Sunshine

After some friends have been raving about this movie, I decided to check it out. Gripping. Absolutely gripping. High stakes. High concept. The movie has some impressive visual effects for the seething orb, the multi-paned reflective sun shields, and a virtual-reality cure chamber during Act 1. 

But the plot really picks up when the crew detects a faint signal from the original Icarus and has to decide whether to check it out. It's the first of several decisions that are dealt with in a practical, scientific way; later ones, involving sacrifice for the greater good, come down to a sheer numbers game that generates its own drama when applied to human lives.

Then, when Trey bungles the course adjustment, a series of events are set in motion that have escalating consequences. Capa and Kaneda exit the ship to repair sun shields -- a great scene which had a good balance between f/x and the human drama. Ditto the later boarding of the Icarus -- a dust-covered ghost ship that may hold a secret -- and the nail-biting transfer back to Icarus II.

Casting was not only multi-cultural but multi-continental. Almost half the crew is of Asian descent, including Captain Kaneda (Japan's Hiroyuki Sanada, "The Twilight Samurai"), biologist Corazon (Malaysia's Michelle Yeoh) and navigator Trey (British-Chinese thesp Benedict Wong). As the story opens, Trey is cooking stir-fried noodles in the kitchen and everyone is eating with chopsticks. On the occidental side, apart from Capa, there's pilot Cassie (Aussie actress Rose Byrne), medical officer Searle (Kiwi Cliff Curtis) and two Yanks, communications officer Harvey (Troy Garity) and engineer Mace (Chris Evans). While this may be aspirational to envision a future in which many races share in the responsibility to save the world, it also helped with sales in international territories. Domestic box grossed $3.7 million on just 461 screens while international grossed $28.3 theatrically. 

It's a shame that it was opened on a particularly crowded release schedule. That weekend alone, I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry and Hairspray, but it also didn't help that there were continued strong performance from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Transformers, Ratatouille, Live Free or Die Hard as well as License to Wed, Evan Almighty, Knocked Up and Ocean's 13 rounding up the top 10 at the box office.

It really is a shame. It would have been impressive to see on the 33 x 89 foot silver screen of the Cinerama Dome. 

Punchlines

You know screenwriting is a lot like boxing...

...blood, sweat, tears... and very little actual writing.