The lastest from the team who gave us "28 Days Later" (Danny Boyle & Alex Garland) is a very interesting film, especially because it deals with something that doesn't really permeate sci-fi horror or anything--and again, the genre-bending Garland scripts something that's pretty unique after taking a story that's been done (team of scientists on mission to deliver something to save mankind). In this case, it's a team of astronaut scientists who are delivering a nuclear bomb to the dying sun. Not to re-ignite the sun actually, but to create a star close to it, and I believe the idea is...it'll create a star-within-a-star effect, thereby revitalizing the sun's power.

Meanwhile, the story is about having that power, and the Last Man Standing to do it...can they go through with saving mankind or do they end up selfishly abandoning the project, and sabotaging the mission? The question is posed in the film in the form of the team that went before the team that the movie bases itself around. And a lone survivor becomes quite troublesome for the new team.

There's a lot of ideas thrown around, and I like that there isn't really a resolution except for the ultimate one. And there is really no mention of God, so it doesn't become a faith-based idea. I think Garland wrote it, that in the absence of God, what does man do in a time where they can be either hero or villain?

I found it to be just as up to par with "28 Days Later", another film that is a statement of mankind without being too over the top, and using a "zombie movie" disguise. This somewhat uses a "slasher movie" disguise at parts, but never loses focus of what it's trying to say. There is ambiguity throughout, and you kind of have to go along with the movie and figure things out on what the theme is. But eventually I think you get there, and I wound up really finding this to be a "lost gem" of the summer.

It'll probably be out of the theatres by the end of the week, since "Superbad" is coming out.

out of

you have no idea, andy.

Its back at the Music Box. 9/21-22/07

http://www.musicboxtheatre.com/index.html



Heres my take. 3 stars. Could have been better.
Watered down 2001 Space Odyssey with just a regular slasher movie ending. 50 years from now , we have to Nuke the sun and stave off the next ice age.


SPOILER

A subplot.
The crew is running out of oxygen and the leadership decides they have to off themselves. People conveniently die before any hard and sick choices have to be made--saved the scriptwriters from some controversy.

A Freddy Krueger/BigFoot/ex-deranged crew member does pop in out of nowhere.

Special effects. Pretty good. Nice slasher movie camera angles, trademark of the 28 days type of movie. Bad thing. I would have liked to see the sun nuke up close. The director takes a cheap shortcut and merely just shows a brighter day on Earth.

Anyway, not perfect but a good catch to see on the 2nd run or dvd.
Good for supporters of the Sci Fi/Trekkie genre as well as horror fans.

good points; i think the last shot was actually pretty cool. it went with the repeat of the "monologue" from the beginning "if you happen to see a particularly beautiful day..."

i thought some of it was pretty damn intense, and the 2001 comparisons are inevitable. thought the coolest scene was the guy freezing when he hits outer space, and breaking apart.

only thing i thought they could have done was show what the earth was like, sometime in the beginning, to set it up.

but i thought the villain's point of view of doing something against god's plan (couldn't god's plan be that we can save the sun?)...was interesting.

It was a good ending. I just would have liked to see some kind of depiction of that detonation before that. The usual blockbuster fireworks, although yes, everything was very intense anyway. In the beginning it might have been interesting seeing some tundra scrunching a city. Probably saved some set money leaving those things out though.


The fragmented ice cube guy was cool. Very convenient too since he was selfish nervy. Kinda like killing off Dr Smith early in Lost in Space. Saves a lot of complications.

True. nice philosophical / religious zealot viewpoint from the villlain. Maybe God didnt intend for us to live anyway. Thanks God.