SUNSHINE, a 2007 sci-fiction entry in the suicide-mission-to-save-Earth category, fulfills its assignment—even with the expected shipload of daft science—for 4/5 of the 107 minute running time before self-destructing in the bonkers last act. Directed by Danny Boyle, written by Alex Garland, it’s a neat trip until then, worth catching for the retina-flexing visuals and a well-picked cast. Dr. Brian Cox, physicist and consultant on the film, waved off critics ray guns with a down-to-Earth comeback “Sunshine is not a documentary.”

2057. Earth is freezing as the Sun dies. A previous mission having disappeared, the crew of ‘Icarus II’ have our neighborhood fireball in their sites, and prepare to deliver a ‘stellar bomb’ that (if calculations are correct, that ever-pesky bug) will jump-start the orb. With the last of the planet’s fissile material on board, this is mankind’s last shot in the dark (the brightest part of it).

Cool visuals of hot stuff, with suitably rising tension levels among the brilliant, stressed-out crew, neatly embodied by Cillian Murphy, Rose Byrne, Chris Evans, Michelle Yeoh, Cliff Curtis, Hiroyuki Sanada, Troy Garity and Benedict Wong. Mark Strong shows up to toss added fuel on the fire.

Having enjoyed basking in the glowing production design and investing interest in the psychological and philosophical conflicts of the well-acted crew, the sudden lurch to the right in the last act comes off as a bit desperate, and likely will provoke your personal variation on “Oh, that’s a shame”, but the buildup is worth it, even if part of the finish flames out.

Alas, Sunshine didn’t light up the world’s box offices, the $34,806,000 global take (a mere 10.6% of that in the States) a scalding loss on the $40,000,000 cost.