Pandorum

Pandorum (2009)

This is a movie that I missed when it was in the theaters. Well okay to be honest I sort of skipped it. Most big budget science fiction movies just don’t do it for me and nothing that I saw in the trailer made me “have” to see Pandorum. Now I’m sort of bummed because I think it would have been worth checking out on the big screen.

The story opens with a couple of astronauts waking up from stasis. They are members of a deep space colony ship and the time has come for their shift. Only the ship appears to be damaged and they are unable to contact the crew they are supposed to be relieving. The more they explore the ship the more they realize that something has gone terribly wrong. Not only is there obvious damage, but they aren’t alone on the ship. There are creatures that are hunting them. I can’t really say more then I already have without spoiling the movie, and I don’t want to do that.

Pandorum isn’t a great movie, but it does have it’s moments. On the positive side the story is interesting and does a good job throwing several twists at the audience that I think will keep most viewers guessing (it certainly had me wondering what was going on). The main characters are fleshed out pretty well, considering they don’t remember who they are right away (written into the movie as effects of long term stasis). This is a clever idea that feeds into the overall feeling of confusion and paranoia that the movie uses to build tension. Speaking of the characters the main cast of Dennis Quaid and Ben Foster do a very good job in their roles. Quaid is especially good in his role, but they both take what the script gives them and run with it. I also would be remiss if I didn’t mention the creatures that are scuttling about the ship making trouble. They are very both creepy and scary. These monsters look like they will tear you up in a heartbeat and when given the chance they do.

Now lets talk some about what I think didn’t work well with Pandorum. The movie does seem to go on a bit too long at 108 minutes long. Much of the movie has the characters stumbling around in the dark finding other survivors. This gets a bit old and hurts the movie as the twists and situation starts to wear on the audience (at lest it did for me). Personally if you cut 15 or 20 minutes out (did they really need to meet up with the cannibal cook?) then perhaps the movie works better. This also would have given them more time to explain how some of the survivors have managed to stay alive. One of my favorite characters in the movie is Manh and it would have been cool to find out more of his background. But the one big thing that annoyed me was the final twist of the movie. This is one of those twists that instead of making sense and answering questions actually opens up a lot of plot holes that are hard to get past. Maybe I’m being picky, but that just seems like lazy writing to me.

Now in spite of my issues I still thing that Pandorum is worth a watch. It is a well shot, atmospheric, and at time scary bit of science fiction. It just isn’t nearly as clever as I think the filmmakers thought it was going to be and I don’t think that after the big reveal there will be any reason to watch it again. I recommend Pandorum as a rental.

2 ½ out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer