I was so greatly disappointed with SUNSHINE because it came so close to greatness. Danny Boyle and Alex Garland (director and writer, respectively) have crafted an excellent space adventure. The first two-thirds of this movie play like the smart kind of popcorn flick I haven’t seen in God knows how long. Then Garland and Boyle pulled an inverse 28 DAYS LATER cop-out.
My issue with their genre defining zombie movie: it started as a rip-roaring horror film but towards the end the filmmakers felt compelled to prove that their movie was smarter and more thoughtful than the average monster movie. In case you didn’t get it, that whole sequence with the military is meant to make you think, “maybe we are the monsters.”
Dudes, James Whale nailed that with such grace in FRANKENSTEIN so you don’t have to rub our faces in it.
This time around, SUNSHINE feels like a smart, psychological thriller were human egos and frailty prove to undermine us at those do-or-die moments. But, once again, the filmmakers lose their confidence in their audience. Now they decide to pull what I’ll call an “inverse 28 DAYS LATER.” They’re so afraid of boring you to death with morality and human drama that they jam a knife wielding monster into the final third of the film. If our humanity doesn’t scare you how about an old fashioned monster?
Guys, we’ve seen that slasher film in space. It was called JASON X.
Next time, please, give us, your loyal audience, some credit.
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