Pandorum **

By Vaughn Fry / September 25 , 2009 Comments

Pandorum is a sci-fi thriller that mixes together Alien, Memento, and Event Horizon. It has the isolation of the first, the memory loss of the second, and the dementia of the last. Director Christian Alvert does manage to pull together some of the better elements from these films which makes for a mostly attractive picture that is mildly thought provoking. Unfortunately many of the urged thoughts are questions concerning the plausibility of story elements.

With Earth’s resources dwindling and a human population that is out of this world, the spaceship Elysium has been sent out to on an important mission to colonize. Waking up from deep space slumber is Cpl. Bower (Ben Foster) who finds the ship in utter disarray. With the help of his superior officer, Lt. Payton (Dennis Quaid), Bower attempts to fix the ship’s reactor while eluding dangerous, demonic creatures.

Ben Foster is a rising star. I first noticed him among many A-listers in X-Men: The Last Stand then in 3:10 to Yuma. He’s commanding of attention regardless of how little his characters have to say or do. Here he is so underused. There isn’t time for character development, but at the very least he has chances to give an honest delivery. On the other side you have Dennis “I will act in anything” Quaid and Antje “Milla Jovovich stand-in” Traue. To my surprise they too put in solid performances considering the material.

I have to grade it down for the attempts at action. At no point does a fight summon admiration when it plays out like the ninja on screen has met the reel. It’s impossible to piece together. I never got a good look at the mutants and seldom saw their attacks. Dear movie, if you want people to be afraid then you have to show them what’s at stake. When I could make out something, I was left with questions. So these mutants have crafted metal armor, they don’t really have to eat, and they can jump like Dwight Howard on the moon? Even if you want to grant the movie that hypersleep can cause one psychological problem, you have to believe in another series of anomalies to explain half the remaining holes. Gotta love how the sudden disappearance of Earth goes unexplained. Need an identity crisis? We have scripted selective amnesia.

The ending comes with a few twists, some of which make more sense than others. Maybe it’s bad direction, but I could have sworn there was a possibility in which something very important was just an illusion; but that’s seemingly debunked when our heroes make their way to the escape pod. Pandorum is certainly better than I had expected, but I feel that I’ve seen much better similar films and none of those have the title of a sickness. **

**, Movie Reviews

Vaughn Fry

Good call on Cube, I should have mentioned it. While I was watching I thought, "this is Alien if half the crew woke up after Kane's lunch fiasco". Both Alien and Cube carry a similar claustrophobic feel, but that brings up something else.

I forgot to mention that the size of the ship is not well established, particularly the length. We hear them talk about getting to the bridge and getting to the reactor, but there isn't a reliable way for the audience to interpret the distance since they don't talk about it in feet/meters or miles/kilometers. In a movie like (and I know this one sucks) Alien Resurrection, it made more sense to me that it took so long to get somewhere because we know they are on a space station-esque ship and that their smaller ship fit inside without a hitch. Sure we get the elaborate fly over at the titles, but it looked so much smaller on the exterior than the height showcased at the reactor.

That Bower mutant illusion scene, well I have no idea what went wrong there. It could have been that he shot a panel to stop them, only it didn't come across that way. Might have been that they decided to shoot multiple endings and somehow it slipped past the editor.

frank grillo

I agree why is it that he was just seeing the mutant in the panel, seeing that i first i tought oh god were they just in his head this whole time but i know that they were really there that confused me and the main element i liked about this movie is that it was very dark and confined almost reminded me of the movie cube in that it made u keel trapped and claustrophobic.

Vaughn Fry

Been a while since I had a comment, so thanks. I enjoyed/didn't expect some of the twists.

SPOLIERS

I didn't expect Payton to be Gallo, especially since I only recall ever seeing Quaid as a "good guy".

I didn't expect them to have found their destination, been underwater, and have had 900+ years go by.

Those were good plot elements. I had trouble with some timing and otherwise minor story elements which somehow merged to annoy me. For instance we have the farmer who conveniently appears to save Bower. Plus he has what I'll call "ninja skills". These attributes are also given to Nadia. I understand the dual complexities of the hypersleep malfunction. On one end it has the potential to make you crazy. On another it can mutate you. However, who built the armor for the mutants? I doubt Gallo could have done it, and given them to the mutants without getting himself killed. After that he would have chosen to re-enter hypersleep, without executing the other flight crews. Depending on the time in which the mutants came to populate the ship, it can be believable that they have yet to run dry on humans to prey on. However, there is a sequence where Bower appears to be losing it. Instead of saving Nadia, he fires at what looked like a mutant, only to expose a panel. At this point, the director is suggesting that the mutants are in his head; but a moment later they reappear and it is confirmed that Nadia sees them. Add into the mix some poor fight scene direction, and I have to say that I’ve seen better, though Pandorum did exceed my expectations.

frank grillo

i think if you understood the direction they were going in the film you would like it alot better i know i did. it was original despite what many people think and Ben foster like u said steals the show he is a different kind of talent you like to see and i think this role was perfect for him to start to get into more serious material. overall i loved this movie