"Sunshine"...

[Neil]

I thought the film was rather average The first half and build up was quite good, and then, just light 28 Days Later, for some reason the second half seems to collapse/descend into a weaker film. IMHO. Pros:- # The visuals were excellent # The build up in the first half was good # Acting was general very good Cons:- # Too much "Armageddon" physics at play. Once again we have gravity where there's none! And ships weighing billions of tonnes having no issue with stopping in a dime. People able to survive in the vacuum of space without a suit? # These people are the best the world has too offer? They mainly just come across as a bunch of students! # The "baddie" was just too weak. Seen it a dozen times before and done far better. # The production/editing in the latter portion of the film seemed very scrappy eg: The visual effects seems to be thrown in all over the shop for no good reason and just got on my nerves. Infact this need to throw in too many effects popped up from time to time, eg: with those damn annoying subliminal images for example. # The script generally had too many weak spots. (see below) Spoilers/flaws:-   Why have a pointless window in the biolab/oxygen garden?   If the oxygen garden is so important, why only have one?   They're short on oxygen? Then why not use the hundreds of thousands of cubic metres of oxygen they happen to have in the payload section?   Only one person who can arm the bomb? That's putting the fate of the world in safe hands! Summary: Enjoyable, but so easily could have been brilliant for the want of a better thought out script...

[MinionZombie]

*sigh* Geez Neil, you're so freakin' picky ... and I duno what film you were watching, wasn't the film I watched. For one thing, I thought the protagonists were quite professional and adult about the situation, and not studenty at all.

[Neil]

*sigh* Geez Neil, you're so freakin' picky ... and I duno what film you were watching, wasn't the film I watched. For one thing, I thought the protagonists were quite professional and adult about the situation, and not studenty at all. All but a couple were in their early 20s and certainly didn't come across as being 'the greatest candidates from the planet earth'. ie: The kind of people you'd trust the fait of an entire planet with! Sorry, when pin head turned up and we decended into basically a Hollywood slasher flick, that was a bit too much for me. It started off well, but the script just got sloppy/lazy See the list above (Even Kubrick 40yrs ago managed to make films with proper space ships with realistic onboard gravity, or lack of!) As I said, I enjoyed it, but it's a shame that with a stronger story/script, it could have been epic! IMHO...

[MinionZombie]

lol, you're on about realism? ... *ahem* ... they're rebooting the sun with a bomb the size of Manhattan! If they're capable of doing that, they're capable of making some kind of gravity in space. You're just too cynical, Neil.

[Neil]

If they're capable of doing that, they're capable of making some kind of gravity in space. You're just too cynical, Neil. That one was of the least of my issues with the script... It really did in many ways collapse similarly to how '28 Days Later' did... IMHO that had unecessary script flaws as well, especially in the latter parts... The issue with the air was probably the biggest one! Too contrived, ill-thoughtout and therefore ultimately lazy! If I was writing a piece of fiction for this site, I wouldn't have been able to submit it knowing there were holes that big in it... ps: In the final scene of the film, one more minor thing, if I recollect correctly...   didn't the sun brighten and then the ground brighten from the horizon forward slowly? You could see the band of brightness coming towards you... Now again... How does that happen? It would just be instant?!

[MinionZombie]

*sigh* Again Neil, you're too jaded and picky. It's a film, so it's for cinematic effect, it's for symbolism. You're just too picky.

[Neil]

*sigh* Again Neil, you're too jaded and picky. It's a film, so it's for cinematic effect, it's for symbolism. You're just too picky. What was the symbolism of the best brains on the planet missing a million cubic metres of oxygen a hundred feet from them before talking about killing people off? It's a story that for any sort of emotional attachment/care, asks you to believe to some degree in what you see and what the characters do. I suspect if Mickey Mouse had popped up as the mentalist nutter you would have complained? That would have pushed the believability too far? The moment you get too many 'leaps of faith' and unrealistic behaviour/scenarios etc in a script people 'detatch' and therefore the spell is broken IMHO. Now again, I enjoyed Sunshine and thought some aspects of it worked very well. But the reason I'm kicking up a fuss is that some lazy writing let it down. With a bit more consideration it could have been stunning! (Much like 28 Days Later could have been save some poorer areas of the script) I still think one of my favourite scifi spacey films attempting to be based somewhere in reality is 2010! Apollo 13 was also an outstanding piece of film making, but that's sort of a documentary

[capncnut]

Oh, is this the old chesnut of MZ questioning your sanity because you didn't like something as much as him. Man, if I had a dollar, I'd be rich! I still think one of my favourite scifi spacey films attempting to be based somewhere in reality is 2010! Yes Neil, amazing movie. Saw it at the cinema three times. Overall not as beautiful or epic as it's predecessor but a damn good space yarn nonetheless. I thought Roy Scheider's portrayal of Heywood Floyd was just as good as William Sylvester's (shame he declined to appear though) and I think it ties in seamlessly with the original. Apparently for the last 10 years Tom Hanks has been trying to get 2061 off the ground and has been long touted to play Floyd. It will be interesting to see because 2061 was my favourite of the four books.

[MinionZombie]

Hey Capn, how about ya kiss my chuddies - quit taking my text out of context. I'm just kinda taken aback that Neil didn't like it, but it seems he's having the same reaction he did to 28 Days Later (from the same writing/directing team). I just find it kinda funny to get bothered about the specifics of pushing air around, when you're fine with them being able to create a bomb the size of Manhattan and actually launch it. I ain't bitching about squat, Neil's opinion is that, his opinion and he's totally allowed to have it. Can't I have a conversation?! Can't I try and understand where he's coming from a bit clearer?! Jesus-titty-f*cking-Christ, I might as well just run off to the hills and dance around with Nazi-dodging baby sitters if I'm not even allowed to have a conversation! Heaven forbid!

[Neil]

Oh, is this the old chesnut of MZ questioning your sanity because you didn't like something as much as him. Man, if I had a dollar, I'd be rich! Yes Neil, amazing movie. Saw it at the cinema three times. Overall not as beautiful or epic as it's predecessor but a damn good space yarn nonetheless. I thought Roy Scheider's portrayal of Heywood Floyd was just as good as William Sylvester's (shame he declined to appear though) and I think it ties in seamlessly with the original. Apparently for the last 10 years Tom Hanks has been trying to get 2061 off the ground and has been long touted to play Floyd. It will be interesting to see because 2061 was my favourite of the four books. Was that the Haley's Comet one? I'm just kinda taken aback that Neil didn't like it, but it seems he's having the same reaction he did to 28 Days Later (from the same writing/directing team). I've said a coupe of times I DID enjoy it! But felt let down by some of the doooofus scripting... And I felt 28 Days although great in some ways, again suffered from some unecessarily weak elements to the script... especially in the latter stages... I just find it kinda funny to get bothered about the specifics of pushing air around, when you're fine with them being able to create a bomb the size of Manhattan and actually launch it. The bomb I could believe in... A massive bomb doing something magical to the fusion process on the sun.. Sort of far-fetched but I could forgive that. *minor spoiler* However, the other problems were clearly down to weak writing. And the one we seem to be concentrating on (the air) - we have half a dozen of the brightest/best people on the planet, who we've entrusted with the lives of everyone on the planet, who are contemplating killing each other because they're potentially running out of air - While not 100ft from them is enough air for a football team for a year! Even if they just closed down a couple of rooms and used the air from them, that would have added on hours! But nope not one of these people even contemplates it...

[MinionZombie]

Ah but, that wouldn't make for much of an interesting second half though, just some people pushing buttons and going "whew! we can breathe easy now, and we'll get home, let's have some champers!" Without the deadline to get the job done by - due to the lack of air - in the second half of the film, it wouldn't really have enough drive to keep going...that's what I t'ink anyway.

[capncnut]

Was that the Haley's Comet one? Sure was. The one where tycoon William Tsung realises that a large diamond sits on Europa and orders a group of renegades to hijack a spacecraft and crash land there. Great story. The two new 'Time Odyssey' spin off's that Clarke has co-written with Stephen Baxter; Time's Eye and Sunstorm, are amazing btw. The third book Firstborn is out soon.

[Yorkie]

Went to see this yesterday, got to the cinema and found out my unlimited card was in my other bag (problems of being a girl I guess) Was told that they can't look to prove that I have a card cos all info is stored at head office or whatever, but he could sell me a cheaper ticket So went shopping instead will definately see it next week though

[Neil]

Sure was. The one where tycoon William Tsung realises that a large diamond sits on Europa and orders a group of renegades to hijack a spacecraft and crash land there. Great story. The two new 'Time Odyssey' spin off's that Clarke has co-written with Stephen Baxter; Time's Eye and Sunstorm, are amazing btw. The third book Firstborn is out soon. I've never read anything by Clarke that I didn't enjoy.. So what are these 'Time Odyssey' books then?

[capncnut]

So what are these 'Time Odyssey' books then? The Time Odyssey series began last year and are modern representations of 2001 (the monolith has now been replaced by a sphere) and the story is set from many different perspectives. The first book Time's Eye deals with the whole Dawn Of Man sequence and the second book Sunstorm continues the story from 2027. They are co-written by Stephen Baxter and the reviews are very good.