From the inner-body experience of Fantastic Voyage to the meteoric madness of Armageddon, the sci-fi genre thrives on teams of plucky scientists saving the day.

And, initially, it appears that the 28 Days Later team of director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland are boldly going to take us on a similar yet refreshingly straightforward apocalyptic nail-biter.

The set-up is essentially The Core in reverse. Fifty years hence, the sun is fizzling out and all life on Earth is doomed. Unless... someone can deliver an explosive payload "the size of Manhattan" slap-bang into its centre.

The task falls to the eclectic crew of space hulk Icarus II: physicist Capa (Murphy), biologist Corazon (Yeoh), engineer Mace (Evans), pilot Cassie (Rose Byrne), captain Kaneda (Hiroyuki Sanada), first officer Harvey (Troy Garity) and maths whiz Trey (Benedict Wong).

Plus the ship's computer, voiced in the Hal 9000-style by the Cadbury's Caramel bunny.

Tensions understandably run high, since every decision could mean the difference between becoming the toast of the planet or just plain toast.

The inevitable mistakes begin with a change of course to intercept the original Icarus, thought lost with all hands seven years earlier.

Logic dictates that two payloads are better than one - and they could discover what happened to their ill-fated predecessors. But their folly is all too apparent when our first hero is fried.

Which is, of course, why we're here. Nobody wants a disaster movie in which everyone returns safe and sound, and Boyle duly obliges by exposing a coward and springing a nasty little surprise.

Unfortunately, this is where Sunshine's circuitry begins to frazzle.

Boyle suddenly stops channelling Ridley Scott and picks up Michael Bay's megaphone as the slow-burning first act gives way to a firestorm of confusing edits, blurry camerawork and pseudo-religious blather.

The actors seem comfortable in the knowledge that they are but sausages at the barbecue and make plenty of room for irony - who expected to freeze to death? - yet it's remarkable how little anyone sweats.

The filmmakers freely admits that the science doesn't stand up to close scrutiny - nothing man-made would get within a planetary mile of the sun before melting.

Boyle and his technical team put on an impressive audio-visual display, but the switch from simmering suspense to overcooked shriek-show was not a bright idea.

Elliott Noble