Is Sunshine the best sci-fi flick of the century? - Page 2

Oink, in case you haven't noticed it, the new forum software has a "Like" button you can click at the bottom of posts to signal your agreement. It's the little thumb to the left of "Multi."

Interesting but not quite the same.

I agree that District 9 being passed over for a Saturn Award nomination for 2009 was an outrage without more. When I consider, though, that Michael Bay's awful Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, starring that noted thespian, Shia LaBeouf, was nominated instead, I want to throw up in a wastebasket. The Book of Eli and Wolverine weren't much better but contemplating them at least didn't cause gastric distress,

Like oink, I still prefer the old "+1!" to indicate my strong agreement with another poster's comment. I guess I'm just old-fashioned.

I'm a big fan of Sunshine and have the BD. But I played it for friends who are usually SF fans they didn't like it. I thought it presented some deep issues in the storyline. Of course I also became a fan of John Murphy's "Adagio in D Minor" too which has been reused a lot places as especially in trailers for other films.
http://www.johnmurphyofficial.com/tunesbox_1.html

Very simple, elegant piece with a lot of emotional depth (sort of Vaughn Williams like).

Thanks! I picked up the soundtrack after I saw Sunshine.

I'm scratching my head as how some of those even hit the science fiction genre. Just because a movie has one scene with aliens or technology, doesn't make it science fiction. Many of the comic movies are action adventure / fantasy, and not science fiction.

I wasn't aware...thanx.

Maybe us old guys can't learn new tricks?

The term "science fiction" does get liberally used quite a bit these days.
IRRC, awhile back, we defined the term more concisely, with sub-genres, etc.....

+1

You were lucky then because due to some licensing snags the soundtrack CD wasn't release until much later and then only a limited edition. Fortunately Murphy has put his works on his site for listening.

Well.... I didn't say exactly how I got it.

Pinbacker wasn't just an allegorical character, the movie also needed a human obstacle as well as natural obstacles for the sake of drama, so it needed an antagonist. The human drama could not sustain the movie past the point of Pinbacker's introduction because the crew, in spite of their quarrels, just got along too well for their friction to reach a climactic crises. The problem is, the antagonist here is brought in ham-handedly and does not come about naturally at all. They should have found a way to make one or more of the existing crew members antagonistic, it could have had more weight emotionally, plus it wouldn't be as ridiculous and one-dimentional as the skinless monster of Pinbacker stalking the crew members like a slasher movie. It was a big missed opportunity in an otherwise excellent hard SF movie. The proper way to make a science-fiction rational-vs-irrational allegory is The Mist.

Sorry to nitpick, but what's the point of discussing "the best sci-fi flick of the century" when "the century" is less than 12 years old?

As far as Sunshine goes, I could never buy the premise that there would be anything any interstellar culture could do that would affect a star in any way whatsoever. Then it turned into Event Horizon.

Better certainly were Children of Men (one of the best dystopian/sci-films of all time IMHO), Moon, Source Code, A.I. Artificial Intelligence , District 9 and Never Let Me Go; and of the frothier, more comic-book-y sort of tilms, X2, Serenity, Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones, and Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow .

There are some pretty sorry titles on that list, too.

The Matrix was 1999. If we're sticking to this century...

Unless you mean the trilogy as a whole.

I'll credit Sunshine for allowing me to think more of Chris Evans. I thought he played the role well.

Wow, yeah... me too. Sunshine and Street Kings did for me.

Looking over his filmography, the only of Danny Boyle's movies that I like unreservedly are 28 Days Later and Millions. The rest of his films generally have good ideas but flawed execution.

The opening ceremony for the 2012 Olympics of Boyle's was so out there that I think it qualifies as a memorable thingie.

No, there was eventually a CD but it was apparently a limited edition. I recall I think on IMDB people asking where the soundtrack was an there was info about it being hung up over licensing issues. If you had the CD it might be worth far more than you paid for it.

I am familiar with the situation so it took me some "digging" to "find" it.

Haven't seen Millions.
I like 28 Days Later and Slumdog, without reservations, but Trainspotting is his masterpiece.

I have Slumdog in my BD collection and you know how selective that is. I rest my case. I really like 28 Days Later, too, and Trainspotting is one of my all time favorite films. I get something new from Trainspotting every time I watch it. Sunshine is all right. It is intriguingly written and has a strong ensemble cast, including the always wonderful Mark Strong, but I don't think it is in a class with some of Boyle's other work.

Good medicine for insomnia.

I do like Sunshine but it was a bit too similar to a b-flick called Solar Crisis, IMO.
Sunshine is way better in all departments but again I made the connection to SC and that kind of spoiled it.
It's probably just me

I would probably pick The Matrix but Sunshine is definately one of the better ones.

Haha, sorry for not reading your earlier post, I guess I was wrong on the correct century there

I'll vote for Inception then.

In case anyone is interested, this BD is $8.99 on Amazon right now.