Watch This: 'Sunshine'

107 minutes. Rated R.

A blazing, golden sun slowly fills the screen. As our perspective shifts, the image becomes even more breathtaking. It's the prow of a spaceship, a high-tech heat shield that could be an ancient Aztec tribute to the sun god, and it's hauling, in the words of the nuclear physicist played by Cillian Murphy, pictured, "eight astronauts strapped to the back of a bomb. My bomb."

The initial premise of "Sunshine" -- the sun is dying and mankind has put all hope in a desperate effort to reignite our star with a nuclear payload of galactic dimensions -- is more fantasy than science fiction, powered by nonsense physics similar to such sci-fi adventures as "Armageddon" and "The Core."

Where director Danny Boyle ("Trainspotting," "28 Days Later") and writer Alex Garland take this idea, however, is something else entirely. "Sunshine" is a visionary odyssey with a grace and awe and visual scope that calls to mind Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey" for a new millennium, with echoes of the industrial grunge and crew friction of "Alien," the greenhouse ecology of "Silent Running," even the unraveling sanity of "Dark Star."

The scientists and engineers of the international crew are no superheroes, and the gravity of their mission puts them under inhuman pressure. Some escape in isolation (pilot Rose Byrne and biologist Michelle Yeoh), some bliss out in the infinity of space (psych officer Cliff Curtis), and one (engineer Chris Evans) responds with good old American directness: He throws a punch at Murphy.

A bare outline of the plot reads like a space-adventure thriller with end-of-the-world stakes and a hint of celestial spirituality, and the haunted spaceship twist in the third act is pure B-movie madness.

Boyle and his cast set the controls to the heart of the sun and drive the interstellar pilgrimage beyond the dubious science and rickety story line with magnificent imagery and a gravity that pulls you in to the immediacy of their ordeal and the gripping urgency of their mission.

The DVD has deleted scenes -- including an alternate ending -- all accompanied by commentary from Boyle. Other extras include a collection of production-diary segments for the Web offering behind-the-scenes glimpses of the film.

-- Sean Axmaker