Chris Azure ([info]garunya) wrote,
@ 2007-08-13 21:19:00
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Sunshine
Caught it on Sunday at the Sunshine Cinema with [info]avocadovpx when we got back from CT. (His flight back home wasn't until Monday morning)

I'm glad I was warned in advance. For the first two thirds, it was a brilliant, moody, thought-provoking, well-made film. And then it's like someone (who grew up on a diet of slasher flicks) just came along and took a huge dump on it. I really don't know what they were thinking. The slasher stuff was real B or C-grade material, while the rest was a strong A.

The points they were making with the slasher character could have easily been done, much more effectively, without any of the slasher aspects. Annoys me more than an actual bad film does, because this one could have really been something special.

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[info]jenwrites
2007-08-14 02:23 am UTC (link)
We're pretty much in agreement. They could have made it work by keeping it hard SF all the way through to the end. But nooooooo.

Still, I enjoyed it.

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[info]avocadovpx
2007-08-14 02:27 am UTC (link)
>> I'm glad I was warned in advance.

I wish somebody had warned me. ;)

>> For the first two thirds, it was a brilliant, moody, thought-provoking, well-made film.

I'm glad people are trying to make hard SF movies, but this movie seemed to be caught in the gap between being a movie about the actual science(iness) of restarting the sun, being a movie about the philosophy or ethics of such science, and being a blow-things-up action movie. This movie didn't hit any of those squarely, but before the third act, I thought it might have.

The other things I wanted from this movie went wrong for me before the third act. The characterization, the dialogue, the camera work as a tool for thematic and expository clarity -- they started off good, but I was already adjusting my sights downward within the first act.

There were a few moments where the conflict between characters or the internal conflict really worked for me, but not nearly enough of those.

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[info]avocadovpx
2007-08-14 02:28 am UTC (link)
That said, I was glad to have seen it because 1) good box office might encourage them to try something like it sooner, and 2) we wouldn't have been able to talk about it afterwards if I hadn't, which was more enjoyable as actually seeing it.

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[info]krylyr
2007-08-14 04:54 am UTC (link)
Hey, I tried to warn you all :) I mean, encourage you to see it but still warn you about that last bit.

It worked better for me because I was expecting a slasher flick in the last 1/3, so I was somewhat pleasantly surprised when it wasn't just Event Horizon redux. That said, the way they went about it doesn't make any sense to me -- they could've so easily stuck with the characters on the Icarus 2 and had a more intense and effective hard SF movie.

I hope Boyle and Garland take another shot at SF, though. This one was soooo close to being great until the last 1/3.

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[info]johnbobshaun
2007-08-14 07:14 am UTC (link)
I absolutely agree. On the second viewing I was able to get over the problems I had with the last act and enjoy what was there (and there is a LOT to enjoy), but the first time around I was really pissed off.

Still, really glad I saw it on the biggest screen I could find.

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[info]dfable
2007-08-14 12:05 pm UTC (link)
And then it's like someone (who grew up on a diet of slasher flicks) just came along and took a huge dump on it.


Nice description. I think, I'll skip this one. ; )

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