This afternoon I went to see Sunshine at the CGV cinema next to Guro station in Seoul. It’s a science fiction suspense film about a group of astronauts heading towards the dying sun. Their ship, the Icarus II, carries an enormous bomb which they hope will detonate inside the sun to create a new star and bring summer back to Earth.
A lot about this film will be familiar to science fiction fans. The ship has long corridors for chase scenes, an oxygen garden and a computerised voice. The crew are attractive, slightly grimy looking and have disagreements. There is even the obligatory visit to an abandoned spacecraft. But familiarity isn’t a bad thing. When so many science fiction films, tv series and books feature the same elements it creates a shared vocabulary of the future. It makes it easier for the viewer to feel that the world they’re seeing on screen is real, and not some mumbo jumbo cooked up in a film maker’s mind.
I was impressed by the make up of the crew. There were three East Asian characters: the captain, the oxygen garden specialist and a guy who seemed to be some kind of navigator. The female characters are depicted as normal human beings. They’re not passive, screaming or sex objects. They’re just active members of the crew. My only criticism is, why only two women in a crew of eight?
I enjoyed the film. I didn’t feel tempted to look at my watch once. I was glad that being a greedy guts I’d bought a large box of sweet popcorn. Some parts of the movie were quite frightening (but not gory) so it was useful to hide behind.
Whilst we’re on the subject of films, I rented The Prestige and Ultraviolet on DVD last night.
The Prestige is set at the end of the Victorian era and tells the story of two rival magicians. I thought it wasn’t as good as The Illusionist, another film about a magician that came out around the same time. The plot of The Prestige is much slower and has far fewer twists and turns. In the beginning I was even a little bored. I like historical dramas usually, so that’s a harsh criticism coming from me.
Ultraviolet doesn’t have much meaningful dialogue and the plot could be written on the back of a shop receipt. That’s unsurprising as it is apparently based on a video game. It makes up for everything with gorgeous cinematography, set and costume design. Milla Jovovich stars as the usual kind of slim attractive heroine with long swishy hair and the ability to fight ten men single handed and kill them all. I enjoyed it far more than The Prestige.
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