Sunshine.

"[Alex] Garland and [Danny] Boyle's story reaches out, or reaches back, to the lost 1970s tradition of darkness, scepticism and subversion in science fiction, a period that combined the technological optimism of the Sputnik/Apollo era with the succeeding decade's political discontent," writes Peter Bradshaw, referencing 2001, Solaris and Dark Star. "But Sunshine also channels queasy modern anxieties from our modern age: a world of climate change, weapons of mass destruction and even suicide bombers." Related: the space movie quiz.

"Ridley Scott's Alien virtually pioneered the modern sci-fi horror, not just in its fusing of genres (the 'lost platoon' crossed with a monster movie) but in its innovative use of lighting, sound and production design," Anthony Quinn reminds us in the Independent. "Just as soon as we see the eerie corridors and clanging walkways of the spacecraft Icarus II in Sunshine we can be pretty sure that Boyle is giving us the nod: prepare yourself for strenuous running and screaming.... Pulp done with energy and wit can be a wonderful thing, as Boyle proves here, but when it gets highfalutin it only looks dim. For most of its span, though, Sunshine dazzles with its use of CGI and its enveloping atmosphere of disquiet. It's by far Boyle's best film since Trainspotting."

Updated through 4/11.

"The only thing more dazzling than the angry star throbbing at the centre of our dying solar system is the production design on Danny Boyle's visually arresting sci-fi picture," writes Wendy Ide in the London Times. "It's just a pity that the film sells out much of its initial potential and intelligent restraint with a final act that feels as if it was tacked on to appease a teenage audience."

"You're reminded of how almost all Boyle's films, from Shallow Grave to 28 Days Later, tend to go a bit psycho near the end, tumbling over themselves to fulfil certain generic expectations and letting the compact ingenuity of their core conceits fly out of the window," agrees the Telegraph's Tim Robey. "Still, it's almost fitting that this journey into a great ball of fire should give itself over to pure sensory bombardment, more in the tradition of trippy, visionary science fiction (Solaris or 2001, say) than your usual interstellar disaster movie."

Earlier: Mark Kermode in the Guardian and Nigel Floyd's extensive interview with Boyle.

Update, 4/7: Online listening tip. Jason Solomons hosts a "special spaced-out edition of Film Weekly," featuring, of course, an interview with Boyle.

Updates, 4/9: "You end by admiring Boyle and Garland's powered-up determination to push through the 'space' we know - that darkness where no one can hear you scream - into a space where light riots, sound cataracts, sensation spins, and each human, eyeballing the spectre of immolation, is forced into a last showdown with himself," writes Nigel Andrews in the Financial Times.

Philip French whips through the history of sci-fi movies in the Observer, then adds, "Sunshine is remarkable for the technical virtuosity with which it creates life on a space vehicle and the cosmos around it, and it's worth noting that like Things to Come, 2001, the Star Wars films and the Alien series, it was made in Britain." Overall, he seems impressed, but not quite enough to come right out and say so.

"[T]he popular opinion that Sunshine is very good until the last act isn't harsh enough," writes Brendon Connelly. "The many mistakes in the last part are echoed and rooted in the earlier sequences of the film."

Updates, 4/11: A Cineuropa "Film Focus."

Swarez sends a review into Twitch from Iceland. Loved it.

Posted by dwhudson at April 6, 2007 5:23 AM