fiction film. I'm inclined to think that's our loss.

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