Sunshine (2007)

Another part of the series "House of Unmet Expectations", only this time it's a very pleasant surprise. I was expecting a sluggish movie with a nonsensical last third, but what I got was the best science fiction film in years.
The movie stands in the glorious (but nearly completely unmined on film) tradition of explorative hard SF, like the better moments of Arthur C. Clarke, although with a much less concrete idea of transcendence. Still, there is a real sense of wonder and awe about nature/the universe. The main theme of the film is the relation of individuals to this awe - an interpretation that makes the last third of the movie much less senseless and market-driven as some would have you think. And thinking actually is what is expected of you as viewer. The tendency to spell out what you have to feel and think in every given second of a movie that can make many films with a message terribly grating is completely missing. You'll be getting as much or as little out of Sunshine as you are willing to put into.
Also, this is a very beautiful to look at, tight thriller, even including some obvious (and very uncomfortable) riffs on Tom Godwin's classic but despicable story The Cold Equations.