OneMetal.com REVIEW:
Pandorum – Sci-fi Horror Produced By The Director Of Event Horizon

Directed by Antibodies helmer Christian Alvart in his English language debut, Pandorum stars Dennis Quaid (The Big Easy) and Ben Foster (30 Days Of Night) as astronauts who wake from hyper sleep with little or no memory of their mission. Slowly but surely, the two discover that things haven’t exactly been going smoothly on their 60,000-seater spaceship whilst they’ve been kipping. Marauding mutants and space-addled mad men are just two of the things they need to deal with on a hellish mission to restore parity.

Mixing sci-fi, horror and mystery, Pandorum could best be described as a cross between producer Paul W. S. Anderson’s Event Horizon and Neil Marshall’s The Descent. Sadly, it lacks little of the taut tension of the latter and all the flabby faults of the former.

Don't worry, Ben, Pandorum's not that bad!

As a thriller, Pandorum is a dull and poorly paced film that does a valiant but unsuccessful job of hiding its low budget roots. There are some great examples of economical and impressive set design throughout, but the murky, often darkly lit corridors suggest a drive to hide technical/financial limitations as much as an aesthetic direction, also exemplified by the choppy, disorientating editing. Initially, there is a tremendous sense of stifling claustrophobia, but as Bower delves deeper into the bowels of the ship, ropey effects and more expansive sets are wheeled in and the movie loses most of its eerie charm and momentum.

The early feelings of unease ties in quite nicely to the titular form of madness. Much like a combination of cabin fever and the high-pressure neurological syndrome Michael Biehn’s character suffers in The Abyss, ‘Pandorum’ is a psychological condition brought on by extended periods of hyper-sleep, and its symptoms and effects range from severe paranoia and vivid hallucinations to homicidal tendencies. Working out who is and isn’t suffering from ‘Pandorum’ should be more fun than it is, being quite a clever, tension-inducing device on paper. However, the condition goes unmentioned for large periods of the film, and when the twist does come, you’ll forget that there was ever any mystery to solve because it’s so obvious.

In among all the space madness, there’s the other, less subtle threat onboard: Godforsaken mongoloids. Like a cross between the predatory biker gang from Mad Max 2 and the cave-dwelling humanoids of The Descent, they’re super strong and super ugly; depicted as unforgiving savages but for a couple of identifiable individuals, one of whom is a creepy pre-school psycho monster kid straight from The Hills Have Eyes remake. Their introduction comes far too early, although their mysterious origins are reasonably well-handled and one of the few highlights in the script, which is straight from the ‘how to write sci-fi horror’ school of writing.

Hold on, you say Dennis Quaid is in this film, too?

The film’s biggest boon is the casting of Flesh And Bone star Dennis Quaid, still as charismatic as ever in an important but not particularly expansive role as astronaut authority figure Payton. Quaid can do this kind of stuff in his (hyper)sleep. Meanwhile, Ben Foster does well in a thin and thankless role as subordinate spaceman Bower; his good work on 3:10 To Yuma and Oscar-nominated The Messenger suggest he’s a versatile, chameleon-like actor and definitely someone to follow.

For cult film fans, Boondock Saints’ Norman Reedus, who also appeared in Alvert’s Antibodies, puts in a quick cameo, but the casting highlights end there. Cung Le (soon to appear in the live-action Tekken film) and German star, Antje Traue, add little value as martial arts cast-offs from The Matrix Trilogy. Completely at odds with the rest of the film, these characters, particularly Traue’s high-kicking sweaty, chesty scientist feel like a cynical and vacuous attempt to add something ‘new’. Pretty boy and potential prison currency, Cam Gigandet plays, well, almost exactly the same snidey, whiney character he does in Twilight and Never Back Down.

Bottom Line

With a bigger budget, Pandorum might have delivered, but the derivative and underdeveloped script doesn’t do anything dozens of sci-fi flicks haven’t done better, and the cinematography rarely rises above average. But for sturdy turns from the leads, a few moments of savagery, and some good old-fashioned set design, the movie would be unspeakably dull. One for genre fans only.