Topic: Sunshine

[ScaryTooth]

Just got finished watching Sunshine. I really liked it. It was really intense, albeit slightly predictable. I really loved the visuals, and the style in which it was shot. Check it out, very cool movie. 

[beo]

saw it relatively recently myself. i thought the first half was superb, but the second half took a nose dive once a certain plot element was introduced. saying that, i'd still recommend it - as a whole i thought it to be a significantly better than average film with some very nicely realised sci-fi concepts.

[TheOtherBelmont]

I saw this in theaters and loved it, I really appreciated some of the hard sci-fi stuff in it and the visuals of all the space stuff.

[Cobra951]

Nose dive, yes.  What in the blue fuck was that?  Sci-fi to crap-fi in what has to be the most schizophrenic plot destruction I recall.

[scottws]

I've never even heard of this movie.  Netflixxed it.

[gpw11]

Nose dive, yes.  What in the blue fuck was that?  Sci-fi to crap-fi in what has to be the most schizophrenic plot destruction I recall.

I saw this when it first came out in theaters and kind of remember having the same opinion as you, but can't really remember the details.  Was it really that bad?  Beyond that, could the  plot falling apart really have been any worse than 2001?

[Cobra951]

Oh God, yes.  2001 suffered from too much allegory replacing events that would have been a bitch to portray with 1968 technology.  Read the Arthur C Clarke novel to fill in the gaps.  Sunshine simply made a sharp left turn into la la land.  Complete, stinky bullshit.  I'll guess whoever was financing this didn't think a straight sci-fi story could sell, so, let's muck up the plot with a horror element which is ridiculously implausible without drumming up the supernatural.

[beo]

while i still liked the film, i'm glad you agree with me about that part, cobra. i was discussing this film with someone else and he said it was one of the best films he'd seen in the last few years. he wouldn't budge when i pointed out the spectacular level of fuck-up that was the plot "twist" and thought it actually added to the film. i know i should be tolerant of other people's opinions, but it's difficult when they're so fucking wrong!

and yes, the implausibility was the real killer. i know it's sci-fi and obviously the technology doesn't exist in real life, but that side of things was portrayed so well that you believed that someday it really might. all this care in constructing such a setting only to fill it with that. uuurgh... it wouldn't piss me off if the first half of the flick wasn't so freaking awesome - it just seemed like a waste.

[Cobra951]

In sci-fi, you are allowed one far-fetched premise.  It needs to be plausible, and everything else needs to make good sense.  You can't pull shit like "oh, it's the future--anything colored pink falls upwards."  That kills the whole story.

[Ghandi]

You can't pull shit like "oh, it's the future--anything colored pink falls upwards."  That kills the whole story.

Oh man, I just laughed out loud for the first time all week. Thanks for that.

[gpw11]

I guess there's a good reason I don't even remember this plot twist.

[Xessive]

What was the plot twist? Was it just the implementation of the horror element?

(click to show/hide)

The psychotic survivor from the first ship that made the voyage?

[gpw11]

What the fuck?  I don't remember any of this movie apparently except for like three scenes.  Everything else I seem to have replaced with Event Horizon.

[Cobra951]

With good reason.  There's another movie that started out looking interesting, and went off into the magical mystery nightmare.

[Quemaqua]

How can you blame a horror movie for being a horror movie?

[Xessive]

Haha I think there are some who still look for scientifically plausible horror movies

[Cobra951]

Haha I think there are some who still look for scientifically plausible horror movies

Alien did it well enough for me.

[Quemaqua]

Horror movies suck anyway.  I haven't been able to watch one and really enjoy it since I played Silent Hill.  Plausible or no, they all just kind of bore me now.  Horror games are where it's at.

[Xessive]

Alien did it well enough for me.

Yeah, Alien is unique.

There are very few great horror flicks nowadays. Most just rely on shock value and startling moments rather than being genuinely horrific.

I enjoyed Shutter (it was more about the supernatural). I've only watched the original Thai version though. I have no idea what the new one is like.

[PyroMenace]

Well I finally just watched it. While I can agree with the later part of the movie not doing as good as the first, I think Cobra, you are really blowing it out of proportion. It was still very much watchable, the "twist" itself is questionable, but I found the filming and techniques used still portrayed a good amount of tension. The last paragraph of this review on imdb I felt was spot on:

The structure of his screenplay is also a little unwieldy. The first hour and a half play as an intense psychological study - the pace at times painfully weighty as the tension is ratcheted up ever higher. The film works beautifully here - it may not introduce anything particularly new; claustrophobic stress is certainly nothing new in sci-fi, but it follows genre conventions with such panache and artistry that it's difficult to fault. However, come the final 20 minutes, Sunshine takes a rather abrupt and unwelcome turn. A pretty hammy (not to mention poorly explained) plot twist is ushered in and suddenly we find ourselves in a horror film - a clichéd one at that. To say much more would spoil things, but needless to say, had the filmmakers showed a little restraint in the closing moments, they would have had a real classic on their hands. When the film ditches pretensions, and sticks with the clammy, slow burn thrills it excels at, it's fantastic. When it descends into predictable melodrama, it's still alright, it's just disappointing considering what we know it's capable of. As such it's remarkably well shot, superbly rendered, occasionally poignant and occasionally flawed. Whatever the case, Sunshine is never far from entirely thrilling, and, all said and done, film recommendations don't come much higher than that.

But yea, its still very much worth your time.