Country:
USA/Germany
Recognizable Faces:
Dennis Quaid
Ben Foster
Cam Gigandet
Cung Le
Directed by:
Christian Alvart
I've watched this movie for the sole purpose of doing research for Origin. I had heard comparisons in between Pandorum and all-time classic space scare Event Horizon, so I was curious to say the least. Also, while looking up the IMDB File, I found out it was directed by Christian Alvart, from who I've seen the flawed, but interesting Antibodies in Fantasia a few years ago.
STORYTELLING
This is the bad part. Overpopulated, Earth had sent mega-ship Elysium (and 60 000 settlers) in search for that mythical planet called Tanis, which they have found. It's just very damn far. The trip is supposed to take 123 years and crew is suppose to alternate in two years rotation. Corporal Bower (Foster) wakes up from hypersleep (cryosleep or statis, for nerds like me) and freaks out, realizing he's alone on the vessel. He wakes up his shift Lieutenant (Quaid) and goes to work to try and understand why the Elysium is a floating shipwreck with no sign of life onboard.
Soon he'll find that the ship has been taken over by a strange (and very aggressive) life form, who's hunting on human. They are mindless cannibals, hell-bent on survival-of-the-fittest lifestyle. Among unscathed survivors are Nadia (Antje Traue) or token-sexy-girl-with-martial-arts-skills and Manh (Cung Le) or token-minority-with-martial-arts-skills. Together, they team to try and reach the reactor and relaunch the ship onwards to Tanis.
The longer Bower and Payton are on the ship, the more they fall prey to the disease of Pandorum, who makes them violent and paranoid. Would have Pandorum changed the passengers of the Elysium into this violent bunch of mindless killers?
DIRECTION
Christian Alvart is an art director. He can create amazing images, but he struggles with narration. Antibodies was a pale reflection of the Hannibal Lecter saga and Pandorum, despite its energy and its will, falls short of being the next Event Horizon. Also, it almost falls short of being a good movie at all.
It's filled with clichés (minority martial artists), re-used plot twists (ha ha! Won't spoil anything) and cheap Peek-A-Boo scares. Alvart INSISTS on not portraying guns and drags on with that space martial arts thing that becomes ridiculous quick. There's a few haunting images (the infected people near the reactor), but overall, Alvart runs on a thin plot and a lot of empty action scenes.
ACTING
Ben Foster as Bower is GOOD. He has those everyday-man traits and he plays a convincing underdog. It's a simple role, I'll admit, but Foster rises up to the challenge. Dennis Quaid has always been a limited actor, but he offers a sincere performence as Payton, along with Cam Gigandet (the bad dude from Never Back Down) who have an interesting battle of wits.
Cung Le has no business in this movie. His character is horribly written and has no use but to kick ass. A taciturn shooter with a few good one liners would have made a better sidekick than a Vietnamese guy who can't talk English. Antje Traue is also all right, without being great. Except for Foster and Gigandet, no one is busting through the screen...
INTEREST
Pandorum promises a lot, but delivers almost nothing. A thin storyline and a devil-may-care direction from Alvart, who doesn't give a damn about what he's trying to say, make misguided actors and linear action. We are far from the visceral scares of Event Horizon. I know it's unfair to compare both of the movies, but if you're trying to scare people with a space movie you have to know what you're going up against. Rent Pandorum if you feel like it, but you won't miss anything if you leave it on the shelves.
SCORE: C+
