On Friday night, I was able to see two new films that are playing at the moment: First 2/3 of Sunshine, and Last 1/3 of Sunshine. While sharing some superficial similarities, they were two very different beasts.
First 2/3 of Sunshine (directed by Danny Boyle, written by Alex Garland) was an intense, considered science fiction film. It tells the story of a group of scientists travelling to the sun in order to reignite it and thereby rescue life on earth. This premise was used to explore humanity’s relationship with technology, our human limitations and our responses to the exposure of these limitations. Of particular interest were the analogies drawn between technology in the physical sense, spaceships and computers and so forth, and technology in the social sense, such as mission parameters and chains of command. A winning multicultural cast delivered excellent performances which embodied the tensions existing between what is human and what is mechanical. The sun itself was used as a multipurpose metaphor, representing enlightenment, purpose, and the integration of our multiplicity into a single new order of being. The tropes of a disaster film added excitement and tension, and the character studies were fulfilling, although the decision to avoid forcing characters to follow through on a key moral dilemma (can you suppress your humanity and become mechanical for the greater human good) was a disappointment. Nevertheless, First 2/3 of Sunshine was a solid film, limited only by a curtailed final chapter which did not show the resolution of the long mission.
Last 1/3 of Sunshine (directed by Danny Boyle, written by Alex Garland) was vastly different. Also set on a spaceship near the sun, it was mostly about a blurry murderer with a skin condition. Last 1/3 of Sunshine was a substandard imitation of Jason X, the “Friday the 13th” movie in which serial killer Jason Voorhees wandered around a spaceship dismembering people. Incoherent, visually frustrating, and completely charmless. Avoid at all possible costs.
It is worth noting that First 2/3 of Sunshine and Last 1/3 of Sunshine are playing as a double feature. Fair warning: any enjoyment you might receive from First 2/3 will be stomped into the ground and then spat on by Last 1/3, and sad as it is to say, First 2/3 just isn’t good enough to make the whole trip worthwhile.
4 thoughts on “Film Reviews: Sunshine”
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Exactly!!
This probably isn’t the best test case, given what you said about the first 2/3 not being good enough to make up for the last 1/3, but…
If an otherwise good film has a shit 1/3 in it, do you prefer the shit 1/3 at the start, in the middle, or at the end? Or is it too dependent on the individual film to draw out such a generality?
Andrew – I think I can confidently state as a general rule that I massively prefer movies to get better as they go along. There’ll be some exceptions but probably not many.
There’re several reasons. The big two are:
(1) endings are more influential than beginnings. When you walk away from a movie, the bit you just saw is a lot more prominent. (Although, if you never make it through the start, that doesn’t help much – River Queen might have had a great ending but I guess I’ll never know.)
(2) endings are more crucial than beginnings. Endings need to draw story threads together, answer questions, provide catharsis, provide resolution, and deliver a response to a movie’s question. This is very, very hard. The fact that there are lots of movies with lacklustre endings speaks to the difficulty of doing them right.
Hmm. I’ll try to think of movies that go awry in the final reel that I still like. There are bound to be some.
Ooohh, nasty. I bet you won’t be on Danny Boyle’s Xmas card list now, Morgue!
Actually, this reminds me of a wrestling quote. In fact, everything reminds me of a wrestling quote, but that’s another story.
“If there’s one thing Hollywood has taught me, it’s that acts one and two don’t matter – act three is the one that will be remembered.”
– The Rock, before facing Stone Cold Steve Austin for the third time after losing the previous two encounters.