How Harry Potter rode a sci-fi masterpiece into the 2000s

by Jonathan Klotz
| Published 28 seconds ago

It can be difficult to be a science fiction fan. This type of literature arose from futurists’ questions about what life would be like in ten, fifty, or even thousands of years, and how tomorrow’s technology and societies would reflect today’s world. Over the decades, mainstream science fiction has been about visual spectacle first, then philosophical musings about our place in the universe, forty-second.

In the early 2000s, a movie tried to go back to the genre’s big idea roots but failed miserably. But now, nearly twenty years later, director Danny Boyle sunrise It breaks through controversy among fans to become a cult classic.

Astronauts blowing up the sun or something more?

sunrise It’s often described as a film about “astronauts blowing up the sun to save humanity”, but this fails to capture the scope of Boyle’s film. It’s more about the crew’s struggle against the weight of their mission, the isolation of space, and what to do when the sun itself tries to kill you. The first 45 minutes of the film focus on the development of the crew and how they relate to each other, with the final third of the film hitting the audience like a ton of bricks.

From the opening minutes what is clear sunrise It’s a great movie. Produced on a budget of $40 million, every dollar can be found on screen. The colors inside the ship tell their own story too, as no red, orange or yellow can be found on board. Dark colors absorb most of the ultraviolet rays, which makes sense in-universe, but to the viewer, they increase the intensity of the sun and make the smallest ray of sunshine stand out as a sign of the crew’s impending doom.

The cast is one of today’s standouts

The cast of Icarus II is made up of today’s stars, before they were stars. And it is distinguished Oppenheimer Cillian Murphy as Kappa, a physicist who can manipulate the bomb that ignites the sun. There’s Captain America himself, Chris Evans, as Mace, who is both an engineer and a soldier. Michelle Yeoh is Corazon, a biologist. Rose Byrne as Cassie, the pilot. Marvel’s Benedict Wong as Trey the Navigator. Troy Garrity as Harvey, his second-in-command. future Shogun It stars Hiroyuki Sanada as Kaneda, the captain of Icarus II, and the always underappreciated Cliff Curtis as Searle, the Doctor. When Troy Garrity, the least known of the actors, is nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Actor, it’s one of the best ensembles in Science fiction date.

That killer’s class was working on a script he wrote Alex GarlandBoyle’s frequent creative partner, who continued to create previous machine, Among countless other hits. sunrise It gives each crew member a moment, and by the time things go wrong, we know how they would all think and feel in a given situation. You might think that a dialogue-heavy first half might put off viewers, but sci-fi fans love the way the film begins and builds slowly. The problems start in the second half of the film, when it turns into a horror 80s movie set in space.

The third act turns audiences towards love or hate

After being damaged by Tree forgetting to reset the sun visors, an honest mistake with disastrous consequences, the crew finds its sister ship, Icarus I, floating in space. It is now a ghost ship, and the crew on board have been found to have committed suicide on the observation deck, allowing the sun’s rays to hit them with full force. The exception is Captain Pennpacker, who was not among the dead. Pennebaker, played by a frightened and burned-out Mark Strong, becomes a fanatic, convinced that he must help humanity reach heaven.

The inclusion of Pinbacker as the Deus Ex Killer angers viewers sunrise By turning what should have been a modern version of 2001 into a space horror movie. The amount of time spent with Pinbacker is minimal compared to the beginning, but the shift from slow, contemplative sci-fi to stabs is so abrupt and violent, it throws off the entire viewing experience. Were it not for Boyle’s love of similar third-act twists in his other films, including 2025’s 28 Years Later, it might reek of studio interference, but that’s what the director always intended.

Why did sunlight fail?

Science fiction fans were turned off by this development, but mainstream audiences didn’t seem to mind; After all, they didn’t go to the theater to see the movie in the first place.

The second obstacle against sunrise Its release date was the one that made it big: July 20, 2007. This placed it three weeks after Michael Bay’s first film. transformers (before we knew he would hurt us over and over again), just one week later Harry Potter and the Order of the PhoenixOn the same day John McClane returned Free living or Die hard. The Simpsons The movie arrived a week later! This was one of the worst weekends for a speculative sci-fi film to be released.

Due to a poor release date and a weak trailer that misled opening week fans, sunrise It earned $10 million in the United States. In modern terms, that’s barely more than Border areas.

Ultimately, the film grossed $34 million, failed to make back its budget, and was never able to turn a profit until it reached DVD and Blu-Ray. In the domestic market, Boyle’s innovative film finally became a hit, earning more than $20 million in home media sales in just two years.

With its stunning visuals, intelligent dialogue, and focus on science in sci-fi, sunrise It is either a classic or one of the worst films ever made, depending on who you ask. Today, with a lack of decent original sci-fi in theaters, Boyle’s Mission to Blow Up the Sun is a breath of fresh air that, even at its worst, is better than Netflix. Electric state. We love sci-fi, we love movies that dare to do something different, and… sunrise It’s the best movie of the 2000s that you’ve never seen.

Judge for yourself then sunrise A masterpiece or a disaster by broadcasting it Disney+ and Holo.

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