All in all, I enjoyed Sunshine. The actors were perfectly cast and had natural chemistry with each other and compelling individual screen presence as well. The diversity in the characters and the down to earth portrayals is part of what makes this film so captivating.

Then the third act comes and it completely changes what the film is about and that shift is abrupt and poorly thought out. Sunshine could be one of the all time greats if that last act was rewritten to continue the realistic story being told in the first 2 acts.

It's a shame really because Danny's directing was top notch, the score was very atmospheric and the suspense was building towards what seemed to be something special.

I recommend watching this at least once but be prepared for a third act that is a complete letdown.

It's 50 years in the future. Eight astronauts on Icarus II are sent to restart the Sun as it begins to die. Icarus I was lost seven years ago for unknown reasons. Communications Officer Harvey (Troy Garity) finds a distress call from Icarus I. Psychiatrist Searle (Cliff Curtis) recommends to rendezvous despite engineer Mace (Chris Evans)'s objection for the extra bomb. Physicist Capa (Cillian Murphy) reluctantly agrees. Navigator Trey (Benedict Wong) miscalculates the new trajectory and Captain Kaneda (Hiroyuki Sanada) is killed. Trey goes crazy and is sedated. They board Icarus I leaving pilot Cassie (Rose Byrne) and botanist Corazon (Michelle Yeoh) on Icarus II.

Director Danny Boyle uses the sun as a visual effect and it's amazing. The look of it is beautiful and industrial. The cast is intriguing. The movie is reminiscent of Alien and then it tries to follow it into slasher horror. That may have been a mistake. I'm more concerned about the confused nature of the last act. However I just love the look and feel of this world.

"Sunshine" begins with a rather ridiculous premise--that the sun starts dying much sooner than the billions of years scientists have long predicted. Because of that, the Earth faces annihilation if something isn't done. Several years earlier, Icarus I was sent on a mission to drop some sort of bomb payload on the sun to re-start it. It disappeared and was never heard from again. So, Icarus II was sent up and the film picks up as the ship is near Mercury--coming towards the end of its mission. I could look past this unbelievable premise...but later in the film the picture simply lost me.

Through the course of this portion of the journey, weird things start happening...around the same time they find Icarus I, dead and in orbit around Mercury. Seeming accidents take place--killing various crew members. Ultimately, one of the crew realizes that the problem is being caused by a crew member they thought was dead...a guy who just started staring into the sun and baking himself into a giant chicken nugget. This part simply made no sense at all...none....and that's when emotionally I gave up on the movie.

It's a real shame, as there are things to like about the film. It looks great and the idea of folks needing to sacrifice themselves in order to make this now one-way mission work is pretty interesting, psychologically speaking. But to have Mr. Chicken Nugget Man go crazy and start offing people as well as the now goofy camera-work...well that took the film from interesting to pretty dopey. It's a shame...since it was a rather expensive and nice looking film.