Sunshine (2007)

I feel it’s pretty safe to say that Danny Boyles’ films can be very hit and going into a film of his you never really know what you’re going to get, but time after time it’s worth going just to find out and when he is good he is excellent and never afraid to try something different and that’s Sunshine all over. A strange mixture of 2001: A Space Odyssey mixed with Event Horizon and despite the all-star cast, it’s certainly not mainstream in its approach to storytelling.

The plot is pretty ridiculous, feeling like something you would get from a ’60s b-movie, but once you get into it, you become invested and despite the relatively small cast, you would struggle to find a weak performance among them. Pretty much everyone had enough screen time to provide the necessary development needed to care about them and understand their motivations, which can be a difficult thing to master when making a film about scientists in space. Just look at Cloverfield Paradox.

Boyle has a skill for producing tension and here he uses this technique to ramp up the pressure and make us feel claustrophobic. This is mostly done using multiple close-ups, unconventional angles, flashes and interesting editing choices. Not only this but visually the film is spectacular and makes what could have been a very visually bland experience a delight.

The only real downside for me is the change from sci-fi/thriller into a horror film in the final third, a change that not only takes away from the excellent work the cast and crew put into building up pressure and tension but also just really fit and has been done better in other films, namely Alien: Covenant and Alien.