Sunshine

If you go into Sunshine, a new sci-fi thriller from talented British director Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, 28 Days Later) thinking it's another Aliens, you're likely to get burned. This modestly produced tale set in 2057 is about as cerebral and thoughtful as the science fiction action genre gets. Better than the similarly glacial George Clooney 2002 dud Solaris, but suffering from the same slow pace and talkiness, Boyle's ambitious film bites off more than it can chew. The premise is intriguing, though. It's the near-future, the sun is dying and earth has plunged into a solar winter. The crew, eight men and women of Icarus II are sent on a mission to essentially get the sun shining again with a special nuclear device designed to do the job. Thing is, another crew had been dispatched on the same suicide mission seven years earlier and simply vanished. As this new attempt continues, they fall out of touch with mission control, hear a distress signal from the original crew, and eventually find themselves in the ultimate fight for their lives after a disaster occurs on board. Sadly, a killer story line is torpedoed by its relentless low-key style and uninteresting bickering between the characters. We get all the banal dialogue endemic to these kinds of films with no payoff. No aliens, no monsters, nothing. Plus, the final act suffers complete meltdown. The cast (which includes Michelle Yeoh, Chris Evans, and Cillian Murphy) is okay, and the film's look is impressive, considering the small budget, but stare at Sunshine for too long and you just might go blind from boredom.