What's the best way to discourage people from going to see Danny Boyle's Sunshine?

I've probably watched this about 9 or 10 times now and I've made my peace with the final third, to the point where I wouldn't want it any other way.

It does get better on repeated viewings, because you know that the last third is going to suck, so you can go back and concentrate on the bits that are really good in the beginning.

Is the psychologist going mad, or is he trying to research the effects of the sun on people's psyches, using himself as guinea pig?

I think he's going mad - kind of foreshadowing or validating Pinback's psychotic break.

Agreed. Curtis says he was playing the role as a researcher doing research, but he's clearly going a little mad.

I've only seen it once, but I really enjoyed this film. I agree that the final third-ish was pretty pants and I could have done without that kind of silliness entirely, but it all looked so great and I was totally engrossed by the vast majority of it, finding it tense and gripping stuff. I would have been happy if they'd stuck to more mundane technological and human struggles, which I really loved watching, rather than bringing in any spiritual and monster/loony clap-trap, but there you go.

It's better the first time. It works fine as a visceral experience, but there's not a lot going on intellectually, despite the film presenting itself as serious SF.

Agreed. I enjoyed it in the same way I enjoy watching lots of end-of-the-world and post-apocalyptic type films.

If you watch it with Dr. Cox's commentary, it's a lot more going on intellectually. Well, mainly because he starts going on random tangents about CERN and supersymmetric matter and black holes and stuff. Come to think of it, it would have been better if they'd made a £50 million movie that was just Dr. Cox talking about the sun for an hour and a half. :-)

this movie was quite good. so, yur RONG

Yes, very much rong going on here. The movie is not bad at all (except for the obviously poor ending as stated)

even that ending, while weird and totally contrarian to the rest of the movie, didn't ruin it or anything (at least not for me, though I can see both sides).

Uh, sorry, to keep banging on about the commentary (you know how my obsessions run) but...

Future scientists can build a ship that can fly a crew of eight to the sun, but mysteriously can't construct a computer that can run the mission on it's own?

The commentary actually went into this. That years and years of Soviet and US spaceflight have come to the same conclusion- in an emergency, you're still better off and more efficient with a human being as a backup system. (That said, the things that Cillian Murphy was doing to kick off the bomb didn't look *that* complicated that one of the other crew couldn't have done it, but hey - maybe it was keyed to his command only. And they always simplify science in movies anyway. That said - apparently the papers he had stuck up all over the walls of his bunk were actual research that Dr. Cox was working on.)

That said, why the human backup couldn't just stay back on Earth... OK because of the electrical interference of the sun in communications systems. But they LIED about the whole "can't communicate from Mercury" thing - they've already flown missions to Mercury that had radio contact the entire time. The sun's effect doesn't kick in until much closer. But that wouldn't have been much of a movie, would it?

They could've done the Mercury part first, and then the communications loss...but I think it's cooler that they're seeing Mercury in complete isolation from humankind.

Well, they had to have Mercury out of radio contact because of the whole "oh noes! Icarus I has been HIDING in orbit behind Mercury" thing. Which Dr. Cox also debunked as nonsense because it is apparently super-difficult to get in orbit of Mercury and the flight plan that they showed was also physically impossible. This is why you don't have proper scientists doing commentary on sci fi films.

This is why you don't have proper scientists doing commentary on sci fi films.

No, this is why you watch the film first and then again with the scientist commentary. Does the UK dvd have Danny Boyle's commentary track too? It's pretty interesting too in completely different ways.

Yeah it has it, but I haven't listened to it because, well, Danny Boyle is not a hott particle physicist. I suppose I should... but I don't care about filmography. I just care about the Science bits.

Oh yeah, I'd also like to put forth publicly my rebuke of Underworld for being assholes and holding up the release of the soundtrack cd indefinitely (and probably permanently).

just seen this, despite this thread. it was shit! must listen to ilx mentalists in future

I have just figured out what was one of my favourite things about it - and it's only something that popped up during the directors commentary.

There's no tacked-on romance! I really liked that! I was really terrified that there was going to be something between Capa and Rose Byrne's character, and was really relieved when there wasn't.

It was really really refreshing to have the female characters there to be scientists and pilots and suchlike and just DO THEIR JOBS rather than just function as cheap love interest/sex objects.

i liked this! sort of a missed opportunity with regard to the premise...but maybe every movie doesn't have to be a masterpiece.

this is prob in my top films of the decade list. fuck tha haterz.

I liked the extremes of heat and cold....the sense of how small and fragile the little sliver of possibility is that allows us to exist, the infinite forces beyond our understanding on either side...making it tangible to us in fire and ice.

the zombie killer bit was just sort of a let down....im not sure how it works in to those themes, or why they would interrupt those meditations for that reason. it felt a little like pandering. why not just jump off into the abstract and mystical like 2001?

often im willing to give such major plot points the benefit of the doubt...they obviously planned this and it's not as slapdash as it seems...but im having a hard time with this one...maybe because i wanted it to be a slightly different movie.

I dunno, I might have felt as fobbed off with a pseudo-mystical 2001 type ending. That shit's hard to pull off.

definitely...

The real problem with Sunshine is that its flawed genius, which is worse than no genius at all.

Still best science fiction of the decade

Loved the dread of the first 2/3, abhorred the zombie killer part - but I don't know where they should have gone after the first 2/3. Not slasher, but not 2001 either.

the premise is stupid

All I have to say is-PINBACKER MOTHERFUCKERS.

The real problem with Sunshine is that its flawed genius, which is worse than no genius at all.

Still best science fiction of the decade

― Hamildan, Thursday, December 11, 2008 9:36 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

lol what the hell

Just watched this. Thought it was pretty good and Danny Boyle managed to (just about) avoid his usual temptation of having a half-naked white man running around like a lunatic for the last third. The serial killer bit was a bit stoopid, but whatya gonna do? And this...:

The real problem with Sunshine is that its flawed genius, which is worse than no genius at all.

― Hamildan, Thursday, December 11, 2008 9:36 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink"

...is completely wrong. Flawed masterpieces are the only ones worth discussing when it comes down to it.

this loses a lot when they bring on the slasher aspect but before that this is AWESOME

doesn't this movie literally end with a "half-naked white man running around like a lunatic"?

Think he might be completely naked. Actually isn't half his skin burnt off, which is ultra douple-plus naked?

Just remembered I bought the dvd but haven't watched it yet, i'll give it a go tonight.

Well a half-burnt blur running about like a lunatic. Hence the qualifier "just about".

Watched it again. Still fucking intense. Still blown away by Kaneda's death scene. Choked up at quite a few other scenes too, or maybe I was just thinkin' 'bout the wondrous ilx pledge drive.

It's a movie of extremes. Light and dark, noise and silence, madness and sanity, logic and emotion. Totally should've been nominated for a technical oscar.

Burned flesh aside, it was visually very beautiful. And Kaneda's death scene was really well done.

£4 in whsmith this morning (there was a bunch of stuff around that price, serenity for £2 say but i picked this). am hoping i'm more of a ledge than an alba.

have you reached a conclusion?

i watched it at the weekend. bit disappointed that it was in 2.35:1 ie a tiny strip in the middle of my 25" 4x3 tv but i cranked up the surround sound to compensate.

reminded me a lot of 42 episode of dr who. crossed with event horizon.

the glitchy monster effects were nice but are usually there to distract from the bad monster make-up. and served to make the end confusing. (oh, and the single-frame images of the original crew just served to break the 4th wall)

music good. end title music not so good.

my big problem, though, was them calling the ship 'Icarus'.

oh, and alternate ending on the dvd = v disappointing. was exactly the same ending without the snow.

ha, i didn't even know that was there. i'm from the 'life is too short for dvd extras' school.

oh, and Benedict Wong will always be Errol from 15 Storeys High to me.

> i'm from the 'life is too short for dvd extras' school.

is a minute and a half, tops. but don't bother.

bit off topic, but Serenity for two quid is a vastly better deal then Sunshine for four, what with Serenity being fucking ace an' all.

just 6 months till i can start a 'skiffy films of the 2000s' poll.

I watched this again last night (must be my 4th or 5th time) and I still love it.

For the first time I found myself not only unperturbed by the turn it takes at the end, but actually seeing it as a worthwhile and important part of the movie - the veering from being totally realistic (within its sci-fi construct) into a subtle mysticism and fantasy gives it an ambiguity amd scope at the finish that it wouldn't have otherwise.

*ambiguity AND scope...

http://cat.www.bfi.org.uk.meowbify.com/news-opinion/news-bfi/features/danny-boyle-career-10-songs

http://i.imgur.com/PL4i87l.png

This movie has problems, but it has stuck with me more than most movies.