Sunshine

I was given the priveledge of being one of the first people in the country, and probably the world to see Danny Boyle's "Sunshine" the other night. For those of you who don't know, Danny Boyle directed 28 Days Later, probably the best horror movie to come out of the UK, despite borrowing rather heavily from the book "Day of the Triffids".
Anyway, Sunshine is his move into sci-fi, although Boyle does well to keep the feeling that the whole mission of stopping the sun from, well stopping, could go wrong at any point. We also saw this in 28 Days Later, where few zomibes appear but we are still very aware of their overarching presense. The film isn't perfect, there are plenty of plotholes you could pilot spaceships through and the dialogue is hardly sparkling.
However, the film hinges on the idea that being in a confined space in space for years with the same people will drive you mad. And the film focusses on what people worship/focus on to get them through. Each character has something they hold dear whether it be family, the mission, or a certain aspect of it, God, or the sun itself. And we see the lengths people will go to to save these things as the movie progresses. This very compelling idea is enough to carry the film through to its finale, and is what stops it from simply being an Alien/Aliens wannabee.