Three years after his unexpected foray into family films with the festive fable Millions, director Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, The Beach) blazes a trail back to brooding, adult fare with a suspenseful, science fiction adventure.

Sunshine looks sensational. Production designer Mark Tildesley and cinematographer Alwin Kuchler create a stunning vision of the near future, much of it set aboard a space mission en route to the sun.

Foreboding labyrinthine corridors, reminiscent of the claustrophobic interiors of the Nostromo in Ridley's Scott's seminal 1979 film Alien, contrast with spectacular sequences in deep space, brought to life with dazzling special effects. Every frame is pristine, polished to perfection, and as the mission nears its destination, clever lighting effects bathe the entire film in brilliant, retina-searing white.

Boyle joins forces once again with screenwriter Alex Garland, who penned their zombie thriller 28 Days Later, for a nightmarish journey into the mid-21st century; a bleak future in which the sun is dying, threatening to plunge mankind into total darkness. Without enough light to sustain plant life and replenish oxygen, or to warm the planet, the human race stands on the brink of extinction.

A team of plucky astronauts - Cassie (Rose Byrne), Searle (Cliff Curtis), Mace (Chris Evans), Harvey (Troy Garity), Capa (Cillian Murphy), Kaneda (Hiroyuki Sanada), Trey (Benedict Wong) and Corazon (Michelle Yeoh) - embarks on a perilous mission to save the world. "Eight astronauts strapped to the back of a bomb," says Capa in one of his voiceover diary entries. "My bomb. Welcome to Icarus II."

With Kaneda in charge of the mission, Icarus II heads for the sun with the intention of delivering a nuclear payload into the heart of the dying star. The resulting explosion should reignite the sun and bathe the Earth in nourishing light. As the team drifts out of radio contact with home, bitter rivalries surface. In the midst of the power struggles, the crew stumbles upon a distress signal, which appears to be coming from the ill-fated Icarus I, which disappeared seven years earlier. Should Kaneda and his fellow astronauts continue with their mission as planned or make an unscheduled detour to investigate the source of the distress signal?

Sunshine owes a huge debt to Alien and, as in Scott's film, there is plenty of bloodshed and screaming before the mission nears completion. Murphy's man of science clashes with Evans' cocksure leader, complimented by nicely judged performances from the rest of the cast as characters whose logic is dangerously impaired by cabin fever.

Boyle's mastery of the technical elements is impressive and he sustains the tension, sucking our expectations out of the airlock with about 20 minutes to go with an abrupt injection of pace. However, an orgy of digital effects in the closing moments almost ruins the climax, reducing it to an incomprehensible blur.

The sequinned, skin-tight Lycra-clad world of men's figure skating provides the unlikely backdrop to Blades of Glory, the latest raucous comedy from Will Ferrell (Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby). Playing to type, Ferrell essays yet another loud, oafish, chauvinistic loner, described effusively by one of the skating commentators as "an ice-devouring sex tornado". His pelvis-thrusting, hip-swivelling theatrics become tiresome, but thankfully co-star Jon Heder is an excellent comic foil as the shy, sensitive type, who lets people skate all over him.

The four screenwriters are on painfully thin ice in the opening half hour, struggling to develop the characters in any detail away from the rink. But once their unlikely double-act glides on to the ice, the film triple flips to delirious comic heights, allowing the leads to perform death-defying moves with the help of computer jiggery-pokery.

At the end of the world figure skating championships, sworn rivals Chazz Michael Michaels (Ferrell) and Jimmy MacElroy (Heder) clash violently on the winner's podium, in front of the world's media. The judgment of the National Skating Federation is swift and brutal: "You are to be stripped of your medals and banned from men's figure skating for the remainder of your lives."

Chazz descends into boozy oblivion in a second-rate children's skating show called Grublets on Ice. Meanwhile, child prodigy Jimmy is abandoned by his adopted father Darren (William Fichtner) and forced to earn a meagre crust in a shoe shop. During a surprise visit from deranged stalker Hector (Nick Swardson), Jimmy learns of a loophole in the skating rulebook: while he is banned from the men's single competition, he can compete in the pairs event.

Aided by his coach (Craig T.Nelson), Jimmy reluctantly agrees to work with Chazz to form the world's first same-sex skating partnership. The media interest reaches fever pitch, taking the spotlight away from current champions, brother and sister team Stranz and Fairchild Van Waldenberg (Will Arnett, Amy Poehler). Unable to win fairly, the Van Waldenbergs resort to dirty tactics, using Jimmy's affection for their sister Katie (Jenna Fischer) to drive a wedge between the men.

The dance sequences are the undisputed highlight of Blades of Glory, littered with outrageous moves that gleefully kick ice in the face of gravity. Ferrell and Heder look like they are having fun throughout, and some of the banter between their sworn rivals hits the mark. As long as the cast are on the ice, the film doesn't put a foot wrong.