Sunshine

[Lancemc]

True, the whole space/time continuum was playing some crazy tricks at that time.

The rest makes sense, my only remaining issue is how he survived severely burned while Cyrril (sp?) was basically incinerated on the spot in the filter-less Observation Room.

It's hard to answer definitively because the film was purposefully ambiguous on a lot of concepts.

But I remember watching the scene where Searle fries himself on board the Icarus I, that he really wasn't "incinerated". The shot lasted at least 6 or 7 seconds and showed him sort of just basking in the burning sunlight. I'm sure he died quickly, but it wasn't that quick. As for the other dude, I can only assume that like Searle he slowly cooked himself over the 6 or so years he was alone on the ship, probably making him a nice crispy shell of sorts.

 

[LMP]

Fair enough, I figured he was almost stuck in-between worlds, you know? Our world and The Light, noted by every shot of him being un-focused and choppy. Yet Icarus still counted him as another person on board, kind of ruling out my idea.

Again, I don't know, I'm definitely picking up this badboy on DVD though for further examination.

 

[Lancemc]

Intersting interpretation, but I don't really think the film was going for sub-dimensional inplications or anything like that. Personally, it seemed to be more solely focused on the human psyche, at least in this dimension.

 

[LMP]

True, but it did seem like there were hints towards another plane of existence with The Light. Mama LMP and I are still talking about the symbolism from the movie.

We think that Corazon, for example, represented love and life, her name even means "Heart" in Spanish. Also, Pinbacker posed her after her death almost like the Buddha's pose.

Now is that what Boyle and Co. were doing for? I don't know, but it's really cool to discuss.

 

[Lancemc]

Good observations. And I totally agree about symbolism regarding certain characters, and the themes revlving around the sunlight and the life/death relationships to it, which also tie into the themes of obsession rampant throughout the film.

And I also noticed with the Corazon comment that I must have been even more distracted by the imagery and visuals than I first thought, because I had no idea that's what Michelle Yeohh's character's name was...seems to be a theme with me and this film.

 

[LMP]

And Mace was extremely cold and logically through most of the movie. How does he die? Frozen in the coolant (and tons of blood loss, but that's beside my point.)

Mama LMP thought the beginning was slow and prodding, I thought it made the pay-offs in the middle and end so much greater though, especially with the character's fates.

At the end though, was that Cappa's sister or wife? I thought I heard him say "Sis," but I'm not sure.

 

[Lancemc]

I agree about the film's pace. No qualms here.

Truth be told though, I was actually more interested in the film's numerous allusions to other great sci-fi works (favorite example: black monoliths in the snow in the final scene), and the fantastic integration of many physical concepts like the mechanics of heat and light, mass and acceleration, etc. Pleasantly surprised there.

As for the girl at the end. I think she was just the co-pilot/navigator/psuedo-love interest for Cappa. And I think he was just saying her name at the end there, but of course I don't know what it was.

But I must go to work.

We'll continue this later.

 

[A_Wanderer]

..

 

[Canadiens1131]

I am hesitant to dive into any of the religious symbolism, because honestly, I don't care about it.

I thought the film was pretty good for a modern sci-fi pic. The visuals were just absolutely gorgeous, and the continuous shots of the sun and related camera tricks with it reflecting off the ship's shield are some of the most beautiful sci-fi imagery I've seen on the big screen.

I think the first act was just about flawless, and I actually think its deliberate pacing (before the navigator's fuck up) actually saved the film from pseudo-sci fi action movie mediocrity, to be honest.

The spacewalk sequence and death of the pilot was handled really, really well, and I think it was probably the high point of the film for me.

The whole burned guy/abandoned ship subplot was off-putting, at least for me. It occupies a significant portion of the second half of the film, yet for some reason it still feels minimized in the grand scheme of things. Either the editors should have gone for broke and turned in a long, long-running time film in the spirit of 2001, or trimmed the fat from the first half and dropped the pretence of a grand sci-fi epic and turned in a concise, bloody space action slash-fest.

After Cappa (or whatever pretty-boy's name is) gets stuck in the airlock, I had a lot of trouble liking the rest of the film. I think it was an error to render the only character anyone has any emotional investment in completely useless. Then the ridiculous jump to the separated payload section, and the weird not-really-climactic climactic final showdown in the cavernous payload section (I was expecting to see the Ark of the Covenant from Raiders to go sliding across the pitching deck during the action sequence).

I wanted to love this movie, and liked it a lot, but it is pretty flawed.

 

[Lancemc]

What you call "pretty flawed" I have to call difference of opinion in this particular case. Just as the case with 28 Days Later. I really hate the direction the third act of the film took, and I would call that a huge flaw in the film, except many many fans of the film love the entire thing, and have shared with me lengthy explainations why. It makes sense, I just don't like it. Now I feel like I'm just on the opposide side of the fense with Sunshine now. I emphathize with the 28 Days Later-lovers now.

 

[Canadiens1131]

Fair enough

Overall, it certainly is a nice, gritty spacebound adventure, which we haven't seen for a while. The only other similar recent film I can recall liking was Andy Dufrasne and the guy from Sliders and the M&Ms in space, and that was slathered in a thick layer of cheese.

 

[Lancemc]

Mission to Mars I think that was?

Not a fan of that film. Only found it interesting in the first and last 15 minutes I think.

 

[LMP]

The best movie about Mars has to be Total Recall. It's a classic.

Gotta love Kuato:

 

[Lancemc]

Get your ass to Mars!!!