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Fifty years from now, the Sun is dying. A crew of eight men and women leave a frozen Earth mired in a solar winter on a perilous mission, to restart the Sun with a huge �stellar bomb� the size of Manhattan Island. So far, so Jerry Bruckheimer. There are two early signs that the mission will not go to plan. The first is the spaceship�s name: Icarus II. Odd to name such a craft after the character from Greek myth who flew too close to the Sun. The second portent, of course, is the unknown fate of the crew�s predecessors aboard Icarus I, which disappeared without a trace seven years earlier.

Sixteen months into this second mission, which is now Earth�s last hope since there are no remaining resources on the planet with which to construct a third stellar bomb, and the crew of the Icarus II detect a distress beacon from the missing Icarus I. Engineer Mace (Evans) thinks the risk of diverting their ship from its course is too great, but other members of the crew think the risk to the mission is worth it, not just as a rescue attempt, but also because they will be able to get their hands on the Icarus I�s bomb, and two chances at reigniting the Sun are better than one. Physicist Capa (Murphy), the only person who can detonate the stellar bomb, gets the final decision, and he agrees to changing course. Naturally, this is where things begin to go wrong�

Sunshine marks director Danny Boyle�s third collaboration with writer Alex Garland, following on from The Beach and 28 Days Later, and is probably one of the most satisfying sci-fi movies of recent times. While the plot sounds closest to that of The Core, in which another motley crew was dispatched on a similar perilous mission, this time to restart the Earth�s magnetic core, elements of Sunshine have a lot in common with 2001: A Space Odyssey and Event Horizon, though thankfully without the boredom factor of the former and the Paul W.S. Anderson factor of the latter.

The usual themes of courage, sacrifice, cowardice and redemption are all present and correct, but never to the point of clich�. Set-pieces are effective and the lack of notable movie stars means you�re never sure who will live and who will fry. A real revelation is Chris Evans, probably best known as The Fantastic Four�s Human Torch, a role he will reprise when the sequel, Rise of the Silver Surfer, hits screen later this year. Evans is likely to surprise audiences with his portrayal of Mace, whose quick-thinking and cool logic in the face of impending disaster make him the only member of the crew to stay true to the mission of saving the Earth, despite early run-ins with physicist Capa that are clearly calculated to set him up as the antagonist.

Though not nearly as clever as it thinks it is, and despite a rather clumsy trespass into slasher movie territory towards the end, Sunshine is nonetheless a fun movie, and, for a British production, a refreshingly epic-feeling one. A strangely uplifting experience that is alternately thrilling, thought-provoking and at times awe-inspiring, but never dull. Catch it on the big screen, and don�t forget your shades.