After repeat viewings over the past few years, Sunshine (2007) gets better and better

I've been a fan of this movie ever since I was a teen. When I first watched it, it felt almost surreal, I didn't quite get the themes and it was an intriguing watch. After seeing Hiroyuki Saneda's performance in Mortal Kombat, I wanted to rewatch this movie again. It was a yearly tradition for me to watch it once a year, but I went on a 3 year hiatus since I last watched it so it felt new to me.

Every member has their personality: - Corazon (Michelle Yeoh) is the botanist who has more of a relationship with plants than she does her crew - Cassie (Rose Byrne) is almost like a slave to what's around her, who feels the pain of the actions other commit but never has an active role in the decisions - Capa (Cillian Murphy) is the main scientist who informs the crew of the best decisions to make - Trey (Benedict Wong) pilot of the ship, makes the calculations but ultimately succumbs to depression and suicidal thoughts - Harvey (Troy Garity) the hot headed crew member who always wants to one-up and lead the Crew

The standouts were Hiroyuki Saneda as Kaneda, the commander of the ship, leading the group, taking on the objective to fix the ship's heat shields with Capa, sacrificing his own life to save the crew. And finally, Searle, played by Fear the Walking Dead's Cliff Curtis.

Even after I had seen the movie multiple times, I finally looked in-depth at each character and you truly get to see how obsessed, almost like an abusive relationship, Searle has with the Sun. He's obsessed with the viewing room, pushing himself to take the heat of the Sun, his face and lips leaving chapped scars through the constant heat. Even hounding Kaneda in his final seconds before the solar rays consume him, questioning him with "what do you see?!". A haunting phrase that opens you up to how insane he has become. Searle uses his final seconds to sit in the viewing room of Icarus 1, to be consumed by the sun. A deteriorating psyche of a man who was once the psychiatrist at the main ship

The visuals are astounding. I still believe it is superior to Gravity (with Sandra Bullock). The view of the ship, the rays bouncing off the shields, the gorgeous contrast as the shadows cascade around the ship's metallic atmosphere. In fact, it's one of the most beautiful looking movies, period. This movie also had the amazing Adagio in D Minor by John Murphy made specifically for this movie, which every other movie has now used to the death

On the whole, Sunshine has played a huge part in my teens as to how I viewed movies. Not just as a screenplay, not just as art, but as a view into the psyches of people; their motivations, their obsessions, their individuality and their collectiveness. Danny Boyle created a marvel

Edit: Also, Chris Evans as Mace, surprisingly a good performance. I never thought of him as an Oscar worthy actor, but I was very impressed. The wide range of emotions he shows, his longing for a peaceful setting like he wanted in the virtual room, his head-to-head with Cillian, his acceptance of Trey's suicide

Submitted April 28, 2021 at 05:34AM by anon_nonapplicable https://ift.tt/3aJpVYa