Pandorum

Echoing such luminous sci-fi classics as 2001 and Alien, Pandorum is a terrific psychological thriller, although it does struggle at times to be coherent and original. But it's a true mindbender, and it's packed with action that moves so quickly neither the actors nor the audience can really catch a breath, which is a good move if your plot is shaky to begin with.

As with the best deep-space movies, the context is mental illness, what the Professor on Gilligan's Island called, oddly enough, "island madness." Only in space. In the distant, distant future, a ship has been sent from the Earth carrying a lot of people, headed to the only Earth-like planet ever found. Sometime during the journey, things go awry. We pick up the story as an astronaut named Bower (Ben Foster) awakens from hypersleep, abruptly; he's soon followed by his commanding officer, Payton (Dennis Quaid). The rest of the crew is gone, and the only door is locked from the outside. What's happened here? Making matters more difficult is the amnesia that each man suffers from, owing to their having been in hypersleep way longer than intended. Somehow, they must piece together what has happened and find out what lies behind that door - and throughout the rest of the gigantic ship.

Not only does the movie recall Aliens and 2001, you can also see similarities to The Descent and The Abyss; really, any movie in which people are trapped in claustrophobic environs. And although the pacing is frenetic at times, the movie is really chillingly shot (by Wedigo von Schultzendorff). On the one hand, the plot flows linearly - Bower needs to get to the ship's reactor so he can reboot it and save everyone - meaning that the actors race from scene to scene, running out of time. On the other hand, they don't piece together what's happened as quickly as they might in other, lesser films; they seem to figure things out gradually, as if assembling a puzzle in their heads. Bowers and others - and there are others - discover right away, though, that they're not really alone on the ship and that their enemies are extremely strong and fast and vicious.

Injected into this oh-my-goodness-what's-out-there madness is, well, madness. The movie's title is explained as being a sort of mental illness that affects astronauts from time to time, when they just plain go bonkers for seemingly no reason and kill everyone on board. Is that's what's happening here? Is Bower the crazy one? Or is it Payton? Are they, in fact, alone on the ship? Foster is excellent as the hero who remembers a little bit more of their mission as time elapses; Quaid, in turn, shows a few more layers than we're accustomed to seeing from him (he's usually more of a poor man's Harrison Ford). Both actors turn in convincing, full-throated performances that complement, rather than succumb to, the special effects and cinematic wizardry. Often, the effects are the entire show. Now, it's true that you won't see a lot of character development here, as you might in the most cerebral of sci-fi, but what works best here is the paucity of knowledge about the situation and the characters. By spinning the tale gradually, feeding the audience only a snippet at a time, director Christian Alvart dangles the mystery in front of his viewers without allowing them to settle back and solve the mystery on their own. When you're constantly kept on your toes with sudden lurches of unseen shapes and reverberating noises, you - like the befuddled characters - are concurrently kept off balance. The result is an unsettling, entertaining delight.

Part psychological thriller, part sci-fi, part ALIENS, PANDORUM is a unique hybrid. Although nothing new in terms of things we haven't seen before (encapsulate a group of men/women and see how they react), the film is strung together differently enough to hold your attention. You never really know what's around the next corner.

The story is pretty common: Earth is doomed. Spaceships are sent out to find a habitable planet. One of these ships has been lost in space for some time, and when ship's pilot #4, Bower (Ben Foster, 3:10 TO YUMA), wakes up from a prolonged hyper-sleep, much of his memory is gone or scrambled. Slowly things begin coming into focus as he finds various clues about who and where he's at. And not long after his awakening, another pod opens up and spills out Payton (Dennis Quaid, VANTAGE POINT), a high ranking officer who's memory is just as screwed up.

Bower is chosen to explore the ship, and getting out of their pod chamber is the first challenge since they're locked in for unknown reasons. Like giving birth, Bower squeezes through the canals of the ship's innards and is expelled onto what appears to be a dead ship. But he quickly runs into friends and foes. Some of the crew, it appears, have mutated and are cannibalistic. Others have had to do terrible things in order to fight and survive. All Bower wants to do is reactivate the ship's power systems and get to the bridge.

And that's about as far as I want to go without producing any spoilers....

There are several "jump-in-your-seat" moments that'll surprise the hell out of most viewers. And the darkness of the cold ship makes for some excellent atmosphere. The sound score also added a spooky quality to the production.

Ben Foster has rarely let me down in his choice of roles, and Pandorum was no exception. His embattled and continually challenged character was pitched just right throughout the film. It was also one of the first times I'd seen him as a main character and I was pleased to see it. He's a great young actor.

And I've saved the best for last: the filming. It was pretty amazing. Again, the dark qualities and claustrophobic shots were pulled off without feeling forced or contrived (something I can't say of all films ...like THE DESCENT).

Surprisingly this film got poor reviews and pretty much flopped at the box office (costing over $40 million to make but only grossing $10 million). Shame. It's actually better than you might think.

I have to say this movie was better than I expected. If you liked Aliens and Resident Evil...this is like both of those movies got together and had a sequel. Well not quite, but the story was good and had no gaping holes in it. The acting was good without going over the top.

I loved the way this movie started; guy wakes up from hyper-sleep…his memory is not fully functional, he knows things are not right and has to save the day.

I thought the story was great in that they did not over-explain everything like they have in so many sci-fi movies. The mid plot line was very good never found myself asking "what the hell are you doing", and the ending was very good without being so trivially expected.

Of course Dennis Quaid is a great actor but I really liked watching Ben Foster. He was one of the best actors in 3:10 to Yuma.

Special effects were good but did not need to be over the top because the story was solid. Worth the price of admission.

Better than you might expect, based on the television trailers. The trailers made the film look like just another clone of the "Species" series. In fact, it's nothing like that.

The film centers around two characters who awaken on what at first seems to be a ghost ship, and quickly discover the extent to which "they are not alone." The remainder of the film parallels the experiences of the two men as they separate and seek to establish control over the ship.

The film has a well-defined plot (not a given in modern sci-fi films) and sticks to it. No wacky subplots that peter out irresolutely; no absurd romancing. Also, mercifully absent were explanations of the current state of affairs that dragged the whole movie sideways.

The finale is corny but satisfying. The movie does such a good job of taking the viewer on the journey with the protagonists, that the denouement is refreshing.

Not great film-making, but good sci-fi.

I saw Pandorum last night and was somewhat impressed with the movie. After reading critics reviews, and how they trashed it, I was going in expecting less and was pleasantly surprised.

Pandorum borrows heavily from other sci-fi movies, but what movie doesn't nowadays. Taking a lot of ideas from Alien, a 1979 classic sci-fi movie, and borrowing the creatures from The Descent, another near classic movie from a few years ago, Pandorum was still impressive. The storyline wasn't completely original because it reminded me a lot of Event Horizon, but whereas Pandorum went more for a science level, Event Horizon was more supernatural. Most people trashed Event Horizon as well, but it was another movie I liked also, even though the ending of that movie was flawed. Of course I'm reviewing Pandorum, so I won't mention the former film anymore.

THe cast for the most part was rather good for a movie of this type. Ben Foster, and Dennis Quaid are the two most marketable names, but the other characters, outside of maybe the Cam Gigandet character, worked pretty good. My only real problem with Gigandet was that he overacted a bit, but otherwise everything was good.

The movie does claustrophobia well, and the entire movie had me jumping a lot. THere was tension, and for the most part the film was fast paced. I didn't find myself looking at my watch one time. THe visuals were decent, but the creatures should've been kept in the shadows more. Horror works best when the viewer uses his/her own imagination to visualize them.

Did I say horror. Well yeah because this is really a sci-fi horror film more along the lines of Alien as mentioned above. It doesn't match the classic status of that movie, but Pandorum is worth seeing for its psychological feel and how some people might act after being in space for so long. By the way, the movie does have a twist, which I will not spoil for anyone who wants to see it.

Note: THis is a film that may make most of its money on DVD, and will likely acquire somewhat of a cult status.