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In the not-so-distant future, the sun fails which causes the Earth to freeze. As a last hope, a spacecraft, Icarus II with a crew of eight men and women is launched. The Icarus II carries a stellar bomb that aims to re-ignite the sun. The first Icarus left seven years ago with the same mission but contact was lost. As Icarus II heads towards the sun, the crew of eight see the distressed Icarus ship that had been missing for seven years. Capa (Cillian Murphy), the physicist who controls the bomb, persuades the group into a decision to rendezvous with Icarus for possible repair of the ship, so as to give themselves another bomb to increase the chances of the success of their mission, should their bomb fail to deliver the desired effect. What happens next is a series of challenges for the entire crew as they decide to change direction, risking Icarus II’s mission and the entire humanity’s hope for sunshine.
This science fiction flick begins with a strong premise of the Earth’s future although it fails to visually describe what the Earth really looks like without the sun’s rays. Most of what it tells the audience is left to the imagination. But then again, the movie’s focus is on the spacecraft, the crew and the mission, so audiences are taken directly to outer space where the film is true to its sci-fi look and form. In a usual “ship of fools” plot, the director succeeds in fleshing out the humanness of the characters, each endowed with exceptional intelligence, and shows how individual differences determine either failure or success of a mission such as Icarus II. But then the film fails to explore further characters’ relationships and backgrounds, leaving the audience with narrow understanding of their inner motivations. Although the plot is interesting with the not-so-predictable twists, it drags towards the end with the introduction of a character that is both alien and alienated and which makes the film look more of a horror flick than science fiction.
Sunshine poses many moral arguments about human life. To begin with, is the life of one person less important as compared to many? In the future described in the film, the gauge of heroism is either dying or killing to save mankind. It is disturbing to see in the film that a crew member would need to commit suicide as the rest of the group decide to kill him so as to be able to complete the mission of saving mankind. Killing is always morally wrong even if the motivation for doing it is good. Then towards the end, the movie throws a deeper argument: If in the future, the sun fails to shine as part of God’s plan for the human race to die out, should humans interfere and prevent it from happening? Do humans have God’s permission to alter the course of the universe? Sunshine reminds viewers of the limitations of the human person no matter how brilliant the mind is. The film makes the audience ponder on the significance of God’s gift, the “sunshine” which human beings experience every morning but most of the time take for granted. Because of the strong language and violence in the film, CINEMA recommends that the movie may be viewed only by audiences 14-years-old and above.
(Date Reviewed: 13 April 2007)
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