Set fifty years in the future Sunshine is the story of eight brave astronauts attempts to restart the failing Sun. With a nuclear bomb. The size of Manhattan. In a big space ship.

Yawn.

Anyway, the plucky bunch set off for the sun in their flying space bomb and everything’s going great guns, we learn that a previous mission has failed, Icarus, and that we are now watching the crew of Icarus II, we also learn that no one knows why the original Icarus (let’s call it Icarus I) failed on their mission. Oooh, spooky.

As they jet through space we watch them do the usual futuristic space ship things, look at screens, check dials, eat space-food, bicker, you know the sort of things they do in sci-fi?

However this is where my first problem starts. This isn’t set in the sort of universe that Star Wars or Firefly is, it’s set in what is ostensibly the here and now. Anyone going into space on what was essentially a suicide mission would have been put through every psychological evaluation under the sun, they would have been screened and screened again, not one trace of susceptibility would have been allowed on that ship, or for that matter the Icarus I.

Yet we still see the same predictable bollocks happening here. The crew fights about trivialities, then mistakes happen and eventually they tear themselves apart. Hands up who didn’t see that one coming?

All sci-fi stereotype bases are covered you’ll be pleased to learn. We have the brave and stoic captain, the mission focused military man, the emotional permanently-tear-ridden-fuck-all-use-for-anything chick, the cowardly second in command, the guilt ridden mistake maker, the down to earth biologist with a warm side, the wacky ships doctor and our hero the ordinary guy scientist who saves the day.

The problem is the film says nothing, either about itself or the human condition. It plods along, stretching out its 147 minutes into an eternity, yet manages to make no point about anything. Worse still entire chunks of the movie happen for no reason and for no purpose!

As an example, in the final reel we learn that there was perhaps a survivor from the Icarus I, yet we are given no idea how they survived (and continue to survive) or in fact how they manage to move around undetected on board the Icarus II. The only reason they seem to exist is to drum up some dramatic tension, which in all honesty this film desperately needs but which should have been provided by the whole dying sun thing.

On a positive note the special effects throughout are outstanding and the acting is good but perhaps stifled by some shit dialogue. The cast do manage to plough through regardless though, sadly they don’t manage to inject anything into the limited material they have to make you care about them.

That’s the overall problem here is that there is nothing to care about in this movie, the sun’s dying. Is it? Hmmm. The crew’s going nuts they might all die. And? So? I couldn’t give a monkey’s.

Bad film making that.

One last thing, why call the space ship Icarus? He flew too close to the sun, melted his wings and drowned in the sea as I recall. Oh, I see, it was a subtle reference to the inevitable doom of the crew, gotcha!

Wow, amazingly clever…