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Jun. 18th, 2009 11:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_fantastic_ms_foxReview of Sunshine.
Danny Boyle directed 28 days later, which I loved. Sunshine boasts many of the same qualites.
- Beautiful use of colour
- Good use of sound
- "Interesting" use of varied film speed
- Distrust of militaristic hierarchies
- Science Fiction plot that's plausible until you think about it
I liked it too, but it has some big holes that need patching.
Things I liked, and things I'd change:
I liked that all but two characters looked more like astronauts than Hollywood actor-models. Many of the actors usually look like models when they're in movies, but whoever did costuming and hair seems to have hung around with scientists. Because the pilot seemed to have a militaristic background, he looked a bit too much like a young Val Kilmer rather than an actual pilot. The protagonist, Kapa looked like an American Apparel model.
I'd go for 8/8.
I liked the professional chastity. No sex. No flirting. No kiss before we die.
I would add a scene of someone masturbating in the VR booth.
I liked the emotional maturity. Someone screws up and feels horrible, but everyone else knows that throwing blame around would be a waste of time. Under life-or-death stress, the backup captain shouts and trien to pull a power trip, but everyone else just waits for him to calm down so they can explain their plan. When the flyboy and the protagonist fight, everyone else thinks they're juvenile. Good.
I didn't like that there's only one person who can work the bomb. Change: put a big red button on it. Find some other excuse why they need Capa - like he's the best person to make the bomb work.
For a movie that tries so hard to give you a science-y feeling, it has a few major shortcomings. Why does the comm tower spin around constantly? And where does this gravity come from?
Suggested change: stop the comm tower, change the shape of the spacecraft, and make it spin. Many movies and TV shows have depicted centrifugal "gravity" just fine.
I did not like that technology saves us from externally-imposed environmental destruction. Most "natural disasters" are the products of human shortsightedness - Earthquakes aren't a problem unless you insist on populating fault-zones; tidal waves wouldn't be so bad if we didn't destroy the mangroves to grow shrimp and shantytowns while also fucking with the climate. The best use of environmental technology is preventing ecological destruction. The next-best use is fixing what we caused at a ridiculously high cost.
Change to: we broke the sun, now we have to bankrupt the Earth to fix it.
I would have liked some in-movie setting elements that let us know how the Earth was doing. How cold is the Earth? Are we going to go extinct in ten years or ten centuries? Do the younger people not know what pineapples are? Are T-shirts only indoor wear now? Do the characters have frostbite scars? Has the toque become formal wear?
The homicidal/religious captain needed to be fleshed out a bit. It felt like he was supposed to reperesent irrational hierarchy in a conflict with rational cooperation. That's a fine message, but it needs to be developed.
The plan that forms the crux of the movie is the sort of moral dillemma that exists only in philosophy classes.
Plan 1
Go directly to sun. Do not stop at Icarus. Do not collect second bomb or solve mystery. Tave you chances.
or
Plan 2.
Stop at Icarus and collect second bomb, keeping in mind that this wasn't part of the plan - risk both missions to gain a second shot at restarting the sun.
Choose one!
Don't think about a third option.
Plan 3
(not in the film, but it was the first thing I thought of when they were sitting around debating whether to stop)
Drop the bomb in the sun then come back for Icarus 1. If the first bomb didn't work, you can try again. If it worked, you can pick up some extra supplies and hang out . You should have enough fuel to manuever as you're no longer carrying a bomb that weighs as much as Manhattan. Even if you somehow can't maneuver this, you can at least go home and tell people about Icarus 1.
See? Best of both worlds.
Grr....
I've seen two previews for this movie. The first was voiced by Captain Kanaeda; the second by Technician Capa. I wondered whether this change was because Capa's the protagonist (even though you might not know it at first), or because he looks like a protagonist (31-year-old Eurpean American Appararel model rather than a 47-year-old JapaneseSea Space Captain)
Danny Boyle directed 28 days later, which I loved. Sunshine boasts many of the same qualites.
- Beautiful use of colour
- Good use of sound
- "Interesting" use of varied film speed
- Distrust of militaristic hierarchies
- Science Fiction plot that's plausible until you think about it
I liked it too, but it has some big holes that need patching.
Things I liked, and things I'd change:
I liked that all but two characters looked more like astronauts than Hollywood actor-models. Many of the actors usually look like models when they're in movies, but whoever did costuming and hair seems to have hung around with scientists. Because the pilot seemed to have a militaristic background, he looked a bit too much like a young Val Kilmer rather than an actual pilot. The protagonist, Kapa looked like an American Apparel model.
I'd go for 8/8.
I liked the professional chastity. No sex. No flirting. No kiss before we die.
I would add a scene of someone masturbating in the VR booth.
I liked the emotional maturity. Someone screws up and feels horrible, but everyone else knows that throwing blame around would be a waste of time. Under life-or-death stress, the backup captain shouts and trien to pull a power trip, but everyone else just waits for him to calm down so they can explain their plan. When the flyboy and the protagonist fight, everyone else thinks they're juvenile. Good.
I didn't like that there's only one person who can work the bomb. Change: put a big red button on it. Find some other excuse why they need Capa - like he's the best person to make the bomb work.
For a movie that tries so hard to give you a science-y feeling, it has a few major shortcomings. Why does the comm tower spin around constantly? And where does this gravity come from?
Suggested change: stop the comm tower, change the shape of the spacecraft, and make it spin. Many movies and TV shows have depicted centrifugal "gravity" just fine.
I did not like that technology saves us from externally-imposed environmental destruction. Most "natural disasters" are the products of human shortsightedness - Earthquakes aren't a problem unless you insist on populating fault-zones; tidal waves wouldn't be so bad if we didn't destroy the mangroves to grow shrimp and shantytowns while also fucking with the climate. The best use of environmental technology is preventing ecological destruction. The next-best use is fixing what we caused at a ridiculously high cost.
Change to: we broke the sun, now we have to bankrupt the Earth to fix it.
I would have liked some in-movie setting elements that let us know how the Earth was doing. How cold is the Earth? Are we going to go extinct in ten years or ten centuries? Do the younger people not know what pineapples are? Are T-shirts only indoor wear now? Do the characters have frostbite scars? Has the toque become formal wear?
The homicidal/religious captain needed to be fleshed out a bit. It felt like he was supposed to reperesent irrational hierarchy in a conflict with rational cooperation. That's a fine message, but it needs to be developed.
The plan that forms the crux of the movie is the sort of moral dillemma that exists only in philosophy classes.
Plan 1
Go directly to sun. Do not stop at Icarus. Do not collect second bomb or solve mystery. Tave you chances.
or
Plan 2.
Stop at Icarus and collect second bomb, keeping in mind that this wasn't part of the plan - risk both missions to gain a second shot at restarting the sun.
Choose one!
Don't think about a third option.
Plan 3
(not in the film, but it was the first thing I thought of when they were sitting around debating whether to stop)
Drop the bomb in the sun then come back for Icarus 1. If the first bomb didn't work, you can try again. If it worked, you can pick up some extra supplies and hang out . You should have enough fuel to manuever as you're no longer carrying a bomb that weighs as much as Manhattan. Even if you somehow can't maneuver this, you can at least go home and tell people about Icarus 1.
See? Best of both worlds.
Grr....
I've seen two previews for this movie. The first was voiced by Captain Kanaeda; the second by Technician Capa. I wondered whether this change was because Capa's the protagonist (even though you might not know it at first), or because he looks like a protagonist (31-year-old Eurpean American Appararel model rather than a 47-year-old Japanese