Pandorum

J: I hate to characterize movies like this but “Pandorum” is best described as “Alien” meets “Mad Max” and that’s all I need to know. I would make just one suggestion to anyone seeing this movie for the first time – just relax and enjoy the fun. I know I did. Anyone with an interest, as I have, will then need to see the movie for a second time in order to get all your questions answered and, yes, you will have questions but, heck, that’s part of the fun isn’t it? I mean, honestly, how many times have you watched Alien? Yeah, thought so.

It is said in literary circles that there are really only five plots in fiction. The same goes for sci-fi and those are pretty much monster/alien running loose, psychopathic killer running loose, zombies running loose, and hyperspace sickness and its effects. Pandorum deals with the later but in an interesting way. A space ship called Elysium (aptly named for both its meaning as a paradise and an abode of the dead) departs a fatally overcrowded future Earth carrying some 60,000 souls bound to colonize an Earthlike planet. We join the fun as a couple of crew members are awaking from deep hyper-sleep and watch as they navigate their temporary loss of memory. Gradually, the two men, Lt. Payton (Dennis Quaid) and Corporal Bower (Ben Foster), realize they have been awakened at the wrong time and also that they can’t leave their small capsule. The only way out is through the crowded air duct, naturally. Bower is the only one small enough to make it, so with Payton in radio contact and talking him through, he attempts to get to the flight deck so he can find out what the H-E double hockey sticks is going on!

Here’s where the fun begins. On the way to the flight deck, Bower is attacked by a human looking and quite cannibalistic creature that he manages to fight off. He also meets a few people from the crew, one that should be wearing that infamous “red shirt” of Star Trek fame, one who is fierce but doesn’t speak English and a French woman. They convince Bower he won’t like what he finds on the flight deck so they head for the reactor instead – yes, Super Bower can jump start that puppy too, what a guy! Along the way, Bower finds out the French woman, Nadia (Antje Traue), is the keeper of all the plants and animals this modern Noah’s ark is carrying and that she’s a pretty mean survivalist, unfortunately she doesn’t have much info and has no idea how long this has all been going on. As they continue on to the reactor, they bump into the requisite crazy guy who does. Leland (Eddie Rouse) is his name and he narrates his carvings on the ship wall in order to tell them about the message received by the crew after they had been underway for some time. That message said the Earth was in imminent danger of being destroyed and so the ship now carries the last remnants of human kind. One of those crew members, Gallo (Cam Gigandet) then flips out suffering from a deep space sickness known as Pandorum – very much feared and brought on by severe stress in space. Gallo kills everyone on the flight deck and then begins playing God with the rest of the crew and either causes their deaths or allows them to mutate into the flesh eating creatures the rest of this little band is trying to avoid. Finally Bower convinces all their best chance of survival is to help him get to the reactor – which is great because Leland is sizing them up for a Happy Meal.

And here I will stop because I am not going to be a spoiler – see, I told you there would be questions! This truly is first rate sci-fi and director Christian Alvart takes us on a wild and thoroughly entertaining ride that ultimately involves some pretty neat plot twists and a major bit of mistaken identity – just in case you were wondering what happened to Lt. Payton. Part of the fun is trying to figure out who actually has Pandorum and who is ok. Also, it isn’t as visually dark as a lot of these movies so you are spared a lot of eye strain! However, sigh, I have one minor complaint. The important info that we get along the way comes by way of someone with a really weird accent and strange flashbacks which can be slightly annoying and cause the viewer to miss important details, so as I said, enjoy the ride the first time through then go back for seconds! I’ll be right behind you!

K: Ah yes, my PIC did indeed have a question about a key plot point, and when I pointed out the scene where we got that information she grumbled something about having someone else give us the information instead of the guy who's hard to understand. I couldn't really argue with that.

I liked this movie. Good action / sci-fi flick with a little bit of a twist at the end - God knows I love those! My one complaint is that at the end of every scene someone had to say "We've got to get out of here." It was obvious by everything that was going on in the plot that it was crucial for them to keep moving. I don't think they had to remind us quite so often. But hey, if you can roll with that and focus your listening on the mumbly guy's big scene, you're sure to enjoy this thriller.