Sunshine

Last thursday, I believe, I was finally able to see the movie "Sweeney Todd" but didn't have the chance to review it. But it will have to wait, because I just finished seeing a film that left me breathless.
"Sunshine."

The Story:
The Sun is dieing. If it dies then so does all human and animal existance. All hope lies on a bomb created by physicist Robert Capa. Equalling the size of Manhattan in mass, the bomb is designed so that, when released into the sun, it will automatically thrust itself into the center then explode. The result would be a blast so massive it would create a star within a star.

The story was phenominal. The idea of this suicide mission **as I viewed it** was enough to send me through a whirwind of emotions. I found myself literally at the end of my seat, experiencing all emotions along with the characters.
But writer Alex Garland doesn't stop there.
The store becomes more intense as it goes along, the situations become more dire and the race against time becomes more and more frightening.
The story is one that engulfs you completely in the first couple of scenes when it is made uncomfortably clear the reality of the situation at hand.
I was unable to detach myself from this world the whole way through.
Fantastic writing.
Beautiful, Garland.

The director, Danny Boyle, is the same man who directed "28 Days Later".
I don't believe anyone could have handled this movie better than him. With a story this delicate, every detail had to be perfect.
The casting.
The visual effects.
The presentations of lines.
Setting.
Everything.
It all had to be flawless in order to pull off a film of this magnitude.
And he did it.
Boyle has a gift for doing stories where it seems everything is going wrong until you believe it couldn't possibly get worse,
and then it does.
This is the man you go to for thrills, excitement, and the most stressful viewing of a movie ever.
Definitely a man who owns his craft.

Out of the main cast I recognized three.
The physicist who invented the bomb was played by Cillian Murphey. He is the man who also starred in "28 days later", "Red Eye", and portrayed the Scarecrow in "Batman Begins."
I always enjoy Murphey's work. He has the ability to display different emotions without changing his actions too much. And when he does do drastic changes you are always faced with such raw emotion that makes you drop your jaw in astonishment.

None of the characters were easy to pull off. Every character demanded nothing but the best from the actors and all of them delivered 110%

The hardest role, I believe, was that of Chris Evans who played "Mace," one of the scientists aboard the ship.
Mace is someone you want to hate, but can't. Evan's character is clearly established as the 'jerk' of the group. Very blunt, very rude, very serious. And while many of his lines cause you to argue with the screen, you cannot hate him because while he may be hard to deal with, he ALWAYS does the right thing.
The result was a very difficult personality to adapt to. Having seen Chris Evans in the role of "The Human Torch" in the "Fantastic 4" films, it's hard to notice what an amazing actor he is.
This film DEFINITELY makes you notice.
Watching Evans play this character opened my eyes and created newfound respect for him.
I felt the same as I did the first time I saw Will Smith play a serious role after watching him play "comic relief" characters such as in "The Fresh Prince of Bel Air" and "Men in Black."
It left me speechless as I was watching him through this journey, becoming more and more convinced of the danger lurking around them all.
I cannot wait until his next film.

Some of you may recognize Rose Byrne from the film "Troy" in which she played the role of Briseis.
In "Sunshine", she plays the role of "Cassie".
Cassie is one of the only two women on board the ship "Icarus II", and probably the one seen as more feminine.
Byrne has some difficult scenes to handle as well. Most of her scenes required her to display emotionally-draining situations that are extremely difficult to pull off without going "too over the top" or "not strong enough."
It is quickly proven, however, that Byrne is in full controll of her talent and is fully capable of handling any scenario handed to her.
It was refreshing to see someone handle a role so well that it looked as if it was all done casually, almost second-nature.

The visual effects and images were amazing. It is no easy task to design a world mere miles away from the sun. There are so many details and unanswered questions that we cannot begin to comprehend the answers to, that creating an entire film with the main focus being the small distance from the sun was a HUGE risk to take.
I'm glad to say that this, too, was done spectacularly.
I cannot imagine how it could have been any better.
It was breath-taking.

"Sunshine" is a fantastic film that I HIGHLY recommend everyone to see. I don't think there is a film out there at this time that can match it.