Most critics like Sunshine, though few love it without qualification. Nine of the fourteen reviews are positive, and the praise clusters around the look of the thing: the ship, the effects, and the way the sun itself becomes a presence the crew cannot stop staring at. Danny Boyle is credited with sustaining real tension, and several reviews place the film alongside the thoughtful science fiction of the 1970s rather than the usual space adventure. Time Out singles out the sound design and score.
The reservations are almost unanimous about where they fall: the final act. Review after review describes a film that holds together for two-thirds of its length and then turns into a horror-film chase that undercuts what came before. The spread is wide, from warm to hostile. Variety and Slant go furthest, the latter finding a philosophical blank behind the spectacle, while The Hollywood Reporter stands nearly alone in praising the whole without complaint.
H
The Hollywood Reporter
3 April 2007
90*
The critic calls it an extraordinary film operating on visceral, psychological, and spiritual levels during a space voyage with mankind's fate at stake. It praises the gritty realism, fidelity to probable science, adventure, heroics, and old-fashioned thrills while distinguishing it from typical sci-fi epics.
Read the full review →E
Empire
23 July 2007 · Olly Richards
80*
The critic finds it a knuckle-gnawingly tense, glorious action thriller that marks another genre nailed by Danny Boyle, with near-faultless visual gloss and shimmery sophistication. They single out the breathtaking production values and Boyle's mastery of white-knuckle cinema for praise, while noting a fumbled, nonsensical finale.
Read the full review →G
The Guardian
6 April 2007 · Peter Bradshaw
80*
The critic praises the film's stunning visuals and compelling central idea of a mission to reignite the dying sun, placing it in the tradition of thoughtful 1970s science fiction. He notes some reservations about the final act not fully emerging from the established characters but ultimately calls it a thrilling and sensual spectacle.
Read the full review →The critic praises Danny Boyle's sci-fi thriller for its eye-popping visuals, eco-conscious screenplay, and striking performances, noting its ambitious tone akin to 2001 rather than conventional genre fare.
Read the full review →N
The New York Times
20 July 2007 · Critic’s Pick · Manohla Dargis
70*
The critic praises Boyle's visually arresting and tingly science-fiction thriller about a mission to save the dying sun, noting its debt to classics like 2001 while highlighting the director's skill at delivering chills and tension.
Read the full review →T
Time Out
3 April 2007 · Ben Walters
70*
While noting thin characterisation and derivative elements, the critic highlights the film's impressive sound design, score, and the captivating, perilous relationship between the crew and the sun, with striking visuals.
Read the full review →The critic sees beauty in the film's apocalyptic visuals and a simple message of greater good amid doom and desperation, with exquisite production design and Boyle nailing another genre through sci-fi spectacle meeting intimate drama. They single out the elegant craft and majestic spaceship design for praise, while noting confused purpose and a jarring shift to action in the finale.
Read the full review →I
IndieWire
17 July 2007 · Michael Koresky
50*
The review is a festival or early critique of the Danny Boyle sci-fi film. Details of the full verdict are limited due to page structure.
Read the full review →L
Los Angeles Times
20 July 2007 · Kenneth Turan
50*
The critic finds the sci-fi thriller tense and far from usual space opera, praising its thoughtful elements and character psychology up to the point where it stumbles into conventional plot devices.
Read the full review →N
The New Yorker
23 July 2007 · Anthony Lane
40*
The review calls the premise nonsense but appreciates the visual grandeur of the space mission before criticizing the later shift into a mad stalk-and-slash exercise that undermines clarity.
Read the full review →S
Slant Magazine
3 July 2007 · Jeremiah Kipp
30*
The critic notes that despite strong visuals, production design, and cast, the film is a philosophical blank slate that fails to deliver meaningful themes beyond surface spectacle and genre tropes like a smarter Event Horizon.
Read the full review →V
Variety
3 April 2007 · festival review · Derek Elley
30*
The review notes that the high-concept sci-fi initially burns brightly with gripping atmospheric drama and strong technical elements for two-thirds of its length before imploding into a dramatic black hole.
Read the full review →E
Eye for Film
22 March 2007 · festival review · Steve Harwood
80*
The critic praises the ambitious premise, stunning visuals and special effects, Boyle's direction, and the philosophical questions raised by the script. It compares favorably to intelligent sci-fi like 2001 and Solaris while adding tension akin to Alien.
Read the full review →D
Digital Spy
3 April 2007 · Ben Rawson-Jones
75*
The critic finds Danny Boyle's film a visually and mentally engaging sci-fi drama that prioritizes story, characters and serious themes over Hollywood clichés, with strong performances and inventive direction. A mediocre, Event Horizon-like denouement prevents it from being a masterpiece, but it remains fantastically enjoyable and proves futuristic science fiction can deliver serious drama.
Read the full review →Ordered by the weight we give each publication, then by score. Scores are normalised to 100; * means inferred from an unrated review. Summaries are ours, not quotations; follow the links for the reviews themselves. How we rate