movie about restarting the sun

?????

Que?

I haven't even *heard* of this movie! I need to engage with the outside world once in a while.

Yeah, I agree, Frank. And up until that point, I was actually musing to myself that I really appreciated intelligent sci-fi because it showed that it doesn't all have to be like SciFi Channel Original Movies. And then it became a SciFi Channel Original Movie with better special effects.

Teppy, it's the latest movie from genre-hopper Danny Boyle. Oddly enough, it sort of reminded me of Mission to Mars in that the real point of the movie is the mission/journey and the kinds of decisions you have to make when the fate of all mankind is on the line.

I bought Sunshine on a special deal and am really glad I did. I liked it even more on second viewing but more than that, the commentary by the consulting physicist is hugely entertaining and informative. The informative I expected, but he's also really funny, earnest and honest. 'We just made that bit up, sorry.' He clearly has a cute little mancrush on Cillian Murphy too.

Boyle's commentary was much more technical but it explained some things that just flew past me in the theatre.

I'm s huge lover of the dvd extra but I know that a film should not be made better by being explained. It really should be coherent on the screen, but knowing stuff I know now, I like the movie even better.

Has anybody ever heard of a movie called Afterlife by Joss Whedon? It appears to be an unproduced thing from a while back, but there's very little info I can fish out online.

Finally caught up to TDK. I did like it to the extreme, but I don't know if I'd go so far as to say I love it and want to have its babies.

I absolutely loved Heath Ledger as the Joker. It wasn't just the creepy tongue moves and physical twitches, it was his eyes, too. I tended to concentrate on watching his mouth most of the time, because of the way it was painted on and what he does with it. But if you paid attention to his eyes, you could see he had no connection to humanity in there. Most of the time his eyelids were at half mast, he rarely looked at people when he was talking to them. When he did look at people, he still never completely opened his eyes. He looked alternately sly, disinterested, avoidant, and sometimes, almost naive or at least childishly excited. And what was most interesting was that the expression in his eyes was often at distinct odds to the expression on the lower half of his face or the tone of his voice. Very, very creepy.

I felt the build up to Two Face wasn't as well-done as it could have been. And the reveal to the nickname happened way too late in the movie. People who have read the comics didn't need it, so it felt like a throwaway and those who haven't read them really could have used that information much earlier, when Gordon and Dent were talking about the Internal Affairs stuff. It would have given greater depth to their disagreements, provided more insight to it and maybe even made Dent's decision to go after the bad cops more meaningful. That if he'd done a better job then, the Joker wouldn't have been able to use those cops against Rachel. Maybe he hadn't been two-faced enough to do a throrough enough job. So, now was his chance and he's going to take it.

I didn't find the relationship between Dent and Rachel at all believable. Perhaps, because we come into it fully formed and so we have to be told about it, not shown or, at least, not shown enough. And because I don't remember her from the first movie at all. Not that it was Maggie Gyllenhall instead of Katie Holmes, but that Rachel didn't make enough of an impression on me in BB for me to give a rat's ass about her in this movie and couldn't understand why Bruce Wayne or Harvey Dent would, either.

Loved all the special effects, I think because they really were much more grounded in reality and because they remind you that while Batman is more-or-less considered a hero, he is not a super-hero. I loved that he kept getting bitten by dogs. He can smack around bad guys to his heart's content, but dogs will lay him low. They're his kryptonite, hehe.

I ♥ Alfred. Always.

I'm rewatching Sunshine and the things that I'm noticing that could have used more... intimacy? were Corazon's mother-earthness so that the loss of the oxygen garden and her subsequent but also under-explored broken-ness made more sense. We never got to know Trey before his mother-of-all-screw-ups.

We never really got to know anyone. Not really. I think it was all a bit too subtle and understated for it's own good, although on the other hand I'm glad that we didn't get a cheesy exposition for each character's personality in the first half-hour.

Kappa/Cillian was a bit remote and unknowable, Rose Byrne/Cassie was bland as all get-out, Michele Yeoh was wasted and I wanted to see more of her besides as a victim of Pinbacker. Searle/Cliff Curtis was incredibly fascinating and might possibly have had the most dynamic personality and story-arc (and also I heart Cliff Curtis).

And there were a slew of other crew members that I never really got to know, even if on just a name-basis.

But, damn, is this movie pretty. The cinematography, the sfx, the score, the ambient noise, just lovely, all of it.

Danny Boyle is hit or miss with me. Loved A Life Less Ordinary, but despised 28 Weeks Later but that might have been because it raped the happy ending (if you don't watch the alternate endings, that is) of the first movie, and also because the concept of "the horrible things we must do in horrible circumstances, yet love still finds hope (survival vs. living) the sacrifices we must make to survive and the sacrifices we must make to have a life worth living" was also fucked over and turned into "gee, kill everyone, istn't it fun!" And omg Rose Byrne strikes again, delivering one of the most excruciating scenes that was the final clincher in my hate for Weeks.

Maybe that's why I can't watch Damages.

28 Weeks Later

FYI, Danny Boyle didn't have a whole lot to do with the sequel.

We never really got to know anyone. Not really. I think it was all a bit too subtle and understated for it's own good, although on the other hand I'm glad that we didn't get a cheesy exposition for each character's personality in the first half-hour.

I did like that, actually. That we learned about the characters through their actions and reactions rather than getting any real exposition about them. It was neat.

Rose Byrne/Cassie was bland as all get-out

I never could figure out what her role on the ship was. But I thought her little victory dance was cute.

But, damn, is this movie pretty. The cinematography, the sfx, the score, the ambient noise, just lovely, all of it.

Yep.

FYI, Danny Boyle didn't have a whole lot to do with the sequel.

I forgot to clarify that I can't blame him for the script.

I did like that, actually. That we learned about the characters through their actions and reactions rather than getting any real exposition about them. It was neat.

I almost feel like it should have been a longer movie, so that we could have been given just a titch more "show, not tell" for the characters. If only for Corazon's character, because I didn't fully comprehend her reaction and change until I saw the special features. I didn't gather that she was really tied up in the garden in a spiritual, earth-loving sense. That the loss of the garden was more than just a means of survival, but something very important to her personally.

And then to have her being the one to suggest that they kill three of the crewmembers, the impact isn't quite there, because I didn't know her well enough.

I forgot to clarify that I can't blame him for the script.

I'm not sure what you can blame him for, though.

I didn't gather that she was really tied up in the garden in a spiritual, earth-loving sense. That the loss of the garden was more than just a means of survival, but something very important to her personally.

I didn't really get that in the beginning, but her reaction to its destruction certainly spoke to that.