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Pandorum

Pandorum

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Customer Reviews

An new twist on an old genre!

Rating: 4/5

Pandorum,released Sept/09,gives us an interesting and different twist in the Sci-Fi genre.The cast is generally confined to a few people at a time on screen and the film manages to capture and maintain an all-pervading atmosphere of oppression and danger,throughout its run.
The story is set in 2247 and the Earth has gone to hell in a hand basket.It has sent a large spaceship full of new colonists(some 16,000 souls)to an Earth-like world some 40 light years away called Tanis,to resettle and populate.However something has gone terribly wrong during the flight.A Corp.Bower awakens from hyper sleep to find that he is seemingly alone on the ship the Elysium,in an ante room cut off from the ships bridge.Just as he regains some of his senses another stasis tube opens and out is ejected one Lieut.Payton.He is as confused as Bower due to their extended hyper sleep and they come to the conclusion that they must regain access to the bridge in order to fully reassess their situation,whatever it is.
Bower elects to crawl through the above duct work in order to hopefully reach the bridge.However his claustrophobic antics in the ducts send him crashing to a grate,through that and then onto the floor;not on the bridge as he'd hoped.As he inspects his surroundings he comes upon a body suspended by a wire in a long hall way.The person is alive but he is no mood to help Bower and in short order Bower discovers there is more life on the ship than this man and the lieutenant;and it is quite malevolent.They hide but Bowers new "find" is dragged away to his death by the creatures;humanoid beings that run and crawl with amazing speed and wear an exoskeleton of bones.
The farther Bower explores the ship the more creatures he encounters.In fact he manages to hook up with two other crew members along the way,a man(who speaks no English)and a woman;both are just as bewildered and terrified of their surroundings as Bower.Pieces of this mysterious puzzle slowly start to come together as the film progresses and we learn that these wild creatures roaming the ship were once humans like themselves.It seems that some genetic enhancement in their cryo-tube feeder lines which was supposed to help kick start life on the new planet has somehow mutated many of the colonist.Bower's memory also slowly returns to him bit by bit and he realizes that the reactor must be restarted in order to gain control of the ship properly.With this in mind he heads down to the lowest and most dangerous levels of the ship to reach it with his companions.
Lieut.Payton meanwhile has had his hands full.A young corporal has come out of a cryo pod in Bowers absence and the corporal has all the signs of pandorum;a slow build up of extreme paranoia which can lead to severe harm to those around.As he deals with the corporal he tries to guide Bower and company to the reactor.Things however deteriorate to such an extent he is over powered and forced by the corporal to eject him off the ship in a life pod.But it is only a simulation run by the lieutenant and in there the corporal stays temporarily.Back at the reactor things are touch and go.The resting area for the blood thirsty creatures is at the base of the reactor.The walkway above which leads to the reactor controls gives way under Bowers feet and he falls to another extending section of the reactor.However he must go down and walk through the creatures while they rest/sleep and climb the ladder back up to the controls.Just as he reaches the ladder the creatures wake up and pursue Bower and company.Bower manages to finally get the reactor online which disintegrates many of the creatures at its base.However it is still a mad dash back to the bridge and "safety" from those creatures still alive,and there are plenty.
The corporal that Lieut.Payton held in the pod is now out again and they are in a hand to hand struggle.Payton manages to subdue him with a tranquilizer gun,but wait.The corporal IS the lieutenant!He,suffering from pandorum himself,was responsible for ejecting around 1600 passengers early on in the flight.He re-entered a cryo sleep until awakened later to meet an unsuspecting Bower.Now Bower and the only one of two of his companions left,confront Payton.Payton opens the shield doors from the observation windows above to reveal an inky blackness with no stars.When an alien life form swims by the windows illuminating some of the surroundings,it is then they realize they are under water.The Elysium had crash landed underwater 923 years before.When a crack in the window forms during their struggle with Payton and water starts to enter,Bower and his companion enter a cryo tube and eject themselves.In short order what colonists that are left on board are also being ejected because of the hull breach.They all end up on the water surface looking across at a beautiful island with a waterfall;just waiting for them to finally begin their colonization of Tanis.
The film moves back and forth between Payton and Bowers at just the right moments.Besides the creatures,there are rarely any more than three people on the screen at one time.The claustrophobia is maintained beautifully throughout and is heightened considerably in such areas as the duct work,full of round tubing that is unforgiving and almost seems alive.The big picture as to exactly what is going on is also kept to a minimum throughout.The characters and we the viewers are kept in the dark and only given enough snippets to pique our interest just to keep things moving at the pace the director wants.So when we finally realize that the corporal and the lieutenant are one and the same and the ship is actually under water and not lost in space,the punch is considerable.Well crafted to be sure and it is what makes Pandorum the good movie it is.
Technically the film is in its' widescreen glory in its 2:35:1 a/r.The transfer is clear and crisp.Special features include three featurettes,one a behind-the-scenes,a mock flight team video for the Elysium and a Blair Witch-like video of what happened to Nadia's team.There is also the trailer,commentary and some deleted and alternate scenes.The DVD I have comes with a holographic like cover over the usual snap case.Nice.
All in all a different,likable and smart twist in the Sci Fi genre.The oppressive atmosphere the makers maintain throughout the film is wonderfully done and they leave you guessing right down to the final moments.I recommend it.

Pandora's Rum

Rating: 3/5

Saw Pandorum, on Encore last night--which was trashed by most critics. Not sure if I'd recommend this very spooky; atmospheric sci-fi offering--but the movie has stuck with me...and I'm recording it in about an hour.

Synopsis...sorta: A couple of astronauts awake from hypersleep, unsure what they're doing onboard a huge malfunctioning spaceship, named the Elysium (Heaven?). They soon discover that the ship is full of blood-thirsty mutants and a few other frightened human astronauts running for their lives through the bowels of this Geiger-ish (the movie, Alien) spacecraft. The Corporal falls through maintenance shafts, gets kicked-around, stabbed; etc, so much onboard the mystery ship that an ordinary human would have been incapacitated for life--ten times over (but we do live in the era of improbable action video games). Through it all the Lieutenant sits in the Captain's Chair, inside Elysian's comfortable bridge, pressing buttons and yelling, "Where are you?" over the intercom. As I quickly learned in the 20th Century Air Force: Rank has its privileges.

I suppose what I really like about the screenplay is that that in their journey to reboot the nuclear reactor, the back-story is slowly revealed. I also liked the tough/sexy German actress (Antje Traue)--wearing a 22nd Century push-up bra--who could fight like a man. ("Pow-Pow": ten points!) Oh, the imaginary word: pandorum is a psychological condition brought on by extended periods of deep-space travel and suspended animation--where its victim eventually becomes psychotic. Whether this futuristic physiological condition alludes to the 3,000-year-old Greek legend of Pandora's Box, or not--I don't know.

Now, if David Lynch would have directed this opus, after reworking the screenplay--imagine what a materpiece this would be. BOB as the Psychopathic Lieutenant! Strobe lights flashing. Red curtains rustling...

Excellent rollercoaster ride of a movie!

Rating: 5/5



In the year 2174, Earthlings have escaped the planet with everything they carry in a large spaceship heading to planet Tanis where everything must be sent such as animals, plants, food and people of course to survive. Corporal Bower (Ben Foster) has been awaken from his rest as well as Lt. Payton (Dennis Quad), Gallo (Cam Gigandet), Nadia (Antej Trace) and Manh (Gung Le) with others too. As they look around the ship, they are heading to a better new place that is until mutant alien stowaways are aboard the ship killing some people and turning the trip into a nightmare.

Unfairly dismissed as another Alien wannabe by some critics and bombed at the box-office, i thought this was a terrific and scary Sci-fi horror shocker. It does give off a bit of Alien with more being like Event Horizon and The Thing with The Black Hole thrown into it, the film is well acted and shot. The film is relentlessly gory such as head explosions to cannibalism from the aliens, it is a claustrophobic and atmospheric feature that excites and gives some quality fresh ideas.

This Blu-Ray is just flawless on the picture and sound scale since it is a brand new movie. The extras are cool like commentary, deleted and alternate scenes, featurette, trailer, flight team training video and still galleries.

Also recommended: "The Thing (1982)", "Galaxy of Terror", "Forbidden World", "Alien Saga", "Predator 1, 2 and Predators", "AVP 1 & 2", "Event Horizon", "The Black Hole", "Avatar", "Heavy Metal", "Lifeforce", "The Deadly Spawn (a.k.a. Return of the Aliens)", "Doom", "Levianthan", "The Abyss", "DeepStar Six", "Serenity", "Moon", "2001 and 2010", "Wall-E", "Pitch Black", "The Descent", "Chronicles of Riddick", "Sunshine", "Eden Log", "The Relic", "Contamination", "Splice", "Wicked City (1987)" and "Resident Evil Trilogy".

Excellent SciFi fro those who love Space SciFi

Rating: 5/5

Pandorum starts off with no explanation as to what is happening, why, or where. If you can't handle this scenario, or your brain needs bread crumbs to prod you along, you won't like it. The negative reviewers are most likely short in the grey matter area. As the story progresses, more is revealed, but the main gist of the movie is a lot like Alien, with the horror of the situation forefront, but the how, where and why is very different. Don't expect the director to hold your hand and whisper in your ear what is happening, you have to work it out, just as the characters do. Worth a watch.

Surprisingly Better Than It Has Any Reason To Be

Rating: 4/5

What a remarkable surprise of a film this is. I think Pandorum suffered from its promotion as a horror film -- simply because, while it does contain a horror ement, I would classify it more as a science-fiction thriller than a horror picture. The movie's promotion -- what there was of it -- was inscrutable. When I watched the film, I thought I would be mildly entertained by a monster-of-the-week-trapped-in-a-shuttle sort of cast-elimination movie.

What Pandorum is, instead, is an intriguing survival-horror drama set in a post-fall techological environment. Characters must cope with a world that has collapsed, in this case the interior of a very large ship bearing all that is left of humanity. The ship is also populated by mutated creatures who are the result of the passage of time applied to generations of passengers bearing an enzyme in their blood (intended to "jump start evolution" when they reach their destination).

In the decay around the characters, we see the shadow of the world they've left behind. This helps increase the sense of hopelessness these characters must fight, and encourages us to root for them -- even as we understand how high are the stakes for which they play.

Fine perfomances are turned in all around, although I found Dennis Quaid less than compelling. (He's been "phoning it in" for a few years now as his career winds down.) The star of this picture is, without doubt, the superb Ben Foster, who is excellent in every role he plays. He has a depth of emotion to him that is at once resilient and vulnerable; these are the perfect notes for the protagonist of a survival-horror film.

German-born Antje Traue is exotic and captivating despite the layers of grime under which she must perform. Cung Le is convincing and heroic in a role that is really a glorified stunt man's part, but then, Cung Le is a competitive mixed martial artist and kickboxer, not really an actor. (The script, wisely, grants him no English lines.) Eddie Rouse (who played a thug in Pineapple Express) is creepy, while Cam Gigandet and misplaced Boondock Saint Norman Reedus are barely present (and not missed when absent).

The movie is visually striking and, I have to admit, has an ending that took me by surprise. The "is it real or is it a mental delusion" angle is there but not overused (always a danger with material of this type; if it gets too confusing the audience stops caring if the movie's events are an illusion). It's also reasonably well paced, and the film's creature-villains are real enough to be truly scary.

If I have any quibbles it is that there is no explanation given for why Cung Le and Antje Traue are such accomplished fighters. Yes, they have awakened in a world that requires them to fight for survival... but are kung fu skills spontaneously visited on you under this kind of stress? There would seem to be plenty of training opportunities... but no margin for error when to lose means to be killed and eaten, not necessarily in that order.

A movie I did not expect to enjoy as much as I did is therefore a better film than it has any reason for being. I enjoyed Pandorum; fans of science fiction and of survival horror will enjoy it too.