Sunshine has recently been released on DVD, and yet again I see another review in another film magazine echoing the previous verdicts printed when the movie graced the silver screen.
I say ‘verdicts’, but perhaps I should say ‘list of excuses’ as to ‘why this film should receive four stars’.
I remember walking down to our local cinema with my wife in tow. “This isn’t giong to be another of those wierd films you like, is it?” she asked cagily.
“Of course not, it’s got great reviews, and they say it has a very Alien feel,” I replied in glee and anticipation. Little did I know that the reviews should have read, Alien Rip Off.
The reviews I’d based my excitement on had claimed that director Danny Boyle’s influences were clear, and I knew that this was not a bad thing. Films such as Brick blatantly adopt a style familiar to cinema-goers, but what I saw was merely a check list of cliches and films that Mr. Boyle would have liked to
have made.
It was painfully obvious from the word go, which could perhaps be excused in a fast paced, no brainer, action flick, but this pretended to be a philosophical masterpiece.
Then there were the embarrassing changes of mood, from 2010/Alien to the introduction of a villain lifted straight out of A Nightmare On Elm Street and then back to 2001 to round it off.
I desperately wanted to like this film, but not quite as much as the loyal Boyle-ites who claimed that there is no way to make a science fiction film without clambering all over the feet of greats from the past.
The claim that it is not possible to make a film without ripping off the old masters is a very weak argument; take Twelve Monkeys and Donnie Darko as recent examples of original science fiction. Both are embedded in well used time travel vehicles, and yet seem fresh.
Maybe I will listen to my wife before I blindly follow reviewers’ claims in future, although I could have done with realising this before I believed the four-star Transformers reviews…
Posted by Picklebot
