Good Science Fiction Movies

[jacob Raver, sinTempter]

Sunshine could have been something, but the acting was mediocre despite having decent actors, the script was standard scifi channel drivel, there were too many characters right away with the dialogue nicely meeted out to each member within a discussion like clockwork which is ludicrous, it was all cliche, the characters had no journey and no development, there was NO suspense because everything that happened was easily predictable and cliche...the opening scene was just expositional garbage that didn't need to be there...the only thing I did like was Scarecrow's acting and a couple of the space/sun shots...which of course were used way, way, way too much. Nice idea, old idea...read Brinn's Sundiver for something akin that is far better.

[ItisWritten]

I might add that having an insane, murderous Pinbacker was thematically necessary. The whole message of the movie was the sun as seen as something wonderful both scientifically and religiously. The contrast between some of the Icarus II's crew (that is, Capa) and Pinbacker explored this theme, and showed just how far somepeople will go to make something 'symbolically neutral' mythical.

I'll grant you the thematic opposition. But the execution of it was glaringly at odds with the rest of the movie. What the script needed was a bridge to Pinbacker's beliefs without involving his person. I felt they just cast aside the psychologist (Searle), because his obsession with the sun was a link to Pinbacker that was merely scratched. Those two should have interacted on Icarus I.

[Loredoctor]

Dark Star is awesome.

And I'm sorry Lore, but the ending of Sunshine was horrible. It was like someone switched the final reel with another movie.

The ending? You mean the part where Capa's sister played his recording as the Sun brightened? I have to disagree. Or do you mean the inclusion of the slasher element? If you mean the latter, then I admit that the director could have primed the audience for that much earlier on without having to show both the Psychologist and the Kaneda becoming 'crazed' by the sun.

[Loredoctor]

Sunshine could have been something, but the acting was mediocre despite having decent actors, the script was standard scifi channel drivel, there were too many characters right away with the dialogue nicely meeted out to each member within a discussion like clockwork which is ludicrous, it was all cliche, the characters had no journey and no development, there was NO suspense because everything that happened was easily predictable and cliche...the opening scene was just expositional garbage that didn't need to be there...the only thing I did like was Scarecrow's acting and a couple of the space/sun shots...which of course were used way, way, way too much. Nice idea, old idea...read Brinn's Sundiver for something akin that is far better.

Too much hyperbole to really bother responding to. I'll grant you your opinion, but I think you're wrong. People are really too obsessed with the whole slasher aspect, and are missing the film's message and its beauty.

I have read Sundiver, and one could argue that it's just a mystery set in the Sun's atmosphere. The characters have no real development, the aliens - besides the ones inhabiting the sun - are okay. I love the Uplift series by the way.

[Cail]

Dark Star is awesome.

And I'm sorry Lore, but the ending of Sunshine was horrible. It was like someone switched the final reel with another movie.

The ending? You mean the part where Capa's sister played his recording as the Sun brightened? I have to disagree. Or do you mean the inclusion of the slasher element? If you mean the latter, then I admit that the director could have primed the audience for that much earlier on without having to show both the Psychologist and the Kaneda becoming 'crazed' by the sun.

I was referring to the "slasher" element. It was so out-of-step with the rest of the film.

[Loredoctor]

Ahhh, thanks.

[wayfriend]

I love the Uplift series by the way.

Talk about a bad ending!!!!!

[Orlion]

I was never put off by the Pinbacker ending to Sunshine. It seemed to flow logically to me. Sunshine was always a film where you watch as the main characters continue to make great sacrifices to accomplish a very necessary thing. Without Pinbacker, the continued problems on Icarus II would have stopped, there would not have been much of the opposite ideology of letting the sun die, and such scenes where Mace tries to fix the central computer or when Capa trips in the hallway on his way to the bomb would not have existed in any meaningful way. Sunshine is a film about sacrifice and people fighting against what seems to be an entire universe to change the fate of humanity. Part of that universe, though, happens to be conscious humanity, and thus Pinbacker.

Besides, slasher elements are spoken of as if they're always a bad thing... I wonder why that is?

[Cail]

Oh hey, I'm all for a good slasher film, but up to that point, I was watching a deeply cerebral science fiction film.

[jacob Raver, sinTempter]

Okay. I'll speak of one point that was probably my first and biggest problem with the film. Every single time someone made a sacrifice or something bad happened I was very, very aware of what would happen far before it did happen. Therefore, there was absolutely no suspense. And, because the dialogue was spread out between the entire crew except Searl, who was mainly just speaking exposition on the sun and the spiritual concepts, I never came to care about them so that their heroic deaths had meaning of any kind for me. Also, any attempt at tension between the crew fell flat, for me, because each character was nearly cliche as far as their rank or particular field. So, no tension and no suspense.

Too, I felt that the slasher element was way out of place, the film's lack of previous tension and suspense made the addition of the Pickner's whole section of the film far more tedious.

[Loredoctor]

Oh hey, I'm all for a good slasher film, but up to that point, I was watching a deeply cerebral science fiction film.

I'm sorry Cail, but I have to disagree. I think that even up to the end it was cerebral. I admit while Pinbacker was killing people it didn't say much, but his 'character did'. And at times through the last half there were some very deep moments. For instance, the death of the biologist.

[Cail]

Eh, it just didn't do it for us. We looked at each other and said, "WTF?". I was ready to kick the cable box to see if it'd switched channels on us.

[jacob Raver, sinTempter]

Dark City