I love Indiana Jones. Heck, I want to be Indiana Jones, minus all the snakes, spiders, bugs, guns… Okay so maybe I just want to be the adventurer archaeologist.  I have to say that Harrison Ford looked great in his fedora.  The years have been kind in a rugged way, and he hasn’t lost that Indy touch.  However, the rest of the cast and the film itself has lost the Indy touch.

As far as the story goes, we get Indy on his to find out another mystery.  This time it deals with a crystal skull, that we eventually discover is potentially from a downed UFO and therefore an alien.  We are introduced to the baddies of the film which include Col. Dr. Irina Spalko (Cate Blanchett) as the evil Russian mind melter something or other.  The plot degenerates from there.  Moving right along after a great chase sequence, Indy finds himself on a nuclear test site for no reason except we get some neat graphics of him in a refrigerator flying through the air.  And a really bad gopher.  I never said Indiana Jones was believable, and in most cases you tend to overlook that when watching any Indiana Jones film.  Somewhere along the way we are introduced to Mutt Williams (Shia LaBeouf), who really got on my nerves.  Right from the start, his character reeks of bad acting and even worse future Indy styling.  Indy needs to save Mutt’s mom (which is a highlight as Karen Allen reprises her role as Marion Ravenwood) and his adopted dad (another minor highlight as Professor Henry ‘Ox’ Oxley is played by John Hurt), which miracle upon miracle, is wrapped up in the crystal skull craze.  Move the action to the jungle and cue more chases.  Finally we reach the ultimate answer the crystal skulls, aliens.  Fucking aliens.

My venom knows no bounds when it comes to the fact that even if a film is unbelievable, there are bounds to the unbelievability.  With Indiana Jones, the wild and unbelievable artifact was always at least somewhat rooted in threads of believability.  The arc is a believable legend, as well as the holy grail.  But for some reason, aliens do not seem rooted in anything but someone’s (Spielberg) obsession with aliens.  Crystal skulls have many legends attached to them including aliens, but legends and seeing a fucking alien open up a dimensional portal are two entirely different things.  I can accept all of the action, it fits Indy.  I can accept some bad acting, I did for three other Indy films.  But I cannot accept aliens.  Therefore I present my final verdict.

There is no reason to see this film unless you can overlook the fact that it is a bad film and just want to revel that Harrison Ford can still be Indiana Jones.  I would rather go back and watch all three other Indy films than watch this one again.  My frustration with this film is comparable to the unforgivable Lucas doing more Star Wars films.  Oh gee, you mean Lucas was involved with this too.  Now it all makes sense.  Look, Indiana Jones will always be a crowd pleaser and a money maker, but enough is enough.  Shia will not be the next Indiana and there should be no more Indiana Jones films.  I suggest you watch National Treasure: Book of Secrets instead.  You heard me, it was more entertaining.  So long Indy, you will always have a place in my heart but now that place has a little black spot I call, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

Sunshine begins with eight astronauts traveling to the sun to drop of their payload so that the sun can be rebooted. If they fail, the Earth will be plunged into a frozen wasteland where no living thing would survive. This is however, not the first attempt. We come to discover that a previous attempt was made that supposedly failed. Obviously, things go wrong so that we have some tension. (I guess it would be safe to assume that if things did not go wrong the film would only last 20 minutes and be aired exclusively on the Disney channel.) One point of tension is the beeping of the first Icarus, still sending an SOS. A decision is made to rendezvous with the ship and try to use its payload to make sure their mission succeeds. Then the ships oxygen is lost when a fire ravishes their oxygen creation plant, consequently their mission is placed in jeopardy. Even though things keep going wrong and we are introduced to the first Icarus crew (actually not so much introduced and we find out about why they failed), the film keeps pace by focusing on the psychology of such a mission.

Sunshine really shines (sorry had to do it) when we look at the acting. When dealing with such a petri dish of humanity and human reaction, it is important to have actors and characters that can draw a viewer in. I was surprised to find that many of the actors were familiar to me, and that I have made comments before on each of their individual performances in other films. Captain Kaneda (Hiroyuki Sanada) was an amazing stoic figure, which reminded me of his turn as the paranormal father in Ringu. Cassie (Rose Byrne) was a well thought out addition that never breaks out until later in the film, which reminded me that she had appeared in Marie Antoinette. Corazon (Michelle Yeoh) brought a tenderness to her role, although she does serve as a great example of how tenderness can be tested when faced with the death of humanity. Oh and by the way, she was in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Dr. Searle (Cliff Curtis) was an interesting authority figure that become wrapped up in the psychology of such a mission, and he was Pablo Escobar in Blow. My two favorite characters were Mace (Chris Evans) and Robert Capa (Cillian Murphy). They were truly the yin and yang of the film. They played off the psychology of two men who truly believe they know what is right when there really is no right answer. And one was Johnny Storm and the other was the Scarecrow, what more needs to be said.

What really pushed Sunshine beyond just another science fiction film is Boyle’s lack of reliance on special effects to make the film good. I remember watching Event Horizon and thinking how awesome some of the effects were, but that the story was lacking. Why not spend more money on the writing? Boyle fully believes in using special effects to compliment rather than take over a film. There were the moments of wow, but it was within the context of the story. The wow moments served as a way to enhance the characters or catch the viewers attention to draw them back into the film. I think it’s great that Sunshine does not rely on the special effects to make the film watchable.

Sunshine serves notice to the film community (and George Lucas) that special effects do not have to be the focus of science fiction. Boyle proves that character development and good pacing are all that’s needed to create a phenomenal piece of work. I truly enjoyed watching Sunshine and look forward to the next Danny Boyle project. It’s what? A film about an illiterate street kid from Mumbai who wins the jackpot on the Indian version of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” Uh, well I hope it reinvigorates the what the hell is this genre.