Sunshine starts off feeling very similar to Alien. With a crew already well into voyage, you are thrown straight into the mix onboard the claustrophobic Icarus 2. The ship is on a mission to blast new life into our dying Sun to save the Earth, which is in the grip of an ice age.

Cillian Murphy does very well to put some life into what could have been a dull character as the ship's resident astrophysicist. Chris Evans, who at first comes over as overly jockish and hot-headed, actually settles into an important role and blatantly shows you what is at stake with the mission and what the crew must do to complete it. 

What Sunshine is excellent at is creating a sense of awe. The Icarus 2 has an observation lounge which allows the crew to observe the Sun with the naked eye (using filters) closer than any human could do - but look at it at full visibility and you'll burn. The film is also great at slipping in with the wonder what could be very dry factoids of scientific knowledge. More than most scifi movies, Sunshine proudly displays it's science. This is also a clever device overall, when it wrongfoots you as to the eventual destination of the story. Sunshine actually has quite a brief running time, and it could have easily become uneccessarily bloated in the hands of others. For the most part, it is played out realistically. For one moment - after they discover the Icarus 1, a previous mission that went missing seven years ago - it looks like it might be turning into Event Horizon or some space-based version of Ten Little Indians.

However, as they approach the Sun, the film takes a metaphysical turn and it becomes a film of pure spectacle.

Sunshine can justifiably rub shoulders from the films it clearly pinches from - Silent Running, Alien, 2001, Apocalypse Now. It is a modern odyssey, a wonderful story told in a beautiful way.

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