Sunshine

"Our Sun is dying; mankind faces extinction. Sixteen months ago I, Robert Capa, and a crew of seven left Earth frozen in a solar winter. Our mission: Reignite the Sun before it's too late."

That's the basic premise and introduction of 'Sunshine', the new film from Danny Boyle ('Shallow Grave', 'Trainspotting' and 'The Beach') and Alex Garland; the team who previously brought "28 Days Later" to the screen. The crew of the Icarus II are on a mission to create a new star by detonating a stellar bomb in the heart of our dying Sun. Once outside of radio contact with the Earth, the crew pick up a distress signal from the Icarus I, the craft sent out to carry out the very same mission seven years earlier but which mysteriously disappeared. After some discussion, the crew decides to divert from their mission and dock with the Icarus I - two bombs are better than one - with disastrous consequences...

'Sunshine' has similar tropes to 'Alien' and 'Event Horizon' (sci-fi horror) but with the emphasis on sci-fi rather than horror, while at the same time it bears similarities with sci-fi disaster films such as 'Armageddon' and 'The Core' (a team of people out to save the planet). There are many things you can point at from other films - computer with soothing female voice, abandoned spaceships, mysterious distress signals - the influence of 'Alien' is writ large throughout this film. However, what rescues 'Sunshine' from being utterly derivative is its execution. In the same way that '28 Days Later' wasn't 'just another zombie movie', 'Sunshine' isn't 'just another sci-fi horror/disaster movie'. The Icarus II is beautifully realised both internally and externally; the film often cuts from exterior shots of the craft in the darkness of space to the bright but claustrophobic interiors. The sound of the film is great from both the sound design (which generated some great rumbles from the cinema's sub-woofers) to John Murphy & Underworld's score. The performances are uniformly strong, with honours going to Chris Evans, proving he can do more than his brash Johnny Storm in 'The Fantastic Four' (in fact I didn't recognise him initially behind a beard and long hair), Rose Byrne, who provides the film's 'heart', and Michelle Yeoh in a nicely understated performance as the biologist in charge of the ship's 'oxygen garden'.

I found 'Sunshine' a really enjoyable and tense film, from the point where the Icarus I's distress signal is picked up the tension in the film keeps building; I had high expectations going into the film and the filmmakers delivered on them. It may lose its way a little at the end (going into any more detail here would spoil the film), but the journey there by far makes up for its final reel failings.